Atlas Relief and Development International (ARDI), which translates into ‘homeland’ in Arabic, is an international development organization, registered in Turkey, Iraq, the United States, and Germany. ARDI works in areas affected by conflict, instability, and war to provide on-the-ground relief, development, and social impact services, including training and capacity development.
While implementing one of its programs, ARDI worked closely with Syrian refugee women located in Turkey to help establish the Hayat Syrian Women’s Collective, which empowers women in Turkey (and their families) through women-led programming that seeks to support education, mental health, social, economic, and integration needs of refugees in Turkey. As of 2020, Turkey is the largest refugee-hosting country in the world. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNRA) there are about 3.7 million refugees in Turkey.
ARDI worked effectively with Hayat Syrian Women’s Collective to support them leading, delivering, and implementing their community-based projects; hosting an in-person capacity development workshop; hosting an in-person community network meeting among diverse project stakeholders; supporting the Hayat teams to design and host online ‘community conversations’; hosting an online-based Istanbul community network meeting among diverse stakeholders; and supporting Hayat women as they worked to implement their community-based project activities. Hayat Syrian Women’s Collective support community-based projects to counter violence and crime (domestic, youth-based, etc.); support refugee integration efforts; and foster education and economic empowerment activities amongst refugee populations.
Your contribution would provide support for the creation and ongoing support for the Hayat Women's Center in Istanbul, Turkey. At year-end, ARDI will provide all supporters with reports on the activities of the Hayat Women Center and how your contributions were put into action.
Visit the Hayat Women's Collective Facebook page to learn more about this extraordinary group of women: https://www.facebook.com/hayatcollective/