2023-2024

Maltepe University Center for Implementation and Research for Children Living and Working on the Streets (SOYAÇ) aims to examine the challenges faced by women who provide care to individuals with special needs in the post-disaster period and the layered burden of these challenges with their project "Disability, Disaster, and Gender-Based Vulnerability: The Compounded Burdens of Women Caring for Individuals with Special Needs Who Experienced the 2023 Earthquakes" which was submitted to the TÜBİTAK 4008 Inclusive Society Applications Support Program for Individuals with Special Needs 2023 Call. After the earthquake centered in Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023, the project will research the gender-based challenges faced by individuals with special needs, one of the groups most affected by the disaster, and the women who provide care for these individuals. The project aims to understand the care burden of these individuals and develop solution proposals by combining the understanding of disability, disaster, and gender-based vulnerability. By conceptualizing women's care burden through "motherhood" practices, it will address the compounded burdens experienced by these women after the disaster and aims to provide innovative solutions to understand women's strategies for coping with these burdens. The project coordinator Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gökçesu Akşit Dudaklı and her team will develop a scientific approach to solve these challenges faced by women and individuals with special needs and to create social awareness. In addition to the SOYAÇ team, Prof. Dr. Belma T. Akşit, Kaya Yüksek, and Zahide Özdemir also contribute to the project.

Maltepe University Center for Implementation and Research for Street-Living and Working Children (SOYAÇ) has completed its project application to TÜBİTAK 1001 - Scientific and Technological Research Projects Support Program for the project "Creating a Social Hub and Youth Office that Unites Differences for New Citizenship Understandings in the Formation of New Cities After Disasters." The aim of the project is to enable young people to develop life skills through digital interaction and social media during the reconstruction process of post-disaster cities, to raise their disaster awareness, and to strengthen social bonds by establishing solidarity networks. Within the scope of the project, a social platform (hub) called birlikteyakin.com.tr will be created; a Youth Office will be established within SOYAÇ to help young people develop disaster awareness, establish solidarity networks, and contribute to their urban integration. Through this office, young people will be able to actively contribute to sustainable development and social solidarity. With this project, in which Istanbul Arel University contributes as a project partner, it is aimed to strengthen post-disaster social transformation and resilience by ensuring the participation of local community members.

SOYAÇ, within the scope of the 2023-2024 academic year, has completed its project application titled "Empowering Seasonal Agricultural Worker Children Through Distance Education After the 2023 Earthquakes" for the "1001-UDAP National Earthquake Research Program Joint Call" under the TÜBİTAK 1001 Program. The main purpose of this call, initiated through the collaboration of TÜBİTAK and AFAD, is to support strategic studies aimed at reducing earthquake risk and to provide risk-reducing solutions in line with Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Plans. SOYAÇ's project proposal aims to increase access to education for children of seasonal agricultural workers living in the disaster area. Within the scope of the project, it is planned to contribute to overcoming geographical and economic barriers by providing children with distance learning opportunities and access to online resources. This approach aims to provide support beyond traditional education models by offering personalized learning experiences, especially for students in rural and economically disadvantaged regions. In addition to SOYAÇ, the Development Workshop Cooperative is collaborating on the project.