How is the EU helping Syrian refugee women in Turkey?
Helin is a 29-year-old woman trying to hold on to some semblance of a normal life in Turkey after fleeing Syria. Together with her six children (aged between 3–16 years old) she lives in Sanliurfa, south-eastern Turkey, with her in-laws.
Her husband is in ISIS-controlled Raqqa, northern Syria, currently under siege. He stayed behind to sell some of the family’s properties before joining the rest of the family. He has not been able to leave Syria since then. The conflict marked it’s 6th anniversary on 15 March 2017.
When Helin and her family arrived in Turkey in October 2016, the family was trying to survive with what little they had. With no choice but to dip into their savings, they soon found themselves penniless within a few months.
Ahmed, Helin’s father-in-law, has a heart condition and he cannot work as a result. Helin works packing toys, but this is seasonal work and the income falls short of covering the family’s basic needs.
“First priority is the rent”
Despite her husband’s absence and the hardships she has encountered, Helin remains positive and full of resolve to provide a better life for her family.
Helin’s mother-in law, Nur, is articulate and a somewhat of a bookworm, she had to leave behind her extensive book collection in Syria, a thought which still brings her sadness. Nur’s eyes light up when she talks about Charles Dickens and her favourite book “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy.
Her new life doesn’t present many opportunities to read, “There are no Arabic books in the libraries in Turkey,” she says with a broken smile.
Despite everything, she is happy that her grandchildren are safe in Turkey and attending school. Even so, they struggle with covering their needs. According to Nur, the “first priority is the rent,” then food and other needs of the children. When the family heard that they had qualified for Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) assistance, the news came as welcome relief.
The Emergency Social Safety Net
The ESSN is the flagship humanitarian programme funded by the EU which started in September 2016. It aims to help 1.3 million refugees. With an initial grant of €348 million from the EU, the implementing partner, the World Food Programme (WFP) in collaboration with the Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) and Turkish government institutions, started distributing electronic debit cards to refugee families. Money is electronically uploaded each month with 100 Turkish lira per person (€28).
This amount is enough to cover basic food needs and rent. Most importantly, it provides refugees like Helin with the dignity of choice.
This electronic debit card is not only a very efficient way of providing humanitarian assistance but also injects funds into the local economy and contributes to social cohesion.
In February 2017, Helin and her family received the card with their first cash transfer: the first thing they did was pay off their debts to the shopkeeper under their house; then they paid their rent and bought food with whatever they had left. Things are far from easy but knowing that they will receive monthly assistance, Helin is grateful that life is now more manageable.
Helin and Nur are two strong women keeping their family together and making the best of a bad situation. The ESSN card aims to support women like Helin and Nur by allowing them to cater for the basic needs of their families.
Learn more about how the EU helps women all over the world through humanitarian aid.
By Begum Iman, Information and Communication Assistant, Ankara, EU Humanitarian Aid Operations.
