How expatriates can support Turkish charities

Klaus Jurgens

A person moving abroad is traditionally an open-minded busy kind of person, yet there are a few items that may need urgent attention before being able to really enjoy life overseas. Think finding a new flat or house, consider uncharted professional territory. Once the first few months have hopefully satisfactorily elapsed, though, there is no better way to really "go native" than engaging in charitable work.

All it needs is just that little extra effort with regards to fact-finding and establishing first contacts eventually resulting in some well-spent hours each week, or less frequently should you so decide.

How to get started

Turkish society in general is very philanthropic. Helping one's neighbor and other people in need is clearly inherent in the Ottoman as well as republican tradition, but tradition and modern times are not necessarily antagonists.

Hence, social media might just as well be the perfect starting point, in particular if you manage a few words in Turkish so that you can add your location to the type of charity you are interested in -- for example, work with disabled citizens, young people, unemployed people, cancer research, animal welfare, etc.; the list is almost endless. Another good port of call is local Turkish language newspapers and their events calendars. Then there are of course regional English language newspapers printed in particular along Turkey's Mediterranean and Aegean shores. You might as well contact the headquarters of an international charity in order to find out whether they are active here in Turkey. And why not visit your local town hall (belediye) to ask for a list of registered initiatives, including associations (dernek), clubs (kulüp) or foundations (vakıf). What's more, all officially registered charities will have a unique charity number and certificate in their offices ready to be inspected, too.

Just remember, please, that not every nongovernmental organization is automatically a charity, too, and as this article is all about charitable work and not about NGOs in general, always ask to see a copy of the mandatory statutes before committing yourself or parting with your hard-earned monies.

A selection of case-studies

First, let me introduce you to the Disabled Association for Didim and Environs (DİYED), which was set up by a local Turkish businessman who has a family member living with a disability. Personal experience paired with the desire to help other children with a similar condition resulted in a fantastic effort to integrate citizens with a "handicap" into mainstream society, an undertaking that not only here in Turkey is still something of a taboo issue. Hosting many thousands of expatriates, what better cause than Didim's international community rolling up its sleeves and organizing events in support of DİYED? The most recent such activity was an end-of-season swim whereupon monies raised were handed over to the association. One subsequent acquisition resulting out of expats' charitable involvement was buying an electric wheelchair that costs well over TL 2,000. Your participation in a future event is only a phone call away.

Second, a much bigger association decided to engage in charitable activities, too: A section of İstanbul's Rotary Club asked its members and the wider public to donate all unwanted toys to pass them on to a local hospital's children's ward where children have to stay for extended periods of time. Earmarked for those coming from lower income families, toys are not necessarily available in abundance during their stay away from home, stressful enough as it is already both for the little ones and the parents. As a matter of fact, this charitable initiative was actively supported by the chairman of a Turkish association representing Turkish alumni of a UK-based university. That is how I heard about the activity -- it's a small world indeed and you can get involved so easily.

Third, let us talk about the Turkish capital Ankara and "Clean Up the World Day," something that has become a tradition for the Australian Embassy to promote and very successfully so. This involves schoolchildren collecting small amounts of discarded rubbish to learn about environmental protection. Yet these annual events do not patronize unsuspecting kids or asks them to do what municipality staff have not managed to pick up -- it sets examples of how to protect our environment and is prepared and followed up in class and the ultimate goal is to teach everyone a lesson, so to speak. Next time (2013, that is) you run a similar event with all your Turkish and international colleagues at your university, language school or business premises, copy-cats are more than welcome for Clean Up the World Day 2013! Perhaps you would wish to team up with your local environmental protection association or charity?

Fourth, yet last but not least, and still during 2012, I had the absolute pleasure to briefly address a meeting of Şanlıurfa's 25+ (and counting) women's NGOs and many of them are involved in charitable work, too. Why am I referring to this meeting? Because some might argue that expats a) only live in Ankara, İstanbul or İzmir or b) along the Sunshine Belt. Far from it! If you really wish to understand the many dimensions of charitable work carried out all over Turkey, Urfa is a must-do -- here, politicians do not tell associations what to do but invite them and listen to their concerns and help them improve their work even further.

Are there any financial implications for yourself?

There are various levels of how to get involved in Turkish charitable work. The most cost-effective one is of course having found one or two associations in your neighborhood in order to keep travel expenses to a minimum as well as avoiding the need to stay someplace else overnight. Membership fees are very reasonable in Turkey should you decide to join your favorite club or organization, often as low as TL 20 per annum although bigger and perhaps more professionally managed associations will probably charge around TL 10 per calendar month. But never forget -- size does not matter in this regard and a 10-people effort may just as well achieve as much or even more than a 1,000-member association if the target group is right, final beneficiaries are clearly defined and the local public embraces their work with donations and other means of support. Think big, stay local -- even smaller towns of less than 75,000 inhabitants often host more than 100 registered charities (!) -- is perhaps the best slogan for your first steps into the world of Turkish charitable work?

The legal dimension

Unless you are planning to set up your very own charity, which is now legally possible -- as long as you have six fellow founding members on-board -- as Turkey's Interior Ministry relaxed the rules for EU nationals and other international residents some time ago, most expatriates will not really wish to commit themselves for years to come as chances are that 24 or 36 months down the line they are off to their next posting someplace else. Hence, either supporting local activities of the kind I introduced above or even becoming a temporary member are options best suited for those of us who want to do good while being on location. Of course, for those of us who have made Turkey their permanent home, why not get involved on a more regular basis and consider running for office?

There are a few distinctions, though, with regard to who can become a member or chairperson of a Turkish association, foundation or charity. I once wanted to sign up for a Turkish-American group but was told that only American or Turkish citizens can become members. Then there are other restrictions, such as whether an association has defined in its very own statutes that only Turkish citizens can become members or not, before EU accession perfectly legal should they so chose. Many I have met with up and down the country welcome international supporters with open arms even on a non-members basis if need be.

Helping others easily overcomes (perceived) cultural barriers

Cultural or language barriers may of course be a problem, but then again, a wheelchair is a wheelchair and a family in need is a family in need. Philanthropy builds intercultural bridges, including learning by seeing and not always by talking first. Yet your involvement in your local charity will at the same time be the perfect inspiration for picking up more of the Turkish language than simply being able to say "Merhaba" [Hello].

I hope you are soon finding a worthwhile good cause to support according to your own means and interests. Off you go!

Source: Today's Zaman

Posted in: Charitable work, Expats, Turkey