Malaysian NGO helps Syrian refugees with education in Türkiye

RECYCLING, gardening and education activities were organized for orphans by two nonprofit organizations in Istanbul on Sunday.

An event, “A Visit to an Orphanage,” was organized by the Malaysian nongovernmental organization (NGO) “My Fund Action” in cooperation with the Alsham Foundation. The children and their mothers were invited to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Park in Esenyurt on Sunday to share moments of happiness with orphans and widows of the martyrs of the Syrian civil war.

According to Alia Fares Kassabbashi, a statistics and guarantee officer, a 5-year-old boy who suffered from psychological trauma after losing his father and later fleeing to Türkiye with his mother and staying in the country as a refugee in early 2019, now lives in Istanbul and receives the necessary education from the Alsham Foundation.

“Our foundation is a social organization that sponsors, educates, trains and rehabilitates mothers and children with disabilities who have fled the Syrian civil war. We aim to lessen the burdens placed on senior citizens, underprivileged youth and low-income groups,” explained Kassabbashi.

Türkiye has taken several positive steps to meet its obligations by lifting legal barriers to Syrian children’s access to formal education. “Yet, Syrian children face a language barrier in Turkishlanguage schools in the beginning, so we provide Turkish language classes to the children and mothers to ease their social and academic life,” said Ali Ahmad, international coordinator of the organization.

While the host Malaysian organization is administered by young people and promotes love and enthusiasm via philanthropy and entrepreneurship, the organization seeks to meet global food supply, medical relief and educational needs, especially for victims of war and conflict zones.

The children were engaged in recycling and gardening activities where they gathered plastic bottles and created magnificent plants out of them, and they were taught the value of green energy and the Zero Waste Project to keep our environment clean and healthy.

While the mothers were engaged in cooking, they employed the techniques they had learned at school. All of these activities not only kept the kids amused but also improved their psychological health. Some 75% of the program’s students had psychological challenges, and 25% had disabilities. At the conclusion of the event, the mothers received a message explaining that they are not alone and that Türkiye and Malaysia will stand by their side, while some gift bags were gifted to the children.