Specific objectives of the project

 

  1.  Help young minors who have just arrived to Turkey to accomplish the formalities with the UNHCR and the Police and provide them with housing before their transfer to the state shelter for minors
  2. To improve the living conditions of unaccompanied minors after they leave the state shelters: provide them with housing, food and a better access to health care.
  3. Help the young people being transferred to assigned satellite cities, by helping them to pay a part of the residence permit and to grant them with small financial assistance for their first nights in the satellite city.
  4. Provide young refugee with opportunities of education and trainings: English and Turkish language classes, computer classes, etc.
  5.   Provide our members with internal trainings, i.e. organization and management of the UYRT.
  6. Promote the Union of Young Refugee in Turkey within the Turkish society, which would allow the difficult situation of young refugees and refugees to be known within the Turkish society. For this, we plan to organize cultural activities with other Turkish NGOs and Foundations (sport activities, concerts, conferences, shows, etc.)
  7.    Create links between the Turkish society and refugee communities to:
  • Facilitate mutual understanding
  •  Facilitate integration of refugees in Turkey
  •  Find a solution to the problem of insecurity faced by refugees in Turkey

Beneficiaries:
The UYRT and the young refugees will be the direct beneficiaries of the project. Young refugees will see a consequent amelioration of their conditions after they leave the shelter. Additionally, the NGOs in Turkey that work in the field of refugees will also benefit from this project in the sense that they will be able to refer the young refugees to our organization for some of the problems that they face and are not able to solve right away: housing for the unaccompanied minors after they left the shelter, access to health, transfer to the satellite cities.
The other refugee communities would also benefit from our project through the activities of this project. Indeed our project aims at raising awareness within the Turkish society about the problems of the asylum system in Turkey and the issues faced by refugees. We also plan to have activities together with other communities of refugees, which would confer them more visibility as well and allow the different refugee communities to establish solidarity links  in a more organized way, which is necessary with regards to the severe lack of social assistance in the asylum system in Turkey.
Finally, this project aims at benefiting the Turkish society at large as well. Refugees are not known in Turkey and the majority of Turkish people do not understand why refugees come to Turkey. In the context of the Negotiation for Accession to the European Union, Turkey will have to reform its asylum system and may lift the geographical limitation. Refugees would therefore not be resettled anymore but remain in Turkey. This project aims at promoting a mutual understanding and the integration of refugees in the Turkish society, which would be possible by creating more and better links between the UYRT and other Turkish NGOs and organizations.

Implementation of the project:
I- Activities
Our activities can therefore be articulated around 3 major axes:
1- Direct social support to young refugees
2- Access to education and to training opportunities
3- Promotion of the UYRT and of the refugee communities within the Turkish society to raise awareness on challenges faced by refugees in Turkey

1- Direct social support to young refugees:
i.    Provide housing for the young refugees who reached their 18th birthday and have to leave the shelter.
    We currently have a place that can house 7 persons. We need to find funds to be able to continue to rent this place and we need to rent a new place for 7 additional people for the coming years. 5 people are currently not being provided with any housing opportunities and 2 more are going to be forced to leave the state shelter very soon.
    We need as well to constitute a fund to pay the electricity and water bills and the collective food.
ii.    Help the newly arrived unaccompanied minors to accomplish their registration formalities and provide them with housing in urgent situations before they are transferred to the state shelter.
iii.    Help the young refugees with regards to their legal status and their health problems in referring them to the relevant organizations.
iv.    Assist the young refugees that are transferred to satellite cities by the Ministry of Interior:

  • Facilitating the transfer of the young refugees by way of encouraging them to go to the satellite cities when they are transferred, so they would respect the law.
  • Establish relations with NGOs present in satellite cities so that they can help the young refugees with regards to registration procedures with the authorities and with regards to the social assistance available in the city.
  • To be able to grant every one of our members and young refugees with a small financial assistance helping them to spend their first days in the satellite city, as well as granting young refugees with a small financial assistance to pay a part of the Ikamet (defter parası), the resident permit.
  • The UYRT will also be based in different cities, with representatives in each of these cities, which would allow us to work in network with different organizations in Turkey and to be visible outside of Istanbul.

v.    Guarantee access to health care for young refugees by referring them and by trying to help with financial assistance when necessary.

