At APIDA e.V., we are entering an exciting new period. As a partner in three important projects, we will be working in the coming months across Türkiye and Germany on youth participation, historical memory, intercultural dialogue and active citizenship.

The first of these is MED-LIFE 1915 – “Life at the Front: Health, Nutrition and Human Dignity in Gallipoli,” an Erasmus+ KA154 Youth Participation project developed together with the Turkish Martyrs’ Reconstruction Foundation (Türk Şehitlikleri İmar Vakfı) and the Gallipoli Campaigns Institute (Çanakkale Savaşları Enstitüsü).

A Different Perspective on the Gallipoli Campaign

With MED-LIFE 1915, we approach the Gallipoli Campaign not only through the conventional perspective of military history, but through some of its most fundamental human dimensions.

How was healthcare provided at the front? Under what conditions were the wounded treated? What were the realities of nutrition and daily life? And what did it mean to preserve human dignity under the extraordinary circumstances of war?

By exploring these questions together with young people, the project aims to go beyond simply transmitting historical knowledge. We want to create a participatory learning process in which young people research, question, experience historical sites first-hand and develop their own perspectives on the past.

From Youth Participation in Çanakkale to a Nationwide Gathering

The first stage of the project will include four Youth Participation Activities in Çanakkale. Through capacity-building activities, History Lab, Life at the Front, and In the Footsteps of History, young people will not simply participate in the programme; they will become active contributors to the learning and development process.

The project will then expand nationally through a Youth Mobility activity bringing together young people from all seven geographical regions of Türkiye in Çanakkale.

Young participants from different cities and backgrounds will come together for an intensive learning programme combining training, field-based learning, work with historical sources, peer learning and reflection on shared memory.

The programme will culminate in a Youth Forum, providing a platform for young people to share what they have learned, present the ideas and perspectives developed throughout the project, and engage with the wider community.

Understanding the Past, Remembering Shared Suffering

At the heart of MED-LIFE 1915 is an ambition that goes beyond learning about the past: to understand its human experiences and reflect on what they mean for us today.

By revisiting the shared suffering of the Gallipoli Campaign through the perspectives of health, daily life and human dignity, we aim to strengthen young people’s historical awareness, critical thinking and active participation, while creating space for dialogue around a history that connects different societies and generations.

At APIDA e.V., we are delighted to embark on this journey together with the Turkish Martyrs’ Reconstruction Foundation and the Gallipoli Campaigns Institute.

With MED-LIFE 1915, we are carrying the traces of the past into the future through the curiosity, participation and voices of young people.