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A family physician in the Kiziltepe district of Mardin is helping children and young people discover a love of reading, while also modeling an active lifestyle by cycling to work.
Yasar, 45, graduated from Van Yuzuncu Yil University's Faculty of Medicine in 2005. After working for around five years at Mardin's 112 Emergency Health Services, he began working at a family health center in Kiziltepe in 2010.
An avid reader, Yasar wanted to pass the habit on to children and young people, so he set up libraries both at his home and at the health center where he works.
He also cycles roughly eight kilometers between his home and the health center, setting an example for an active lifestyle in the process.
Yasar has worked as a family physician at the same health center for about 16 years. He said he has loved reading since childhood, when access to books was harder to come by, and wanted to make it easier for children and young people in his community.
Since family physicians tend to see the same families over many years, Yasar said he wanted to make use of that relationship. He has been building a library and encouraging reading since 2010, exchanging books with children once they finish them.
He noted that some of the young people who started borrowing books from him as children have since finished university, become teachers, or gone on to study medicine.
"I think a healthy mind and a healthy body should go together," Yasar said, describing the project as a public health effort as much as a love of books.
Yasar said he has tried to be environmentally conscious throughout his life and previously walked to the health center. After moving further away, he switched to cycling five years ago.
"Cycling is good exercise, both for public health and for our own health," he said. "It's also not harmful to the environment and doesn't cause noise pollution."
Yasar said he recommends an active lifestyle to everyone, adding that his years of commuting by bicycle have drawn attention from local residents. He also described family medicine as the foundation of primary and preventive health care, saying it is not just a service people turn to when they are sick.
"To me, family medicine means understanding a patient's life, not just their illness," he said. Yasar added that the profession gave him the chance to realize a childhood dream of building a library, and that he encourages his patients to stay active. "Let's pedal for our health," he said. "And let's read books for a good future and for our mental health."
Helin Ekdiren, 17, a resident, said Yasar has taken an interest in the community for around 10 years, both through health care and by encouraging reading.
"Every time we come, he hands out books to us," Ekdiren said. "We're genuinely surprised when we see him arrive by bicycle, wearing his helmet and arm guards. He encourages us to get into sports too. We love him, and he loves us. He helps us as an older brother would."
Haluk Poyraz, 18, who came to pick up a book, said he has known Yasar since second grade and considers him more like family than a doctor.
"Selman Hoca (teacher) is the person who first got me into novels and books," Poyraz said. "Thanks to him, I discovered great writers like Dostoevsky and Omer Seyfettin. I now have a small library at home, and he's the main architect of that."
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