The third Changemaker of the 5th season of Sabanci Foundation Turkey’s Changemakers Program to share the unique stories of extraordinary people who contribute to social development is Selma Yıldız who implemented the “Small Codas” project.

26-year-old Selma Yıldız is a kindergarten trainer and she conducts a project called “Small Codas” in the Association of People with Hearing Disabilities in Denizli, a southwestern province of Turkey. Children who have parents with hearing impairments are called “coda (children of deaf adults)” and these codas cannot get enough assistance from their parents regarding education and social participation. At the same time, codas have difficulties in communicating with other people and participating in society.

Thanks to the project realized for the first time in Turkey, codas are supported by volunteers in their academic lives. Together with volunteers, they can also solve their social problems. With the support of 20 volunteers, codas have made progress at school and established a better communication with the society.

In the project, the volunteers are selected from the Faculty of Education of Pamukkale University and psychologists give seminars to parents on child development and education as well as an approach to children. A need-oriented program is carried out in the project and each coda is supported by one volunteer.

Volunteers primarily support codas in their studies and assist them in achieving social development. After the project, the codas which were previously introverted and ashamed of their parents started to become more comfortable and social.