Since its establishment, the Afghanistan Hazaras Culture and Solidarity Association has been working to empower refugee and asylum-seeking communities. This solidarity network, which started in Trabzon and gradually spread throughout Turkey, stands out with its unique and inspiring model, especially in protecting the rights of children and women, supporting social cohesion processes, and creating spaces where they can speak for themselves.
We talked about the association's comprehensive activities, ranging from its founding story to the functioning of children's committees, from magazine projects written by the children themselves to how child protection policies are implemented in the field.
First of all, we would like to get to know you. Can you tell us the founding story of the Afghanistan Hazaras Culture and Solidarity Association?
The foundations of our association were laid in 1997 as a community of Hazara students. Serving as a bridge between the peoples of Turkey and Afghanistan, this structure initially aimed to strengthen cooperation among Hazara students and pursue academic studies. Later, during a meeting held by graduate students, the need for a formal association was emphasized, and based on those needs, the Afghanistan Hazaras Culture and Solidarity Association (AHCSA) was officially established in Trabzon on March 14, 2012.
Our headquarters are currently in Trabzon, but we continue our activities throughout Turkey. Especially with the increase in the number of at-risk migrants, our work has focused mainly on asylum-seeking children and women. We work closely with university research centers and provide consultation, guidance, case management, and interpreting services for students and migrants. In cooperation with public institutions—particularly Public Education Centers—we also organize widespread educational, advocacy, and social cohesion activities.
At this point, we are proud to serve as a roof reaching thousands of people; we provide services in protection, education, health, social support, law, and migration research to asylum-seekers, refugees, migrants, and host communities. Serving everyone who applies regardless of religion, language, race, color, or gender, within our means, and witnessing positive outcomes remain our greatest sources of motivation.
What needs led you to start working with children, and how did it begin?
Since the establishment of our association, we had worked for many years with university students; however, over time, the need to provide services to children with special needs came to the fore. Especially during the initial period when migrant communities lacked information about their rights and responsibilities, we organized informational meetings and provided humanitarian aid activities to ensure that women and children were not deprived of their rights.
The process of starting to work with children was shaped by our contact with families and activities for special occasions. On special days such as April 23 National Sovereignty and Children’s Day and International Day of the Girl Child, we organized comprehensive activities for children. Realizing the need to empower children in different areas, we initiated workshops on topics like social and emotional learning, child neglect and abuse, empathy, and children's rights. Thus, by placing children at the heart of the work we do with migrant families, we took a structural step forward to support their social adaptation and protection.
You have a women’s committee—why don’t you have a children’s committee?
Could you tell us about the children’s committees in the association? How are the committees established and how do they operate?
Our active Begüm Women’s Rights Committee inspired participating children to ask, “You have a Women’s Committee, so why not a Children’s Committee?”—which laid the foundation for the establishment of the AHCSA Children’s Committee. Responding to the children’s need for a platform where they could advocate for their own rights and make their voices heard, our management decided to establish a Children’s Committee.
The process began by appointing a focal person to maintain ongoing communication between the association and the children. Afterwards, we announced the recruitment of volunteer members through our WhatsApp groups and accepted registrations. At the end of this process, in 2022, our committee was formed with 12 core members and 25 volunteer child members.
In our first meetings with our members, we defined our objectives, goals, and activity areas. Following a democratic process, we held a closed vote to elect the committee president and created a dedicated WhatsApp group to ensure communication and coordination. Since its founding, our committee has continued to grow and now successfully operates with a structure of 10 core and 30 total members.
We’d also like to hear about the children’s magazine you prepared with the children’s committee. Whose idea was it to publish a magazine, and how did you decide on it? How did creating a magazine transform the way children express themselves?
This idea emerged during a meeting while designing our Micro-Phone Project about the Digital World, when one committee member suggested, “The Ministry of Family and Social Services has informative magazines; maybe we could also create a magazine explaining the digital world, cyberbullying, and children’s rights.” Realizing we had talented and willing members, we decided to integrate this activity into our project.
When the work began, children were divided into groups according to their interests—songwriting, drawing, design, and the entertainment section. Each group assigned their own topics and chose what they would write about. When writing, they stayed in close contact with the visual and design team to create images that matched the texts. Through this process, the children discovered a wonderful platform to express themselves; some wrote about friendship, others made book suggestions, some introduced inspirational people, while others designed entirely original content through letters.
In addition, we held a cover competition open to all children, and the winning artwork was used for the cover. Every part from the front to the back was entirely the children’s own work. This process brought out their creativity and greatly transformed the way they independently expressed their voices and ideas in a positive way.
Solidarity Beyond Borders
For asylum-seeking or refugee children, the language barrier is not the only problem; there are also issues such as discrimination, social adaptation, and anxiety about the future. How do you tackle these obstacles?
Asylum-seeking and refugee children are an especially vulnerable group facing very serious problems such as insufficient Turkish language skills, difficulties in acquiring identity and status, discrimination, social integration, and uncertainty about the future. To combat these obstacles, as an association we adopt a multifaceted approach; firstly, through advocacy for rights, we support children’s access to basic rights such as education and health, while providing humanitarian aid within our resources to those in economic need. To overcome language barriers, we organize Turkish A1 and A2 courses at our center as well as in cooperation with Public Education Centers for thousands of people.
To fight discrimination, especially in schools and neighborhoods where the problem is intense, we conduct social integration activities, while for anxieties about the future and uncertainties regarding status, we provide support through our volunteer psychologists and social workers.
Beyond all this, our Children’s Committee is the most important tool that enables children to say, “I am here and my voice is being heard.” Being a committee member offers children a safe space to express their ideas freely, seek solutions to their problems together with friends, and feel valued, giving them great hope and energy to overcome the other challenges they face.
How did you include your own needs in documents when creating child protection and child safety policies? How did you adapt existing materials to your context?
When developing our child protection and safety policy, our capacity building expert created a framework specific to our institution by consulting with our staff and the children’s committee. Instead of directly adopting generic materials, we especially considered the child profiles we encounter in the field, their unique situations, and the dynamics of our association. While integrating our needs into these documents, we merged the policy items and their boundaries directly with feedback from the field, and thus managed to create a structure that is most suitable, applicable, and protective for both our staff and the children.
What would you advise to an organization wanting to develop its own child protection policy? Where should they start?
First and foremost, we suggest that they review the existing child protection policies of organizations working in similar fields. Next, it’s crucial that they analyze their own organizational structure and consider the needs and potential risks of the specific child profiles they interact with in the field, in order to outline a tailor-made framework for their institution. Throughout all these steps, obtaining feedback from their own child participants, if possible, will make the policy much more inclusive, realistic, and better able to ensure children’s safety.