The Turkish Red Crescent Society: An Introduction

 

Entrance to the Turk Kizilay (Turkish Red Crescent) Compound

 



The founding body of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a private institution incorporated under Swiss law which draws authority from the Geneva Conventions (and Additional Protocols). As a neutral intermediary in both international as well as internal conflicts and disturbances, this movement strives to provide protection and assistance to the victims; and essentially to those who have lost their normal protection by the State.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) also has its headquarters in Geneva, but is managerially more or less independent of the ICRC. Its job is to contribute to the development of humanitarian activities of the Red Cross and Red Crescent national societies (currently 187 in number) and also to coordinate their relief operations for victims of natural disasters, to care for refugees outside the areas of conflict, and thereby promote world peace.

The Turkish Red Crescent is one such national society, that currently has five international operations: Somalia, Syria, Palestine, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. My colleague Amanda and I are currently working on the Syria operation, which is by now a protracted conflict. On October 13, 2012, the Turkish Red Crescent in collaboration with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) launched an electronic food voucher programme in order to assist the thousands of Syrian refugees who are under international protection in Turkey. The Turkish Government has been extremely generous in providing assistance to Syrian families in Turkey and has requested WFP’s intervention, in partnership with the Turkish Red Crescent, to support their efforts through a complimentary food assistance programme.

According to WFP, each Syrian family will receive an electronic Food e-Card that is loaded with 80 Turkish Liras (USD 45) per family member per month. This is enough to provide a basic diet (at least 2,100 kcal per person per day). The Food e-Card system is an innovative and efficient way of providing food assistance to Syrian families, as it allows them to shop and cook for themselves based on their own tastes and preferences. This programme seeks to empower the beneficiaries through their active involvement in the food e-voucher system, and also contributes toward the local economy through an increase in the volume of commercial activities.

This technological innovation has only been implemented in 13 refugee camps within Turkey. The Turkish Red Crescent now seeks to expand this system not only to other camps, but also to other countries undergoing similar humanitarian crises. In order to share information of this electronic food voucher programme, TRC wants to publish a User Manual for this system, which will then be translated into different languages and shared with other organizations working with food security issues in other parts of the world. My job here is basically to write that manual in the next few weeks. This involves understanding exactly how the system works, what the pre-requisites are, and how the implementation can be monitored and evaluated.

For my 'Introduction to Humanitarian Crises' class in the Spring semester of 2013, I had to work on a funding proposal for a food and nutrition programme for the Syrian refugee camps in Turkey. Since I already have some idea of the kind of work WFP is doing here, I feel like I am at a good place to begin on this project. One of the biggest challenges that I have faced so far, is the pace of work. Perhaps more time spent also ensures better quality, but this is something I will need to start getting used to. My supervisors have been extremely helpful so far, and I am hopeful that the effort I put in over the next 10 weeks will yield something tangible and of good quality.