Rise Now for the Syrian Refugee Children

Greetings to Our GlobalGiving Friends,

It has been 3 years since our organization with the strong support from you has risen to provide support for Syrian Refugee Children living in Turkey. It is emotional indeed to go back to the beginnings and look at all the projects, see the face of children, a bit of happiness we were able to bring to faces, support the local heros on the ground in simple but meaningful ways that made a difference in their lives. We have been fortunate enough to make a difference in their lives, and we are grateful for this. Each of you didn't sit on the sidelines, chipped in via your donations in various programs we developed over the course of the 3 years and supported our efforts...

It was December 2015, we gifted 1,000 schoolbags with education supply kits to children, working with 2 local partners, community centers serving refugee children in Istanbul.

We delivered 1,500 Arabic and 1500 Turkish story books to 30 Syrian schools operating in Istanbul in January 2016.

We sponsored 100 Children for 6 months for Education and Social Enrichment Classes in 2 community centers run by a local partner. 

We invested in Syrian Women & Mothers, enabled a knitting job in a workshop which supported 50 mothers and inturn provided the means and financial support for 25 children for education.

In summer 2016, we sponsored a mini play and games camp for 600 children in Izmir via one of our International partners, they traveled as a team, and spent 2-3 weeks with children in their own communities. 

Throughout 2016 and 2017, we provided literacy and social integration classes to Syrian Mothers - music & art lessons to their children.

In 2017 our major investment was to support Imece Village which was built as a self sustaining village by heroic people for refugee families, bought 2 containers that were used as a home for many, and used as a classroom.

In 2018, we sponsored a major pre-school education kit production, distribution and delivery for all the centers, NGO's and community centers we worked with in previous years.

In the last 3 years, we provided our project updates and stories for each of our programs mentioned above to show your impact and brought back the happiness and appreciatation from the refugee communities we served. With these programs worth about $150,000 we reached over 10,000 Syrian Refugee Children, and their mothers. We supported educators, their coaches, and all the relentless volunteers from 10 field organizations who touched their lives on a daily basis.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you again for staying with us, supporting our projects. We are a grassroots organization, our circle leaders and volunteers are our biggest assets and enablers for driving impact. We would like to acknowledge the work and personal efforts of Pinar Karaca Mandic (Minneapolis), Tugba Arslan Ozturk (Seattle), Aylin Celtik (Indiana) in delivering this impact on behalf of BTF and all of our supporters.

And lastly we would like to thank GlobalGiving Platform who united us in this mission and provided the voice of Syrian Refugee Children to reach beyond their borders to the World.

Thank You!

Bridge to Turkiye Fund

Links:

• Visit our BTF publication blog & other stories

Syrian children have lost loved ones, suffered injuries, and witnessed violence and brutality. They are at risk of becoming ill, malnourished, abused or exploited. 3,5 million refugees have been fleeing across the border into Turkey since 2011. In desperation, hundreds of thousands of refugees have attempted the dangerous trip across the Mediterranean Sea from Turkey to Greece. We all remember the children affected by the Syrian conflict and with your support we continue to work with our local NGO partners to offer programs and make a positive impact in their lives.

In this report, we will share our new partnership with the Team International Assistance for Integration (TIAFI). A volunteer-run organization lead by Anne O'Rorke who dedicated her time and energy in uplifting refugee communities with relentless efforts since the first days she witnessed the tragedy in Turkey. We got to know about Anne's efforts last year through working with other NGO's, and finally developed our philanthropic bridge with her in April 2018. TIAFI built a new community center based in a vacant facility located in an economically deprived neighborhood in 2017. The center hosts and serves a diverse population of both Syrian and Turkish people in Izmir, Turkey. Their primary goal is to empower vulnerable refugee women and their families in a safe, inclusive and supportive community center. TIAFI offers a range of support for the local refugee community including skill development, language lessons, legal support, healthcare-mobility support for the disabled children and offers a community kitchen.With the support of their dedicated volunteers, they provide nutritious lunches to vulnerable Turkish and Syrian people living in that local community. TIAFI team prepares more than 80 meals for the visitors each day. TIAFI also offers workshops where skills are taught such as sewing, jewelry making and leather crafting to improve Syrian women's prospects to enter the labor market in Turkey. They provide language lessons for kids and adults which is critical for social integration. TIAFI offers place where women who work or attend our programs can leave their children. The primary aim of the facility is to help the children acquire basic social and interpersonal skills, prepare them transition to formal education and schools and assist them with emotional development. Syrian volunteers living in the community works alongside with Turkish volunteers and psychologists to provide these services. 

Very recently this past month in June, we provided 150 preschool education kits called “Getting Ready for School” along with our 4Kids kindergarten book set with 80 story books in Turkish for their use in their educational programs throughout the summer and after in their center. Lack of educational resources is one of the biggest challenges for the local and volunteer-run NGO's offering transitional education and we helped TIAFI fill this resources gap with our education kits and story books. In our previous reports in the series, we shared with you the content of these educational sets, and the learning objectives they enable with teachers. We hope you would see from the shared pictures in this report that the books were very well received and we were able to put a big smile in children's faces. The teachers reported that education kits and story books made the children so happy and they were proud owners. The children started to work on the activity books and crafts right away in the center. The teachers noted the fact that the education kits helped the children in learning basic skills & concepts and improved their Turkish vocabulary. The teachers were able to keep the children motivated and keep them focused on learning during the circle times and in other educational activities. 

We would like to take this opportunity one more time to thank all of donors who have supported us in the past and continue to deliver impact for refugees in our 3'rd year. We are grateful for the Global Giving platform as a key partner in helping us bridge with a global audience to share their voice and their needs. 

Thank you !

Bridge to Turkiye Fund