In 2025, the Centre for Environmental and Social Development (CESD) made a financial donation to SAR YARDIMLASMA DERNEGI in Turkey worth 700 US dollars, as part of the “We Want to Learn” program dedicated to supporting Syrian refugee children in camps and shelter centers, especially in areas related to education, basic school needs, and helping children remain on the learning path despite difficult conditions.
Although the grant amount is limited, its importance lies in its timing. It came at a stage when Syrian refugees in Turkey are facing increasing living pressures, after many years of displacement, and after the devastating earthquake that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria in February 2023, and the deep economic and social impacts it left on both refugees and host Turkish communities.
Turkey hosts in 2025 one of the largest refugee populations in the world; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees indicates that Turkey hosted around 2.6 million refugees by mid-2025, including about 2.5 million Syrians under temporary protection. UNHCR also notes that its operations in Turkey remain among its largest globally, due to the scale of needs and the multiple levels of vulnerability among refugees.
Although the majority of Syrians in Turkey live outside camps, temporary shelter centers and camps still host highly vulnerable groups, especially families that lost their homes or resources after the earthquake, or that do not have stable capacity for work, housing, and education. The World Food Programme indicates that it continues to provide food support to refugees in temporary shelter centers, and that this assistance is directed to limited and highly needy groups; in January 2025, 3,066 refugees received monthly cash assistance worth 500 Turkish lira, or about 14 dollars per person to cover basic food needs.
The 2023 earthquake weakened the capacity of local communities in southern Turkey, including areas that host large numbers of Syrians. UNHCR had explained one year after the earthquake that the affected region in Turkey included around 1.75 million refugees out of the millions of refugees residing in the country, and that the effects of the disaster remained tangible for refugees and Turkish host communities despite the governmental and international response.
This coincided with a clear decline in international funding for humanitarian programs. In 2025, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi warned that “severe” funding cuts threaten the lives of millions of refugees around the world, and that funding shortages push children, women, and vulnerable groups into greater risks, including loss of protection, education, and livelihoods. 3RP documents for the regional response to the Syrian crisis also showed that the funding gap for Turkey operations remained large, with one 2025 funding document indicating a gap of 66% until the end of November 2025.
In light of this reality, small aid becomes highly meaningful in practice, especially when directed toward education. Syrian refugee children face layered challenges: poverty, difficulty securing school supplies, psychological pressures resulting from war, displacement, and the earthquake, and families’ reduced ability to cover education, transportation, clothing, and stationery costs. Analyses published in 2025 indicate that Turkey has enabled Syrian refugees to access education and health services, but language barriers, poverty, integration difficulties, and lack of information have continued to limit many people’s full ability to benefit from these services. It was also stated that nearly one million Syrian children were in Turkish schools, while around 400,000 children remained out of school according to UNICEF data cited in those analyses.
From here comes the grant from the Centre for Environmental and Social Development to SAR YARDIMLASMA DERNEGI under the “We Want to Learn” program as a message of solidarity and responsibility. It affirms that supporting the refugee child is not limited to emergency relief, but also includes protecting their right to learn, and giving them the minimum tools that help them stay in school and feel that they are not forgotten amid declining international aid and economic pressures.
This grant, despite its modest value, aligns with the center’s vision of supporting education as one of the most important paths of protection and development. A child who gets the chance to learn, even in a camp or shelter center, gets a chance to move out of the cycle of waiting, regain part of their stability, and build a safer and more dignified future. This initiative confirms that humanitarian work is measured not only by the size of the amount, but also by the clarity of the goal, the speed of response, and the ability to reach the groups that need direct and tangible support.
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