On February 6, 2023, two massive earthquakes with 7.7 and 7.6 magnitudes and 2.724 aftershocks hit Pazarcık and Elbistan districts of Kahramanmaraş province. The earthquakes were felt intensely in the surrounding provinces, especially in Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, Osmaniye, Adıyaman, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Malatya, and Adana. According to the Türkiye Earthquakes Recovery and Reconstruction AssessmentReport more than 48,000 persons lost their lives and 120,000 persons were injured in these provinces. Furthermore, the disaster caused internal displacement of more than 14 million refugees and host community members.
With the impact of earthquake and displacements, vulnerable groups become more vulnerable especially due to the loss of family and friends, homes and livelihoods, social and business networks. Women, children, disadvantaged people and refugees are among these vulnerable groups and highly affected from the earthquake. Refugees who moved to new provinces have been struggling to find places to live, access services, and provide themselves and their families. The language barrier still stands against social cohesion and creates a protection risk, especially for women among non-Syrian refugees. RET’s local staff in Kayseri verified that due to being unregistered and the language barrier, adults could not access lifelong learning opportunities that can help them access income-generating opportunities. This is especially prominent for non-Syrian refugees such as Afghans. It is also reported that they could not access basic services, including health services. In Aksaray, it is highlighted that Afghan refugees couldn’t access health and other basic services due to the language barriers, registration status, and limited capacity of service providers.
The 2nd phase of the “Multi-sectoral Approach for Fostering Resilience among Refugee and Vulnerable Host Communities” Project aims to sustainably foster social cohesion in Kayseri and Aksaray provinces. The project targets refugees, vulnerable host community members especially those sharing the same neighborhoods, workplaces, or classes with refugee groups, and public and civil service providers directly providing services for refugees. Throughout the project’s lifetime, RET conducts the following activities:
- Structured awareness-raising sessions focused on social cohesion,
- Capacity-building trainings on social cohesion and inclusion to the members of public institutions and civil society actors working with refugees,
- Delivery of Turkish Language courses based on an innovative quick language learning program to the girls and women from non-Syrian refugee communities,
- Psychosocial and conflict resolution counseling through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) for youth and women.
The project also aims to prevent gender-based violence and promote sexual and reproductive health through conducting:
- Awareness-raising sessions on gender-based violence,
- Information dissemination sessions on sexual and reproductive health.
This project is funded by the UK Embassy in Ankara and implemented by RET between June 2023 and March 2024 in partnership with Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality, Aksaray Municipality, and LEAP (LNGO) in Türkiye.
