PayaSTEM
PayaSTEM in Hatay, Turkey is the largest STEM center in Turkey and has been a part of us since 2018. Our story with PayaSTEM started when we established an FLL team of 10 people and gave them Lego training, the chance to participate in the Lego tournament and Arduino kits. We participated together in the New York championship in 2018 and the Turkish Regional in 2019. Once the FLL team members gained the experience and equipment to join an FRC team, they became part of SPARC 5665
With PayaSTEM, the branch of SPARC reaching out to Hatay, we reached a group of 1440 people from different age groups, different genders, and people with disabilities in 2018-2019. In 2019-2020, we provided STEM training to 690 students in Hatay with the participation of 101 teachers. With the positive feedback we received from this organization, we provided STEM training to 1652 people, robotics training to 2157 people and organized science camps with 1525 people. In 2021-2022, the number of people we reached with our STEM and robotics training reached 899 people. In addition to the trainings we provided, we developed two projects on adapting people with disabilities to modern social life and addressing inequality in online education.
In the 2020-2021 school year, we started a donation campaign for students who cannot access online education. We delivered the electronic devices we purchased with our sponsors and donations to 10 people in need and informed our sponsors about the stages of the project during the donation period. Then we added and developed a face recognition system to our “glasses for the visually impaired” project. By scanning the faces of our mentors in Hatay, we ensured that the person wearing the glasses can identify those around them and detect whether they are wearing a mask or not.
In 2022-2023, in the “Integration of Migrant Children into Turkish Education” project led by PayaSTEM, 3223 students received continuous STEM education and 30 Syrian students received STEM education.
With the 10-year “Japanese Embassy Technology Training for Women” program, we aim to provide vocational training to women and bring them into the business world. To date, 60 trainee women have been trained. Our target is 1800 women. In addition, in cooperation with Vodafone and Teknosa, we planned to provide cognitive awareness and 21st century skills to housewives. 50 female trainees have received technological and cognitive training so far and our target is 25,000 in Turkey. Since its establishment, PayaSTEM has been providing initial training in artificial intelligence in Python language to primary, middle and high school students in the quality of artificial intelligence education given worldwide. The number of students we can reach is 300. 
We were able to help 175 students in our project to introduce preschool students to STEM education and lay the foundations for interdisciplinary studies.