2- Access to Education and training opportunities:

  •  We need access to computers and to Internet in order to provide young refugees with basic software training (Word, Power Point, Excel, etc.) and to the use of Internet in order to facilitate a future professional integration in the third country. We also aim at the redaction of an Internet blog, which will allow us to promote our activities and to give information about the refugees’ situation in Turkey. The young refugees would be in charge of redacting and updating the blog, which would also give them solid computer skills.
  •  With regards to the language courses and to the computer courses, we would have agreements with NGOs and cultural centers for the registration of the young refugees to these courses and for solving the financial issue for the transportation (English and Turkish classes, more advanced computer courses).
  •   We want to have a serigraphy workshop. This would allow our members to learn serigraphy techniques and to start a micro economic activity. We would produce T-shirts and try to commercialize them in several selling points. The youth responsible for this activity would be accountable for the production and the selling, and the management of the first materials and the accounting. The money generated by this activity would be divided as small salaries for the youth working in the workshop, the payment of all the expenses and the re-injection of a part of the earnings in the workshop. We already found a voluntary teacher who will give us training on graphic techniques and on using Photoshop and other relevant programs.
  •   Internal training for the members of the UYRT:

The board of UYRT is elected every year by all its members. The aim is to ensure that the team constituting the board learns taking responsibilities in the management of the UYRT. They learn how to manage the budget and be responsible for the coordination of the activities of UYRT. The board is also responsible for the relations between the UYRT and the other NGOs and foundations, the press, the other refugee communities, etc. The board is also responsible for the internal organization of the UYRT (organization of the weekly meetings, of the decision-taking process, etc.) This part of our activities is extremely important because young refugees are currently being resettled. Therefore this functioning would ensure the continuing of the UYRT when its members are being resettled little by little and make sure that the competences are being transferred and that all members can take an active part to the functioning of the UYRT. This way, newcomers can be trained and take responsibilities when the old ones leave and train the following newcomers as well.

  •  Training of 3 permanent workers of the UYRT. In order to ensure the functioning of our activities and the good coordination between all our members, we envision creating 3 job positions that would be occupied by young refugees. The members and the board will be responsible for deciding whom to hire. The 3 job positions will be the following; one coordinator, one person responsible for the budget and one person responsible for the organization of the cultural activities. The 3 permanent workers will be accountable to the board and the members and will present the follow-up of the activities every two weeks during the weekly meeting. The board and the members will be responsible for taking the decisions and the 3 workers will be in charge of the implementation and the coordination of the decisions taken.

 

  • 3.    Organization of activities aiming at promoting the UYRT and raising awareness about the refugees’ situation within the Turkish society.

i. Organization of conferences on diverse topics
ii. Organization of cultural activities in our local communities with the participation of different NGOs, foundations and refugee communities. We principally think to organize activities with women refugee groups and feminist organizations in Turkey, as well as different activities allowing participants to discover the countries where the refugees come from.
Iii. Organization of sport events, like a yearly football cup of the refugee communities in Turkey.
iv. The redaction of the blog in different languages also constitutes a source of information and a way to promote the UYRT and awareness on the situation of refugees in Turkey.

II- Implementation:
The board and the members are responsible for the functioning of the organization and the decision-taking process.
The coordinator is responsible for the general coordination of the activities. He/she presents every two weeks a report about the activities in the weekly meetings. He/she will be responsible for reporting to the funders and for the monitoring of the project. The coordinator will also be responsible for dealing with the overall team involvement in the activities. Another area of responsibility will be on accounting matters in order to make propositions for new activities during the weekly meetings. He will be responsible for the relations with the other partners, the search of new partners, new funds and new partnerships with regards to the trainings and education.
He is moreover responsible for the two rented houses and the follow-up of the young that are sent to satellite cities. He is also responsible for referring the members to other organizations for other services, for receiving the applications of the young refugees in need of assistance and presenting them to the board and the members every week. The coordinator is in charge of the coordination of the serigraphy workshop together with the members involved in the workshop.
The chargé de missions culturelles is responsible for the blog with the other members involved. He/she will be responsible for the organization of the cultural activities and the conceiving and proposing of new activities to the board together with the coordinator and the members during the weekly meetings.
The accountant is responsible for the budget follow-up and the reporting of the financial situation every two weeks at the meeting of the board and the members. The accountant is also responsible for the balance of the budget and for checking that the funds are allocated to each activities with regards to the funding commitments (see annex 4, job descriptions).