We ended the two-year journey of the programme, which included CSOs working in various fields such as youth, women, children, LGBTI+, disabled, culture and arts, and the right to health of individuals living with HIV, by saying ‘Every stop is not an end, but a new beginning’.
Levent Korkut, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Tezcan Eralp Abay, General Coordinator, Tuğçe Bahadır Cankara, Project Coordinator of BİRLİKTE and Alessandro Angius, Programme Manager of the Civil Society, Fundamental Rights, Judiciary and Home Affairs Department of the EU Delegation to Turkey addressed us at the opening of the programme. Afterwards, we made a presentation in which we shared what we have learnt and what we have achieved in the institutional capacity studies we have carried out together for two years.
‘Every stop is not an end, but a new beginning’
Prof. Dr. Neyyire Yasemin Yalım, Head of the Bioethics Unit of the Philosophical Society of Turkey, who has worked in the field of medical ethics for many years, was the guest of the closing meeting, which we organised under the theme of ‘Hope’. In her speech, Yalım explained that hope, unlike expectation, is considered together with willing and action, and drew attention to the role of hope in the development process of humanity and its contribution to the power of individuals to resist. Yalım said that hope is a part of the development process of humanity, the source of goodness and one of the most important tools that nourish the power of human resistance in the struggle against difficulties.
Trainer and gardener Ceyhan Temürcü was with us at the closing meeting. In this session where we brought our hope together with the soil, Temürcü conveyed the importance of production practices with low ecological footprint, drew attention to the healing power of the soil and shared the tricks of making eco-friendly potting soil with low ecological footprint. At the end of the day, we shared small packages containing local seeds, eco-friendly soil and pots with the participants as a souvenir of the day.
Who were we with in this two-year journey?
The BİRLİKTE Institutional Support Programme, which we designed to contribute to the survival of rights-based CSOs, their fulfilment of their main objectives and their institutional development, was implemented as a comprehensive programme that includes both institutional grants and mentoring components for institutional development in a two-year period.
In this process, we worked with 25 CSOs working in different fields in Ankara, Adana, Balıkesir, Diyarbakır, Diyarbakır, Hatay, İstanbul and İzmir.
