"Let's Not Turn a Blind Eye" Exhibition Meets Visitors

The exhibition 'Don't Look Away - Schizophrenia Journey from Prehistory to Today,' a first in its field in Türkiye aimed at raising public awareness about schizophrenia, found its location this year at Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (İSG).

The exhibition, which reached 2.5 million visitors in its fifth year, opened to visits at İSG, where hundreds of thousands of passengers from within and outside the country are brought together through striking visuals and displays.

The 'Don't Look Away' exhibition, prepared by Abdi İbrahim Otsuka to be the voice of schizophrenia patients and their families, to create awareness in society and to fight prejudices and stigma, can be seen at İSG's domestic departures passenger level between 21 January – 8 February. The "Don't Look Away - Schizophrenia Journey from Prehistory to Today" exhibition, brought to life in cooperation with Abdi İbrahim Otsuka and the Schizophrenia Associations Federation, is meeting visitors this year at the domestic departures passenger level of Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (İSG), Türkiye's second-largest and Europe's 12th-largest airport. Reflecting the lives of schizophrenia patients throughout history from past to present, showing the methods used in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease, and the evolution of science and societies' approaches to the subject, the exhibition has a highly impressive narrative with interesting visuals and displays, and can be seen between 21 January – 8 February. With experience areas such as the "Empathy Booth" and "Rotating Bed," the exhibition provides the opportunity to understand the sensory and experiential world of a schizophrenia patient visually and audibly, creating a striking atmosphere regarding the schizophrenia disease experienced by approximately 600,000 people in Türkiye and 51 million people worldwide, and inviting visitors to awareness. The exhibition has met audiences at many points in Türkiye for 5 years and has been visited by 2.5 million people to date. The opening ceremony of the exhibition was attended by Abdi İbrahim Otsuka Company Manager Elif Elkin, Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport Corporate Communications Manager Canan Soysal and Don't Look Away exhibition curator Çağlar Gözüaçık, as well as airport passengers.

With the Don't Look Away Exhibition;

Abdi İbrahim Otsuka Company Manager Elif Elkin, noting that they have signed a unique awareness initiative in Türkiye, said, "Abdi İbrahim Otsuka, which is the first and only Japanese partnership in Türkiye's pharmaceutical sector, continues to improve lives with its products, and is also signing firsts in this field in our country with strong awareness initiatives and community research. While continuing to produce solutions that will improve patients' lives with our strong products in psychiatry such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression and autism, we see it as our duty to conduct effective awareness initiatives that will contribute to public health. We particularly know that stigma, namely the prejudices in society, leave much greater damage than the damage caused by schizophrenia, and is the greatest obstacle to recovery from the disease. For this reason, we launched our Don't Look Away project in 2015 to raise awareness among the public about schizophrenia. We have carried our 'Don't Look Away - Schizophrenia Journey from Prehistory to Today' exhibition to Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Kocaeli to date and have successfully reached more than 2.5 million people. This exhibition, which has received great interest from the beginning, has been the recipient of many important awards. This year, Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport, which brings together millions of passengers from within and outside the country, is hosting our exhibition. I would like to thank the entire İSG management, especially Ms. Canan Soysal, for opening their doors to countless awareness events with the Accessible Airport mission and for providing us unconditional support. I sincerely congratulate them for their sensitivity and contributions on these matters. It is very valuable for us to reach much wider segments by implementing our exhibition at such a busy point with such dense domestic and foreign passenger traffic. I believe that if the sensitivity shown by Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport spreads to all segments of society, we can provide much greater support to schizophrenia patients and to everyone fighting such diseases, as a society, as institutions and as individuals," he said.

"With this exhibition, we aim to break down social prejudices"

Emphasizing that Abdi İbrahim Otsuka is committed to raising social awareness, Elif Elkin continued her remarks as follows: "We are focusing on changing existing perceptions regarding social stigma. In this direction, we added a very important link to our work and implemented the 'Türkiye Schizophrenia Perception, Knowledge Level and Stigma and Discrimination Related to Schizophrenia Research' together with the Schizophrenia Associations Federation. The research revealed the dimensions of stigma in our society in a striking manner. Unfortunately, 10 percent of society thinks that schizophrenia is contagious and has no cure. 60 percent believe that schizophrenia patients can be dangerous and aggressive. We do not want someone fighting this disease to work in social professions such as teaching, caregiving or medicine. We don't even want them to be our neighbor, colleague, employee or the person sitting next to us on a journey. Close to 84 percent of society is still very far from being part of the solution on this issue. This exhibition exists to tell those who think schizophrenia is contagious and that patients are dangerous that all of these are wrong. When you visit the exhibition, you will see that throughout history these patients have fought most against such prejudices. We will continue to develop and share our exhibition with wider audiences based on the results we have obtained from the research," he said. Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport Corporate Communications Manager Canan Soysal stated, "With our Accessible Airport mission, we have signed many corporate social responsibility initiatives to date. At the same time, we have opened our doors to enable many institutions' projects to meet our airport guests. By hosting the Don't Look Away exhibition, we would be very happy if we can make a contribution to preventing social stigma. There is no doubt that uniting our sensitivities on such issues of public concern as individuals and companies will create a much stronger impact. I sincerely congratulate everyone who contributed to the exhibition."