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The refugee situation here...
The number of Syrian refugees in Turkey has reached over 3 million people at the end of 2016, making Turkey the host country with the largest refugee population in the world. About 90% of Syrian refugees in Turkey remain outside of camp settings with limited access to basic services; around 25 refugee camps in Turkey are holding around 250.000 Syrians, the rest lives in urban areas to seek better livelihoods opportunities. Istanbul is hosting about 330.000. 46.8 % of Syrian refugees are women, 23.6 % being 18-59 age range. Syrian refugees in Istanbul prefer to live in peripheral and disadvantaged districts that they can afford. Registered refugees have, in principle, access to public services, including education and healthcare. However, for many, access to these basic facilities is often limited for various reasons, including problems in registering with local authorities and the language barrier. Furthermore there are strong cultural reasons preventing women from working outside the home. Many Syrian women refugees in Turkey feel distressed over their “guest” status, most of them need psychological support. Syrian refugees in Istanbul have around 44.000 school-age children who often have to work to support their families, to become isolated and engaged in child labour, begging, gang involvement or child marriage. Even though their right for public education is granted, because of logistical problems and concerns in the Syrian families, many children have no access to school or some form of education.
Besides the efforts of the Turkish Government to deal with the addressed problems, it is crucial to develop the contribution of NGO’s and international organisations along with non-NGOs.
What we do to help...
We employ 25 refugee mothers who integrated our knitting mum community some time ago. Slowly we teach them how to handcraft our toys and be able to earn a living with a flexible job which allows them to care for their homes and kids. We hope to be able to hire more in the near future
What can you do to help...
First, comes awareness and spreading the word so share what we do and what others are doing to help.You can, for example, sign the petition to send a clear message to governments that they must act with solidarity and shared responsibility right here
You can, as well, sign the petition to send a clear message to governments that they must act with solidarity and shared responsibility right here.
You can of curse donate to help the cause. There are many big welknown NGOs with help campaign you can choose from. Or if you prefer you can donate to smaller local ones like the one we partner with right here. This money goes directly to the Olive Tree Community Centre to help put kids to school, teach them Turkish and overall help of the 200 plus families living in the Capa area of Istanbul.
