Ongoing Projects

The project titled "A Socio-Cultural Model Experiment for the Preservation of Gagauz Language and Culture: Turning Healthy Bilingualism into an Advantage for Gagauz People," led by Prof. Dr. Gökçesu Akşit Dudaklı, ranked first among all fields in the evaluation conducted under the 2530 TÜBİTAK - Moldova (NARD) Bilateral Cooperation Program. The project, which will be carried out in collaboration between SOYAÇ and Comrat State University in Moldova's Gagauzia Autonomous Region, with partnership from Trakya University, will be implemented between 2025-2027.

This international success emphasizes the importance of the sustainable model developed for the protection of the endangered Gagauz language and culture, which will be carried out within Maltepe University's Research and Application Center for Street Living and Working Children (SOYAÇ), while also opening new horizons for transforming bilingualism into social wealth. This project by SOYAÇ, which has been working for many years on the social integration of children at risk, is expected to strengthen academic cooperation between Moldova and Turkey and contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage for future generations.

This project aims to organize a series of photography activities to document the "layered burdens" in container cities following the February 2023 earthquakes. The work, led by Communication Specialist Kaya Yüksek, with contributions from Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gökçesu Akşit Dudaklı, will last approximately 4 months. Subsequently, a booklet and exhibition will be organized from these activities.

The field collaboration and implementation protocol between SOYAÇ and Aid Convoy aims to examine the impact of vulnerability conditions on individuals by comparing the lives of adolescents (13-18 years) and women with children (12 years and under) before and after the earthquake. These groups are most susceptible to living on the streets, working, risk of early and forced marriage, distancing from education due to earthquake-related disruptions, and being drawn into crime due to the temporary absence of social rules (anomie) following the devastation caused by the earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş-Pazarcık and Elbistan on February 6, 2023, and in Hatay on February 20, 2023. Within a clinical sociological context, the project aims to support and empower women and children and achieve social healing.