Giving a Chance to the Syrian Refugee Children to be Kids Again

During the final months in 2015, we were bombarded by the news about the sub-optimal living conditions of Syrian refugees who were living in Turkey’s refugee camps… Every story we heard was heart breaking, to say the least. We knew we had to take an action! And, finally in December we decided to start yet another humanitarian program: Rise Now for Syrian Children.

However, since last December not much has changed… Fearing for their future, hundreds of Syrian families continue to leave their country; and Turkey continues to be the largest Syrian refugee-hosting country… Refugees, while still unsure about their tomorrow, are still barely receiving the care that they need in this freezing cold winter…

During the last couple of months one thing has changed though: all of our projects that aim to help and improve the lives of Syrian refugee women and children have been kicked off! With pouring support from all over the world, Bridge to Turkiye Fund has raised close to $20K! For the last couple of months we’ve been busy translating these funds into various educational and social opportunities for the Syrian refugee women and children.

Since our program has been kicked off, with your generous contributions, we were able to complete two of our projects:
1. We distributed 1000 schoolbags to children (ages 5–18) in partnership with our local NGOs in Istanbul, and in other border towns;

2. We also delivered 1500 Arabic books, and 1500 Turkish books to the targeted Syrian schools in Istanbul

Additionally, while we are building the foundations of our third project which will focus on supporting the Syrian Refugee children’s education and social enrichment; we are also planning for a knitting shop for Syrian women… With this program we are planning to invest in Syrian refugee women to help themselves and self-support education for their children. You will hear more about these projects soon!

Moreover, today, we are kicking off our “Mother&Child” project, which aims to empower the Syrian refugee mothers and their children under one roof. As part of this project, we are partnering with Social and Cultural Life Association, our local NGO partner. Our highly qualified Turkish language teachers will teach Turkish language to 100 Syrian refugee mothers. So every day for 2 hours these 100 mothers will be learning Turkish while their children are taking dance and art classes at the same location. Imagine the security and the belonging this will provide to these families, who have lost everything! Imagine the happiness of a mother who will see her child attending to an age appropriate activity with their friends! Imagine the happiness of a child who will dance, draw and laugh freely for 2 hours every day without the fear of tomorrow! We hope that with your contributions our “Mother&Child” program will offer this sense of normality and hope for future to these families.

As the Syrian conflict enters its fifth year, we all need to remember children affected by the Syrian conflict are at risk of becoming ill, malnourished, abused, or exploited. With your support we will continue to work with our local NGO partners and offer programs to Syrian refugee children that will provide them a safe environment and a chance to play and go to school. Your contributions will help us to offer programs to the women who will need employment options in case of long-term displacement.

The need for help is urgent; and we depend on friends like you to make sure our programs can continue without interruption.