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As YUVA, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Toroslar Municipality and an employment protocol with Tarsus Municipality in the scope of the Cash for Work Project that we carry on with the support of The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH(GIZ).

As a group including Gabriele Muehlig, GIZ Representative; Candost Aydın, GIZ Project Coordinator; Ali Aslan, GIZ Gaziantep Field Supervisor; Bilge Çoban, Director of Livelihoods of YUVA; Roza Erdede, Project Coordinator of YUVA; Onur Arslan, Project Field Coordinator of YUVA and Pınar Kıral, Project Field Supervisor of YUVA, we visited Toroslar Municipality as hosted by Mr. Hamit Tuna, the Mayor. During the visit in which we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Municipality and GIZ, we shared the effects and developments of the project by which 100 project beneficiaries from local people and Syrians under temporary protection were employed in the departments of Toroslar Municipality for a period of 3 months. We decided, in the meeting, to proceed the joint works that improve the access, to the means of livelihood, of the refugees and local people living in the district.

Consisting of mostly women, the project beneficiaries are employed in Toroslar Municipality Technical and Vocational Training Courses Centre (TORTEK) and Yunus Emre Cultural Centre and attend the courses in the working fields such as wood painting, glass-working, hairdressing, knitting and painting and hence they benefit from the vocational trainings free of charge. The fact that the beneficiaries make use of the facilities of the institutions in which they work and that they strengthen their income-generating activities is considered by us as a positive output of the employment-based project beyond its objective. Following these positive impressions from this visit, we share the excitement and enthusiasm, among the project beneficiaries, trainers and institution representatives, created by prolongation of 3-month employment period of the project up to six months.

With the employment protocol that we signed with Tarsus Municipality of Mersin, we aim to employ, in the departments of Municipality for a period of 3 months, 100 beneficiaries included in the disadvantaged group including 50 Turkish and 50 Syrian individuals under temporary protection, and hence to enable them to get rid of prejudices, be supported in terms of their social adaptation, get stronger in social and economic life and work and produce together. The protocol signing ceremony was held with the participation of Şevket Can, Mayor of Tarsus Municipality; Ali Şerif Rende, Project Field Coordinator of YUVA; Pınar Kıral, Mersin Representative of YUVA and Serhat Bozdağ, Mersin Office Supervisor of YUVA.

Also, we organized, in Tarsus Municipality Social Facilities, a briefing meeting for the neighbourhood representatives about the this project that will be launched. This meeting was attended by the representatives of 45 neighbourhoods located in the centre of Tarsus; Mustafa Naci Güllü, Chairman of Tarsus Neighbourhood Representatives’ Association and Ali Bağrık, Deputy Mayor of Tarsus Municipality. In the meeting, the neighbourhood representatives were informed about what contributions they could provide to the project and about their opportunity to identify the Syrians and Turkish citizens in the disadvantaged position and to explain the project to the people living in their neighbourhood and also they were informed about how they could support the project. Answering the neighbourhood representatives’ questions, the Chairman of Association and Deputy Mayor mentioned about the human objectives of the project and also its material and moral benefits for the Municipality and Tarsus and drew the attention to the fact that it was a social-adaptation project created to eliminate the prejudices. In the scope of Project, we plan to exchange views on nomination of the beneficiaries and do registration activity together with the neighbourhood representatives that attended the meeting and will support the project.