The founder's story
Sixth grade, Turkish class. My teacher would call me up from my desk, have me open the book and read aloud in the middle of the class. For a child who stutters, those were the longest minutes of any lesson: the letters knotted in my throat; the first syllable would not come out. The class waited, I waited. I could not read. When the bell rang, the real lesson began: in the corridor, at break, on the way out of school, my reading was mimicked.
I could not even tell my mother or father; I was afraid they would see me as less. My teacher most likely meant no harm; perhaps the intention was to encourage me. But this is how it landed on me: I hated Turkish class, and the days it was on. I scored poorly in the university entrance exam and had to wait a year; the next year I managed an average result. I became a timid, shy, anxious student; one who always left the floor to someone else, passive and average. And I stayed that way until I went abroad.
I wish that year there had been a place where I could say "this is hurting me" without having to say it to anyone's face. Maybe my teacher would have noticed and stopped; maybe the counsellor would have come to me. I would have grown up more confident, braver, and reached my potential sooner.
Gökyuva is that place. A door through which a student can be heard without having to accuse anyone or reveal who they are; and through which the school can hear it and put it right in good faith. Most of the time nobody means harm; it is just that nobody heard. An app cannot undo, years later, the silence a child learned in sixth grade. But it can make sure the next child never learns it.
— Mehmet Han Aslıhan, founder of Gökyuva