Turkey

Turkey is home to more than half of the nearly 6 million displaced Syrians in the region and we are only talking about those registered. Being the first neighboring country, escaping to Turkey is the most natural route for those living north of Syria, but in the refugee camps financed by UNHCR and managed by Afad, the Turkish government agency similar to our civil protection, there are assistance programs that meet the primary needs of just over 300,000 Syrians.

The most difficult situation is that of those who live outside the official camps. In fact, our commitment focuses on spontaneous fields, isolated and far from inhabited centers. The one we have been taking care of for almost ten years, consisting of about 900 families for a total of over 6000 people, is not followed by any NGO or local institution, it is located on land that was previously used as an illegal landfill and of which the remains are still present. The inhabitants, including children, work as laborers for a few Turkish lira a day. The tents they live in are often improvised, bare, cold. There is a lack of basic sanitation, clean water and fuel for the winter.

Many of the children were born in the camp and know nothing else. During their childhood they did not have access to basic educational services or adequate health care. Most are illiterate, malnourished and without any prospect of life. There are over 4000 minors inside the camp, a number that continues to increase. There are also over a hundred orphans abandoned to themselves and therefore even more exposed to the consequences of degradation: from lack of food to violence.

Specifically, we bring food and basic necessities to the camp, from blankets to sleeping bags, from wood to clothes for the winter. We deliver powdered milk to the many newborns on the verge of malnutrition that we constantly monitor. The presence of a doctor on our missions is essential to treat infections due to dirty water, skin or other diseases; ailments that in Italy would be easily treatable and that in a refugee camp instead risk being lethal. We have opened and manage two school tents in twinning with a primary school in Turin, and we provide non-formal education programs coordinated by Italy to support the two teachers on site. We take special care of some fragile families, located between Turkey and Syria, with sick or handicapped children.

Ongoing projects in the spontaneous refugee camp

Food security remains one of the main problems of those who live in a spontaneous refugee camp, therefore not managed by UNHCR, Turkish civil protection or other NGOs. Procuring and distributing food is an urgent and complex task. We procure over 900 food packages every month, one for each household. The food packages are ordered from Italy from local suppliers and then personally distributed by the SSCH team.

At the camp there is a long distance adoption project for 111 families of orphaned children of at least one of the two parents, if not both. The amount donated by supporters turns into vouchers that can be spent at selected retail outlets. The frequency of the distribution of vouchers is monthly and is followed and monitored by the SSCH team which departs from Italy and which coordinates with local contacts. Upon returning to Italy, SSCH sends each supporter photos and short reports on the children supported.

At the camp there is a long distance adoption project for 111 families of orphaned children of at least one of the two parents, if not both. The amount donated by supporters turns into vouchers that can be spent at selected retail outlets. The frequency of the distribution of vouchers is monthly and is followed and monitored by the SSCH team which departs from Italy and which coordinates with local contacts. Upon returning to Italy, SSCH sends each supporter photos and short reports on the children supported.

Since September 2019 we have set up a small school that we call the Rainbow Tent and which hosts about 200 children who go there compatibly with the work they are obliged to do in the fields.
SSCH took care of the purchase of the school tent, the material and provides the salary of the two teachers as well as the monthly supply of school materials.
Provides training and educational programs via Zoom to teachers every two weeks.
From July 2021 the Rainbow Tents have become two and SSCH takes care, as mentioned, of all the monthly costs of both.

During the monthly visits to the camp made by SSCH there is a volunteer doctor who, for the duration of the stay, visits and provides basic medical care to children and adults. The conditions in which he works are often precarious and this is another area on which we need to act and improve. SSCH takes care of the purchase of medicines and in the most serious cases it endeavors to facilitate hospitalization and to provide continuity of treatment.

Food shortages make malnutrition a common problem in all areas where SSCH operates. For this reason, we supply milk powder for babies and other specific foods for all cases of malnutrition identified and monitored by our medical staff. Over the past two years, we have dealt with 45 individual cases. These are severely malnourished babies or children under 3 years of age that we constantly support and whose growth we constantly monitor.

Over the years, SSCH has taken care of many children and adults in serious conditions of poverty, frailty and disease, offering them economic and health support.

Every winter we take care to provide aid to combat the cold that grips the field in a vice. Refugees live in simple tents and are constantly in need of wood, new blankets, new mattresses, shoes and jackets for the growing children, sheets to strengthen the thermal insulation of the tents.

An educational knowledge/twinning project initiated in the 2020/2021 school year is active between a class of Don Murialdo Primary School in Turin and the schools named “Rainbow Tents” in the Syrian refugee camp we support as an association and the association’s urban school on the Syrian border.
This proposal aims to promote a path of active citizenship through knowledge and discussion among the pupils of the schools involved and involves a mutual exchange of knowledge and agreed common educational activities.
The goal is to build relationships that go beyond geographical boundaries with a view to building a culture of peace and knowledge and respect for the other.

We believe that school is a place of opportunities and exchange and that it plays a crucial role in broadening horizons and opening up possible future prospects.