‘No one else has helped us like this’
Electronic cards bring choice to Syrian refugees living in camps in Turkey
Zahra remembers clearly the moment she realized it was time to leave her home in Syria. “My daughter Marwa was 3-years-old. When I saw her sleeping and holding onto a piece of bread, I decided we had to leave.” That was 2013 and some hard times followed. But now, Zahra’s family is living in a Sarıçam camp in southeastern Turkey and food is not a problem. They choose the food they want and can cook the things they are used to.
‘’We eat a lot of rice, bulgur wheat, eggs and dairy products like milk and yoghurt,’’ says Zahra. She explains that her family loves kibbeh, a mixture of lean ground beef, bulgur wheat and seasonings, and shakriya, a yoghurt stew with rice, egg and meat.
“I am able to cook one of these dishes every month,’’ says Zahra.
Through the card, the World Food Programme (WFP) provides a monthly allowance amounting to 50 Turkish liras (currently around 8 euros) per person in each family. The electronic card or “e-card” allows people to purchase the food they want from the supermarkets that are set up inside the refugee camps.
WFP supports more than 135,000 Syrians like Zahra and her family in the ten camps in the southeast of Turkey which are run by the Government. The camps are home to approximately 212,000 Syrian refugees in the region.
At the request of the Turkish government, WFP began assisting Syrian refugees in the camps in October 2012. Working together with the Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) and the Turkish Government’s Emergency and Disaster Management Presidency (AFAD), WFP helped put in place the electronic food-assistance programme Zahra and her family now use.
Zahra and her family receive a total of 500 Turkish liras every month through the e-card. “I don’t know what I would do to feed my children without the e-card,’’ says her husband Ahmed. He adds “many thanks to the donors who have stood with us. No one else has helped us like this.”
The programme assists almost 140,000 people every month. Being able to shop from the markets set up inside the camp gives a sense of normalcy to the Syrian families.
“The card is much better than being given food items. Now we are free to choose what we want to eat every day,’’ says Ahmed.
The e-card programme allows Syrian families in camps to buy nutritious food in the camp’s supermarkets. The project is being implemented jointly by WFP and the TRC, with coordination by the Government of Turkey.
Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hainan Airlines Group, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Norway, the Republic of Korea and the USA are supporting the e-card programme in Turkey.
