Gökçen Göksel – Oyun Atlası

Gökçen Göksel was born in Istanbul to become a part of a big family whose roots are in Adana. Gökçen Göksel’s work in culture and games was inspired by long summer journeys with her family. She discovered unique local games from different regions during these vacations. Following visits to museums and ancient cities in each province, she realized her greatest passion is discovering new places. Exploring various regions during these vacations, she encountered unique local games. Visiting museums and ancient cities in each province further fueled her passion for cultural heritage and traditional games, becoming her greatest source of inspiration. She pursued her studies in hospitality and travel management both in high school and university. During the initial years of her career, she encountered remnants of ancient games in every ancient city and museum she visited. In 2018, aiming to draw attention to these games, Gökçen established the Oyun Atlası social initiative. The initiative aims to preserve cultural heritage through games and revive ancient ones. The initiative also produces traditional games using sustainable materials and shares knowledge about these traditional games through workshops.

Erdinç Erdem Bakkal - A Spark of Science in Şırnak

IMurat Kefeli, who started his radio hosting career during his high school years, went to Niğde to receive further education in the same field after working at local and regional radio stations. Continuing in the field of radio, Kefeli began experiencing hearing loss during his final year of university. Due to a "misdiagnosis," he was directed towards various treatments for many years. After some time, he was diagnosed with neuropathy, although the underlying cause of the neuropathy could not be determined. After his loss of hearing abilities, with the progression of neuropathy, which leads to damage to the sensory transmission nervous system, he became visually disabled. As he sought daily practices to alleviate his own disabilities, he noticed the scarcity of initiatives in the field. This realization led him to conceive and launch the Körüz.Biz website in 2014. By sharing independent daily practices for the visually impaired on his website, Murat Kefeli aims to impart the experiences of people with visual disabilities through “reading before experiencing” and advocates for their independent living. Murat continuously enhances Körüz. Biz with diverse daily practices to raise awareness among both blind people, partially sighted and seeing individuals. These practices include caricatures, advice for blind living, descriptions for visual content like logos, and recommendations for shopping.

Nesteren Şencan Görgülü – Kadınlar Matinesi

Nesteren Şencan Görgülü, who has had a long career in marketing and advertising, has been a vegan and advocate of second-hand products for 25 years. Nesteren and her husband share a passion for collecting vintage items and repurposing salvageable ones. When she decided to transition away from her career, she started selling items she could no longer keep, at the Feriköy flea market. She noticed that the market was dominated by masculine language and exhibited a rude, patronizing attitude towards women. This led her to establish Kadınlar Matinesi, an all-women’s event. By setting up a communal table before the auctions where they regularly sell second-hand products, this initiative fosters solidarity among women while serving as an effective shopping platform. Its aim is to provide income opportunities for women, empower them, promote female employment, and contribute to the communal economy.

Onur Kahvecioğlu – Müzikist

Born into a music enthusiast family in Gaziantep, Onur Kahvecioğlu spent his childhood traveling across Türkiye due to his family’s occupation. While continuing his music education in Uludağ University, he volunteered at a project that enabled kids in remote regions to play instruments through workshops. Recognizing the challenges independent musicians encounter, Kahvecioğlu founded the Müzikist foundation, guided by the motto “Art, Nature, and People,” aiming to introduce children to art at a young age and support emerging musicians through various initiatives. Müzikist focuses on music education and providing assistance to independent musicians. The foundation annually organizes Müzikist Nature Workshops, a Carbon-Neutral Festival designed to offer a platform for independent artists while encouraging dialogue among artists and other stakeholders.

Rumeysa Çevlik – Doğadaki Sınıf

Rumeysa Çevlik, originally from Osmaniye’s Kadirli district, after her wedding, she did not give up on her dream of becoming a teacher. Her admission to Selçuk University’s Preschool Teaching program stands as a testament to her unwavering determination. After working in Mardin for about a year, Rumeysa returned to Osmaniye and started teaching at the Kadirli Kayasuyu Primary School, where she has since served for eight years. She rolled up her sleeves to transform the areas of the school upon realizing that it did not provide suitable conditions for children’s education. In her transformative journey she named the “Outdoor Classroom”, her top priority was to utilize sustainable products and eliminate plastic, paper, and non-recyclable materials commonly found in preschool settings. Sparked by her students’ inquisitiveness, she founded the Outdoor Classroom, the Tree House Library, and workshops for Mathematics, Aeronautics, and Atatürk Music, Arts, and Sports. These facilities were open not only to preschoolers but also to primary and secondary school students. By engaging parents in these endeavors, Rumeysa Çevlik persists in her mission to deliver high-quality preschool education through straightforward and natural solutions.

Zülal Tannur – From Your Eyes

Zülal Tannur was born with a 95 percent visual impairment. Before losing her vision completely in early childhood, she began her education with the support of her family. Initially, she used cards with photographs of objects, then progressed to enlarged images on the computer. She was introduced to technology at a very young age. Throughout her high school years, she took on multiple roles in initiatives offering technology-based solutions for visually impaired communities, such as WeWalk and SeeingAI. Zülal Tannur pioneers access for visually disabled individuals to rapid, high-quality descriptions through From Your Eyes, a novel approach that melds artificial intelligence with human interaction. This innovative solution emerged from Zülal’s dissatisfaction with existing description applications. If users find the descriptions insufficient, both the images and the AI-generated descriptions are sent to a volunteer for further refinement. The aim is to train the artificial intelligence using the enhanced descriptions provided by volunteers, thereby continuously improving the quality of descriptions over time.