In 2008, our loosely knit group of diplomats, expatriates, Turkish nationals and spouses formalized our standing in the Ankara community by forming the Ankara Refugee Support Group.
A number of talented women within our group have started baking and selling high end, home made pastries and ethnic foods to the expatriate and business community to support our refugee programs. We raised over $10,000USD this year selling these products.
Our clients, asylum seekers and refugees, come primarily from Iraq, Iran, Afganistan, Somalia and Sudan. We periodically deliver supplies to people living in designated "satellite cities" outside Ankara. In this picture, we are delivering clothing and toys to families in Konya, Turkey.
In our Refugee Lunch Program, we serve meals to more than 1,000 people a month at the UNHCR registration center. A year ago, we served food to just 50 people a week, but the program grew very quickly as individuals started to discover the great needs of refugees in Turkey and throughout the world. In this picture, a good friend and refugee from Iran is assisting the child of a diplomat and a Sudanese college student to prepare the meals. Our group is very diverse!
Many of our clients at the Meryem Ana Distribution Program are vulnerable, single women from Somalia and Sudan. We do all we can to provide clothing, food and support to these women and their families.
Two years ago, the local military base commander at the Ankara Support Facility approached me about hosting a 5km run at the base to benefit the refugee community. After two wonderfully supportive years, our race has become an annual event, with other events (poster contests at the DODDS school, volunteer activities led by kids) leading up to the race.
After years of distributing clothing and supplies to refugees out of plastic bins, we received a grant from the J. Kirby Simon Foreign Trust which allowed us to purchase organizational racks and items to present our goods more neatly. Volunteers worked all summer long to transform our work spaces into an amazing little shop called the Second Chance Thrift Shop, where refugees shop for free each month.
This is a shot of the renovated Second Chance Housewares section. The clothing section in an adjoining room is full of over 1,000 nearly new or new items.
. Parents in our community encouraged their children to volunteer in our programs, but now the children are moving their parents to do more! In this picture, young girls from the DODDS school work on a school holiday to prepare refugee lunches. Two of the young girls also made a donation of more than $50USD that day, which they raised by selling sodas at a function a few days earlier.
Several of our volunteers have energized teachers and students from the local DODDS school to reach out to asylum seekers and refugees. In this picture, two boys are photographed making the "helping hands" United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees symbol, which we used in slide shows and presentations.
