PRESS RELEASE 24 December 2025
TOHUM Autism Foundation New Year Shopping Festival Contributed to the Education of Children with Autism
TOHUM The Otizm Vakfı’s traditional New Year Shopping Festival was held this year with the theme “The Festival is Born from Kindness.” The festival, held at The Grand Tarabya to contribute to the integration of autistic children into society through intensive and continuous special education starting with early diagnosis, aimed to promote the Foundation’s work in this field and create awareness and resources.
A festival that transforms shopping into goodness
At the festival, where nearly 200 brands from many different categories, from jewelry to clothing, home textiles to decor, accessories to cosmetics, are present, visitors spent two days choosing gifts for their loved ones and also became a part of goodness by contributing to the education of autistic children. The excitement of the raffle with beautiful gifts and surprise events provided participants with a pleasant experience.
TOHUM Special design Christmas gift baskets prepared with contributions from well-known names from the business, art, and media world were donated to benefit the education of children with autism, adding meaning to the festival.
Every contribution was a new door to education
TOHUM Honorary President of the Autism Foundation Mine Narin, Regarding the festival, he made the following assessment: “We held the 18th edition of our Christmas Shopping Festival, which we organized to support the education of our children with autism. This year, as every year, our festival turned into a powerful solidarity that multiplied goodness. We are happy to contribute to ensuring more children with autism access to quality education with the resources obtained from our festival. The resources obtained from our Christmas Shopping Festivals to date have been equivalent to covering the one-year support training scholarships for 781 children with autism, supporting the education of 46,815 teachers and 223,850 families on autism, providing support for educational materials in 263 autism special education classrooms in public schools, and providing teacher and family training.” I sincerely thank all supporting brands, sponsors, volunteers, and visitors who contributed to the festival.
A solidarity and volunteer-driven movement of goodness
During the festival’s months-long intensive preparation, the volunteers of the TOHUM Otizm Vakfı social committee were responsible for many stages, from promotion activities to event planning, coordination in the festival area, and visitor experience.
Tohum TohumCuklar and Genç volunteered at the festival
As every year, this year too, “Tohumcute” children aged 5-10 and “ TohumYoungers” aged 10 and above actively participated throughout the festival. Before the event, the young volunteers who received autism awareness training experienced this experience and were happy to be involved in a meaningful social responsibility project at an early age.
This year, the festival’s co-sponsors were Maximiles Black and Bulls Investment, the supporting sponsor was Tüpraş, and The Grand Tarabya was the venue sponsor.