Feature: Turkish Red Crescent, volunteers extend welcoming hand to refugees

Furkan Yilmaz, a sophomore from Yildirim Beyazit University in Ankara, takes delight in helping people who are less fortunate.

One Monday afternoon, when he had no classes, the 20-year-old metal engineering major joined two other college students to hand out food supplies to refugees living in a neighborhood in Ulus in the capital city's old district.

The three, all volunteers with Turkish Red Crescent, were visiting Iraqi Turkmen refugees, like Hasan, an Iraqi Turkmen in his 40s.

Hasan, who only gave his first name, lives with his wife, his grown-up son and two daughters, one suffering cerebral palsy, in an apartment on the ground floor of a dilapidated four-story building.

The supplies, including rice, flour, oil, pea and canned tomato jam, were packed in boxes with Turkish Red Crescent logos.

Yilmaz, the Beyazit student, said the food deliveries bring joy to the refugee families and also make him happy for being able to help the needy.

The Hasan family, who fled their hometown in Telafer, Mosul, following a major bomb attack by Islamic State (IS) militants, came to Ankara more than a year ago.

As his son was able to get some odd job, the family managed to pay the 450 Turkish lira (160 U.S. dollar) monthly rent.

"Turkish employers told me that I'm too old," Hasan said. "My son could find some chance to sell his strength for money. Otherwise we could not afford to pay for the rent of this apartment."

"I don't know if we can sleep in the same bed tomorrow night," Hasan said. "I could not imagine the future. We are grateful for the help from Turkish Red Crescent, but we need more help until we can go back to normal life in our home town."

Living in his own apartment makes Hasan luckier than Fatima, who also came from Telafer, Mosul in Iraq but has to share a three-bedroom apartment with two other families.

The 17-year-old Fatima's family, including her parents, one brother and four sisters, also relies on odd jobs and assistance from charities such as the Red Crescent.

"I wish the war finish so that we can go back to our hometown," Fatima said.

On the surface, the volunteering job by Yilmaz and about 300 others in the Ankara chapter of the Turkish Red Crescent, such as food deliveries and entertaining refugee children, appears easy, but the charities organization faces daunting difficulties.

"Our work is helping people overcome difficulties in life and this work itself is full of challenges," said Kerem Kinik, president of the Turkish Red Crescent. "But we enjoy facing challenges and solving problems for those in need."

"Refugees are guests to Turkey; they need international care."

Turkey has one of the world's largest refugee populations, hosting approximately 3 million refugees, including 2.7 million from Syria. Refugees from other war-torn countries such as Iraq and Libya are also flowing into Turkey, he said.

The Turkish Red Crescent operates refugee camps together with the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority of the Turkish Prime Ministry.

"We are mainly focusing on refugees who are living outside of camps," Kinik added.

Those living inside the camps are provided with "Red Crescent Cards," a kind of debit card with different amounts depending on the size of the refugee families -- a family of five can get 350 Turkish liras every month.

The cards can be used to withdraw cash from local ATMs or to pay for purchases at POS machines in shops.

"Now 200,000 cards have been given to our guests," Kinik said. "We prefer to call them 'our guest' rather than refugees."

"We have spent around 100 million euros in cash donation on the guests who hold the cards," Kinik said.

He said Red Crescent Cards are now being provided to refugees outside the camps; so far the number of cards issued to people outside the camps has reached 100,000.

According to Kinik, the Turkish Red Crescent is providing multi-dimensional humanitarian support to all "our guests," including shelters, food, clothing, language and occupational training.

The charities group is also helping the refugees to adapt culturally.

Three community centers have been established in Konya, Sanliurfa and Istanbul, and the fourth is now being built in Ankara, Kinik said, adding that the aim is to build 20 community centers in different provinces by the year 2017.

In addition to helping those "guests" already inside Turkey, the Red Crescent is providing constant support for those internally displaced persons inside Syria, he said.

There are about 7 million internally displaced people inside Syria and Turkish Red Crescent teams send in 20 trucks of humanitarian supplies daily across the border, handing them to the Syrian Arab Crescent branch inside Syria, Kinik said.

He called for more help to fund the work of the Turkish Red Crescent.

"The financial problem really matters to our organization," Kinik said. "Without money, we cannot do real things for our guests, so we need more financial resources from Turkish and International partners."

He expressed the hope that the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit, scheduled for May 23-24 in Istanbul, would improve humanitarian work.

The first ever World Humanitarian Summit will be a milestone for the humanitarian structure in the face of major conflicts, he said.

"We are now facing twice as many conflicts as 20 years ago, and the duration of conflicts is extending, and the population affected by conflicts is rising," Kinik said.

"The fare financial resource sharing is one of the topics we need to discuss," he said. "As a part of the humanitarian work, the Red Crescent and other non-governmental organizations are a little bit discriminated by the big players in the system." Endit