KODA in 2023
Hello,
2023 was a difficult year in which we lived multiple crisis. This year, we realized how important a better education in the villages is for our future, and recognized once again the importance of acting together in solidarity.
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In the immediate aftermath of the earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş on February XNUMX, we made every effort to contact all stakeholders in our community. In the third week of February, we shared the information we collected from our XNUMX regular stakeholders with the public via an information note titled “What is the Situation in the Villages?” As we continue communicating our stakeholders, we also began to revise our programs regarding the disaster.
In March, we came together for a solidarity camp with participating stakeholder teachers from our community in an accommodation facility in Ankara. We wanted to be together, listen to each other and think together, after those difficult days. At this meeting, we aimed to support the state of well-being, both as individuals and as teachers.
As the KODA team, we made simultaneous visits in groups of XNUMX people, to the four cities affected by the earthquake (Adıyaman, Gaziantep, Hatay and Kahramanmaraş). We shared the information we obtained from these visits in our second information note with the support of "Suna'nın Kızları".
After we come back from the field, with the entire KODA team we came together in Istanbul and organized a workshop. Then we started to work for implementing our project “Where Were We in Rural Education?”, which emerged in this workshop. In order to ensure that children in the villages and rural neighborhoods most affected by the earthquake are supported both academically and psychologically in their schools, in cooperation with their families we carried out our project “Where Were We in Rural Education?” in Adıyaman with the support of Rönesans Holding and in Hatay with the support of Dalyan Vakfı, and completed the project in September XNUMX.
While we proceed with our project in the field, with the support of the Support To Life Association (Hayata Destek Derneği) and the contribution of XNUMX anthropologist colleagues from Habitus Research Company, we visited villages in Hatay and Adıyaman in August to investigate the impact of post-disaster migration movements on education in rural areas. We shared the findings we obtained from these visits in the report titled “The Impacts of Post-Earthquake Population Mobility on Education in Rural Areas”.
In addition to all our ongoing activities, we also launched our Post-Disaster Educational Support in Rural Areas project. We continue our project in which we aim to reach XNUMX students in XNUMX village primary schools where education is disrupted and to support them holistically in social and emotional aspects by improving the quality of the education they receive at home and at school. Participating teachers gain knowledge in the fields of mentoring, family studies and social emotional learning and they practice in the field.
We continued our work to implement exemplary practices in the field of rural education by focusing on a rural district within the scope of Education in Rural Areas and R&D Center studies in Bursa Orhaneli. We also continue to work with our stakeholders in many different areas such as children's workshops, social emotional learning, and family studies.
We started research and advocacy activities in the 2016-2022 period to extend the experience gained in the activities carried out in the field since 2023 and the impact of these activities in a data-based manner. Our research, which is planned to carry out in cooperation with Dicle University Faculty of Education, Özyeğin University, Kırklareli University, BAYETAV and KODA, was supported within the scope of TÜBİTAK 1001 BİNBİRÇABA earthquake special fund. Our goal in this project is to visit at least 4500 of the approximately 2000 villages affected by the disaster and determine the situation regarding the education and income sources in the village.
This year, we started working with teachers in 18 different regions as a part of our Teacher Communities program. Our communities continue to meet to exchange information on the issues they need.
We started working with 10 universities in the fall semester within the scope of our First Step Towards Village Schools program. In this program, we aim to provide candidate teachers with information about the rural areas and village schools while their university education still continues. We will be working with 14 universities in total in the spring semester!
Towards the end of the year, we held a face-to-face Post-Disaster Rural Education Workshop in Ankara and came together with different stakeholders for the children in the villages. We held focus group discussions before the face-to-face workshop and heard many different opinions. You can access the workshop report and policy recommendation text here.
In XNUMX, we also prepared different resources such as Preliminary Document for Post-Disaster Support for Families and Children, Child Safety Policy Document and Guidebook for Working with Children with Special Needs in Rural Schools. We also revised many documents we use in our programs and shared them with our stakeholders.
As KODA, on December 28 we came together to close the year with our volunteers who supported us in all our processes. Thanks very much to our 102 volunteers who supported us throughout the year!
We hope that 2024, too, will be a year through which we all continue to learn and be inspired by each other.
