01Sadece Yaşama, Şehrini Yönet
A participatory city governance platform where residents can report problems, propose solutions, vote on ideas and follow what gets done.
Project notesAnkara, Turkey · Social innovation
Social innovator from Ankara. I design the human systems behind civic tech.
Zehra Avcı is a 12th-grade student and social innovator from Ankara, Turkey. With co-founder Hamza Bilden, she co-built a participatory city platform that earned Turkey 2nd Place at SosyalFest 2026. He builds the technology; she designs the social systems behind it.
Social innovator · Community builder · Future doctor
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Zehra AvcıAnkara · Türkiye
National recognition · SosyalFest 2026
Turkey 2nd Place for “Sadece Yaşama, Şehrini Yönet.”
12,020team applications at the festival
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Selected work
Projects built around people.
Two different learning and civic participation challenges, co-created with Hamza Bilden.
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02Hac Simülasyonu
An interactive Hajj simulation designed to help students explore the pilgrimage step by step instead of learning only from books.
Project notesThe collaboration
Code needs a social system to matter.
In the projects Zehra Avcı builds with Hamza Bilden, the work has two complementary sides. Hamza handles the technical development. Zehra shapes how people participate, how responsibilities are structured and how a project is coordinated.
For Şehrini Yönet, that meant designing six roles with defined permissions, so participation could be more than a comment section.
- Citizen
- Local official
- Auditor
- Expert evaluator
- Moderator
- Executive board member
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Community work
From social media club to a 500+ student network.
TechTeam is a student technology community in Ankara. Zehra served in two social media leadership roles before leaving in mid-2026 to prepare for YKS.
Social Media Club President
Led the Social Media Club at TechTeam, a student technology community in Ankara.
Social Media Community President
Managed a community network of more than 500 students.
What’s next
One question, a new way to help.
Zehra is studying for the YKS university entrance exam and wants to study Medicine. Her work in social innovation comes back to one question: How do you actually help people? Medicine is where she hopes to take that question next.
“How do you actually help people?”
A question behind the projects — and a future in Medicine.
Follow the work
More about the projects, the process and what comes next.
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