Working together

There are many people, foundations, partners and sponsors contributing to our work. Together we keep the community centre up and running, help women and children to be safe and have an independent life so they can integrate into local society and so the children can go to school. To further develop our programs and enhance our impact, we continuously look for new partnerships and sponsors. Feel free to get in touch and discuss the possibilities: info@tiafi.org.

We would especially like to thank: Avicenna. This amazing German partner is helping us out with money for the exercise and flexibility program, medical devices for children, food and hygiene packs and of course sound advice. And than there is BMZ and GIZ . The project “Improving social services of community centres for refugees and host communities in Turkey” is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit. They are of great value to us. We also would like to thank Izmir BarosuSivil Toplum Destek, Mozaik and MitOst for their commitment and important support.

Last but not least we work together with Irish artist Ben Hennessy who tirelessly keeps on fundraising for the art room at TIAFI. During the first COVID lockdowns when Ben’s work in theatre was not required he became inspired to take action on a long-desired goal, to help the Syrian refugee crisis. Ben travelled to Izmir to help us here at TIAFI and he has established an art room for the children and an artists’ studio for visiting artists and has spent months teaching and working with the children and artists. Ben: “Some of the children had never seen markers, let alone paint and none of them had heard of Van Gogh. The war in Syria is ongoing for ten years now and most of these children haven’t known any other life and suddenly they were laughing and painting up a storm. I felt that giving them the opportunity to draw and paint gave them a little bit of humanity back and it utterly reinforced my belief in the creative act. Being creative is part of what makes us human.”