The story of Elvin and her son Eflin demonstrates how the language barrier or intricacies of bureaucratic processes can have a dramatic effect on the refugees in Turkey. The European Union supports Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe and its implementing partner Support to Life to fill the ‘gaps’ and facilitate marginalised or at-risk refugees’ access to their basic needs and rights.
As part of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey, the European Union supports projects focused on resilience and livelihoods, including the SADA Women’s Empowerment and Solidarity Center in Gaziantep (SADA), which supports the empowerment of refugee and host community women, and their engagement in social activities as well as integration into the labour force. Supported by UN Women and funded in part by the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis, more than 6,500 women have been supported since February 2018 through a range of protection, counseling and referral services, skills development and income generation opportunities provided by the SADA Center in Gaziantep. The Center furthermore supported the set-up of SADA Women’s Cooperative, which was selected as one of the most successful 10 projects at the Paris Peace Forum held in November 2019.
Recently, a group of journalists from different media outlets across Europe visited several projects in Istanbul, which are funded by the European Union under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey. The press trip provided participants with in-depth background information on the EU’s commitment to supporting Turkey in its efforts to host the largest number of refugees in the world. Specific projects visited included Beyoğlu İhsan Şerif Primary School, one of many schools where the PIKTES (Promoting Integration of Syrian Kids into Turkish Education System) project is implemented, as well as a visit to a migrant health centre under the SIHHAT project, which aims at improving the health status of the Syrian population under temporary protection and related services provided by Turkish authorities, implemented by the Ministry of Health.
To people who had to flee from conflict, small things - like food that reminds them of home - can mean the world. Through cash assistance under the EU-funded Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) more than 1.7 million refugees in Turkey can buy what they need most with the dignity of choice. Khadijeh, her husband Mohammad and their five children fled their hometown Aleppo in 2015 to escape the war in Syria and find safety in neighbouring Turkey. They settled in Biga, a small town in the northwest of Turkey. At first, the family struggled to make ends meet. Then, they started receiving cash assistance under the EU-funded ESSN. With the money they receive each month through a debit card, the family can now buy the things they need most, as well as the ingredients to cook beloved dishes for themselves and their families.
After his family fled Syria and arrived in Turkey five years ago, 16-year old Ahmed had to work in a mobile shop to look after his family and to keep his youngest brother Abdulrahman (8) in school. At the beginning of the school year, Abdulrahman’s family enrolled him in the Conditional Cash Transfer for Education (CCTE) programme, which aims to encourage school enrolment and improve school attendance of Syrian and other refugee children by providing cash assistance to families whose children regularly attend school. When child protection workers visited Abdulrahman’s house, they also met Ahmed and learned about his insistence to work and help his family, leading to him not going to school. Upon hearing that Ahmed too would be eligible to access the CCTE programme and with protection workers emphasising the long-term benefits for him if he continued his education, Ahmed is now resuming his education.
As Coronavirus forces in-classroom learning to go online across the world, a project on Syrian refugees in Turkey might already set an example. Over 28,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey received Turkish language courses through a brand-new “Blended” learning model, mixing conventional and e-learning modalities. The two-year project is funded by the European Union and is being implemented jointly by Turkey’s Ministry of Education and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and aims to provide Syrians with good quality Turkish language skills, to empower them for social, economic and cultural integration to society and enable self-reliance among this vulnerable community.
Yasmin was born in Syria. She fled the war that has been ravaging her country for more than 8 years and found safety in Turkey. She was one of 60 young Syrian refugees and Turkish adolescents who participated in the EU-funded project “The Youth Lens”, organised by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is a United Nations agency in Gaziantep, Istanbul and Izmir. Under the title ”Dreams of the Future”, their photos were shown in Paris, New York, and Ankara.
Better language skills help refugees become more self-reliant. Thanks to the financial and technical assistance of the European Union, combined with the generous efforts of Turkey, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) supports refugees like Radiya and her mother Kamar, who are currently attending Turkish language classes at the Melikgazi Public Education Center in Kayseri. Thanks to her new Turkish skills, Kamar has made some Turkish friends among women in the neighborhood, and her daughter Radiya has found that her grammar and speaking skills have vastly improved, which helps her complete her university education.
The Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) programme, which enables more than 1.7 million of the most vulnerable refugees to meet their basic needs, provides a blueprint for how cash assistance can be better used in the future. As the ESSN’s approach and scale shows, cash is people-centric, makes the most out of limited budgets, increases the speed and flexibility of the humanitarian response, improves local economies, reaches the most vulnerable even in insecure environments and increases transparency in the humanitarian sector.
Cihad and Emel fled the war in Syria with their three children and found safety in Turkey. Thanks to EU humanitarian funding, UNICEF is providing cash transfers to them and other families of refugee children in Turkey, who regularly attend school, to support them on their path to a brighter future.
“Learning to read and write has changed my life”, says Salimeh, a refugee from Afghanistan. An EU-funded project run by UNFPA in Turkey offers legal counselling, psychological support and language courses for refugees to help them overcome the challenges of displacement, and has helped Salimeh find her bearings in Turkey.
A project aimed at strengthening economic opportunities for Syrians under Temporary Protection, as well as host communities, is utilising social enterprises to create economic opportunities, and to increase inclusion of refugee women. Financed by the EU and implemented by the World Bank, the project has helped establish four women-led social cooperatives, has created over one hundred jobs, and contributed to social entrepreneurship in Turkey.
“Yardim seven ol” means “be someone who loves helping” in Turkish. This is a mantra that Kevser, a Syrian refugee in Turkey, lives by. She supports vulnerable people in her community by visiting vulnerable households, informing people in need about available resources and referring them to related services when necessary. With the help of the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) cash assistance, funded by the EU, which helps over 1.7 million refugees in Turkey meet their basic needs, she has been able to continue offering her services while facing the impact of COVID-19.
Davud, Amal, Bilal and Hamad have regained control of their lives through the EU's largest humanitarian programme, the Emergency Social Safety Net. Small monthly amounts, received via a debit card, help them and 1.8 million other refugees in Turkey pay for what they need most, such as food, rent, transport and medicines. An inspiring digital campaign highlighted the challenges faced by people fleeing conflict and showing them as the individuals with passions and talents they are – and has reached millions of people across Europe.
Family physicians play a crucial role in primary health-care services for refugees, and are often the first contact point to identify their mental health issues and needs. This is why both Turkish and Syrian health-care professionals are receiving trainings to enable them to identify and treat common psychological conditions through a new programme, implemented by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Turkish Ministry of Health, with EU support. Dr Ramy Sheikhmuhammed, a Syrian family physician at the Ankara Alemdag Migrant Health Centre, participated in the trainings. He explains that “now we, the family physicians are also able to assess patients’ mental condition and offer our support”.
“Hearing the world around me is priceless” says Sene, who was seven years old when her family fled from Syria because of the war. She is fifteen now and lives in rural Adana, southern Turkey, where she works as a seasonal agricultural worker like her parents. For two years, she struggled with a serious ear infection that prevented her from hearing anything and gave her severe headaches. Thanks to the care and guidance received by the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) mobile service units, supported by the EU, Sene received specialist treatment and can today hear the world around her again.
Iman, a participant of EU-funded Turkish language courses, has continued practicing her Turkish skills during the COVID-19 related lockdown, which came into force right after completion of her classes: “Under lockdown, I tried to read as much as possible to develop my Turkish reading skills. I also spent quite a lot of time studying vocabulary. It was truly fun!” she says. The EU-financed project aims to increase access to Turkish Language learning and vocational training, and is provided by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in coordination with the Ministry for Education (MoNE).
In a EU Facility funded humanitarian aid project, the international NGO CARE has trained over 100 information volunteers to help other Syrians find renewed hope through meeting and discussing daily stress factors and how to best address them. Over 7,000 refugees have benefited from this project, which provides them with information on topics including psychosocial support, early marriage, child labour, family planning, and gender-based violence. These services help refugee families deal with the trauma of displacement and to adapt to their new environment.
