Give Support to 800 Syrian Refugee Families

About 90 per cent of the 3 million refugees in Turkey live in temporary housings, rented accommodation or friends and relatives. Life outside the camps is not very favorable: the rents in the refugee areas are now far above the average and are usually prohibitive for the Syrian families. People who are seeking shelter outside the camps in the provinces of Hatay, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Batman or in Istanbul will receive little support from the Turkish government. The average monthly income for a family is around 113 euros. According to this, the majority of the refugees lives below the poverty line. About half of the refugees are children, especially with them the experience has left partly severe trauma.

The refugee families, who have to handle  with few money income, often try to borrow a loan as a short-term solution and are in debt. Many of them sell their latest valuables, such as for example wedding rings, to ensure the basic supply. The cost of school education for their children the partents also save in order to have sufficient reserves for the daily needs of food and hygiene articles. Partially, parents refuse meals to have enough food for their children. The majority of refugees already have signs of malnutrition.

Since 2012 we have been active in Turkey in cooperation with our partner Support to Life (STL). In  2015 and 2016 we were able to support refugees with electronic money cards (e-cards) in the province of Sanliurfa in the east of the country. The project was aimed at Syrian and Iraqi refugees as well as host families. The beneficiaries were previously selected according to need and then received a money card for three months. This was charged monthly with 62 Turkish Lira per person. That is about 18 euros. A six-headed household could thus receive 372 lira, converted 110 euros, to cover its basic food needs.

to provide further families we are urgently dependent on support. Thank's so much for your accompaniment of our work. Please support us furthermore with your donation.

Yours

Michael Tuerk