We often hear about Refugees, where they are living, and if it's in a Refugee Camp or in an Urban environment.
The media hasn't been that good at reporting on the sort of conditions that they living in but has sensationalised what little it has reported.
At the current time of writing, the majority of the three and a half million refugees living in Turkey are living in homes or Urban Refugee areas, the minority are living in Refugee Camps.
You've probably seen many pictures of the Refugee Camps on the news, what I hope to do is show you an Urban area where some refugees are staying. Often this is areas of old houses that the government has provided.
The area here is a bit 'run down'. Trash and ruble are abundant, both of which can be cleared away.
Stealthy Cat is being... almost stealthy! However, nothing stopping people from clearing up their rubbish right outside of a home
Rubbish and rubble can be cleared up and the likes of a flower bed put in its place
Potential communal area, remove rubish, add a few seats. Can be an area for people to meet and interact.
A bit of work could clean this area, remove the weeds, grass, and a few licks of paint and we're good!
Wouldnt take much to clean and maintain this area.
Some paint, some elbo greese and we're good.
These areas are going to need a bit more help, either we bring in instructors or contractors to help with this but the more intensive stuff can be tackled at a later date. First, we need to get things up and running.
The area that I have shown you is a place where we've been providing help and support for the past while, some of you may remember this from previous posts of mine.
As you can see, the area is in disrepair, it needs fixed! Resources are finite, money spent by the west on importing a single refugee from here could literally pay to repair areas like this. In the case of the UK the cost of importing one refugee is up to £85,000, money which could help hundreds of people here.
So we have three options;
1) Do nothing. Leave things as they are.
2) Get someone else to come in and clean up the area for the Refugees
3) encourage locals(Refugees) to make repairs, and maintain the local area
Option Three is what I am aiming for! To enable them to repair by providing them with the tools and skillset to do so. This I believe is better than throwing money at the situation. They need to take pride in their area, they need to take action to fix where they are living.
Unless the inhabitants take pride in their area, it will remain the way it is. They need to maintain and fix the place. It's a similar mentality within some Council Estates where people expect everything to be done for them, where they are happy to spend £10 on a packet of cigarettes but never have enough money for a mop and bucket to clean the stench away from their apartment block's stairs.
If others come to fix and clean this area then what I fear it will return to disrepair within a matter of months or years. People who live there need to take action. Some critical repairs will require external contractors but the majority of maintenance and repairs can be done by the inhabitants.
My hope is that we can get this projects started then replicated elsewhere. Sadly, my funds are limited as I am paying for projects like these myself.
Please feel free to share and like this post, and as always please do feel free to ask me any questions that you may have.
@epicdave