Details Description Already after our first aid missions to Turkey and along the Balkan route, we realized that we needed to find a way to provide long-term, sustainable and dignified support for people on the run, apart from direct emergency relief on the ground. Our special attention, we wanted the many single women who lost their men in the war and give to their children.
For them it is especially difficult, alone and without protection of the family, to create a new, independent life in safety and dignity. Many of the young women have lost their husbands in war or on the run and live alone as single mothers, with their children together. These young women have little chance of making a living. For the most part they live in two districts of Izmir. There are currently about 70, Syrian refugees in the Basmane district and another 40, in the Buca district.
The accommodations, apartments you can not call them, are for the most part run down and in very poor condition. Often without running water, dilapidated and with mold on the walls, the women live here with their children and sometimes have to spend totally overpriced rents on the rooms.
As a result, the way to prostitution is often inevitable. The idea for a community center for single women and thus also for sewing workshop was born. We wanted to create a safe haven for these women and their children. A place where they can feel safe and secure, find their dignity again through employment and allow their children to attend school. Said and done! In an old shoe factory on the outskirts of "Basmane" a district in Izmir in which about 70, refugees live we have launched our community center.
Meanwhile, the old, gray shoe factory has created a wonderful, colorful place full of love and harmony. In the small school the children learn Turkish, English and Arabic. In an info corner, we support women in everyday bureaucratic issues. In the charity shop with donations, the women can dignify themselves in a dignified way.
