Transcript
Esra Özsüer: Thank you to GPC and Synergos for giving me this opportunity. It’s like being home in such a trusted environment. I would also like to thank two special friends: one is Daniel Kropf, who has really taught me to trust one another; and Peggy Dulany, who gave me her hand, who gave me her love, and who told me, “Go and accomplish your dreams.” I’m so grateful.
Before I continue, I would like to show you a small video, which our foundation has edited. It’s about the Syrian population, our own population, and our own foundation’s work on how we do holistic work with our Syrian children. Thank you.
Right now, at this very moment, millions of Syrians are in need. 6.3 million people are displaced. 7.4 million are isolated in besieged areas. Just over 5,000,000 Syrians are refugees and out of them 3.3 million are registered refugees in Turkey. Out of 3.3 million are only 10% of them in camps and on the Syrian border, mainly in tents, and if they’re lucky enough they’re in container camps. The other 90% are residing in host communities mostly in southeastern Turkey close to the border in southeastern, and now increasingly moving up to the northwest.
Living outside of the camps, many refugees face a host of hardships. It’s not uncommon for them to experience sexual exploitation, child marriage, health issues, and many more. Children continue to pay the highest price and bear the heaviest burden of this conflict, which has been going on for more than six years, now going into the seventh year. Friends, as someone who runs an NGO for psychosocial and traumatized refugee children, I’m a first-hand observer. Based on my observations from the field, I must say that the system needs real repair.
Initially, we responded with our best intentions and they were great successes to be celebrated. But caring for those who have been forced to migrate because of war is not only about opening borders, nor is it only about providing food and shelter; there are key elements that are missing. A bigger response of love, care, friendship, and respect from the international community are needed. I can see in my relationships with Syrian refugees that many are losing hope. Their resilience is weakening. Self-esteem is being destroyed, and most importantly, almost all of them have lost their faith in humanity. Friends, as philanthropists, it should be our main aim to restore their faith because whatever we’ve been doing so far, I promise you we can do more.
Maybe it’s time to change our vantage point, redefine a new way for our commitments. The scale of the crisis put enormous strain on the host country’s infrastructure and basic services, particularly in our local community. The needs are acute, especially in the areas of children protection, mental health, and education. The mental health situation of the refugees is alarming. A neuropsychologist from the Syrian-American Medical Society, has coined a new term for the Syrian experience, “Human Devastation Syndrome.” Moreover, the political economic situation of the three largest host communities are already fragile.
The presence of the refugees only compounds existing problems. It is commonly argued by professionals that cohesion and integration programs in host communities, combined with the refugees’ past traumas from violence and conflicts, create deeper mental health problems. And one of the worst things is, despite everything that’s been done, Syrians often still feel alone. They are people like us, like me, that long for home and for the life they had before the war. Trauma is devastating. We must show them that they’re not alone and hold their hands.
What can be even worse are the long-term effects that reverberate throughout one’s entire life. It’s the memory of each cell that triggers it.
My move into philanthropy was not a solo effort. My son initiated Project Lift when he was 16 years old. I’m sure many of you as parents, as mentors, can relate to the desire and hope you have for your loved ones, and the guidance you want to offer them in life. My son, Emir, came to me four years ago with his idea to support Syrian refugee children. Our lives had been comfortable and did not need to change. I never thought that it would be my 16 years old son who would challenge my state of being.
Perhaps I had become complacent. We have all been there. In my case, after two major health scares it felt good to be loved and safe. The thing is, you’re never safe after the trauma. Almost losing me twice affected my son, affected our wellbeing, affected myself, affected our wellbeing of family. This family trauma coupled with the influx of Syrian refugees to Turkey, especially the children, deeply affected my son. Luckily, he didn’t act in a negative manner, but rather was inspired to help. Project Lift became a way to reconcile his own trauma and his own way to deal with the fear of losing a mother.
His feelings were so intense that all he could think about was how to find a way to heal and to help out. 2010 and 2013 were nightmare years for him when he thought he had lost me. So when he saw the hopeless eyes of the refugee children arriving in Turkey – after being forced from their homes, losing their loved ones, losing their homes and their lands – he responded with compassion, and he invited me to do this together. His trust in me as a parent and desire to rebuild a secure environment made us a team. Initially, we responded with our best intentions and there were many successes to be celebrated.
But caring for those who have been forced to migrate because of war is not about only opening the borders, nor is it only about providing food and shelter. Emir and I, we offered them our love… So, at the end of year 2014, I had the idea to start our family foundation and create Project Lift as part of our foundation program. So, our Maya Foundation is not a typical philanthropic enterprise. It is best explained as something between a foundation and local Turkish NGO.
We serve a necessary bridge between philanthropy and Syrian families. Our focus is on mental health and psychological support, committee awareness, and integration of Syrian children and families. To ensure that the children don’t become a part of a lost generation, we support teachers, caregivers, and local international NGO workers through trauma trainings, so we can try to minimize the risk of secondary trauma. These are our strengths and specialties.
Our flagship program is a mental health psychosocial program, Project Lift. Our therapeutic creative arts workshop service offer psychosocial support, and we support modality by utilizing expressive arts, music, dance. We’re focused on healing the individual through evidence-based holistic and humanistic therapy.
We are the bridge for success and in education. We recently developed a really good program called The Trauma-Informed Schools. Let me remind you, we have almost 1.4 million children, and out of 1.4 million children the school age children is 870,000. So, the plan is to incorporate these centers in the national education system to prepare the host community, the host community and public schools to receive these children and make the perfect cohesion and integration programs.
Over time, with the right support for family and surrounding communities, and service providers like Maya Foundation, there is evidence that we can reduce many aspects of refugee children’s distress. So, in the light of former positive results, we initiated an image process and integration program this year. We support the teachers, administrators, even janitors with training supervisions, and we hope that the Minister of Education will integrate the two curriculums. Being an NGO person, a mother of three, a grandmother of two, I see this work in humanitarian terms, but we also must acknowledge this is a security issue.
If we don’t support them dealing with trauma, the problems that we’re seeing from the refugee crisis will be much more destructive in the near future. We all know what can happen, who these traumatized estranged children could turn into with proper interventions. Without intervention, traumatized children are susceptible to becoming troubled adults and are at a high risk of being influenced by a criminal or worse. We have to conduct sustainable inclusive programs that will empower them, allow them to express themselves, create opportunities, and fulfill their potentials. So, I will be grateful for you to hold my hand as well.
This is the passion that drives me. It brings on meaningful change and motivates me to do my part. My part might make this world a better place for children and youth. It was the Syrian crisis at our doorsteps in Turkey that turned my passion into a mission. I have found the one meaning of my life, on my life’s journey, so I want you to think now, today, amongst all of you, “What is the only one thing in your lives that drives you?” Thank you for your time. Thank you for your patience.