Barrier to Cohesion: Disinformation

Turkish people are so misinformed about Syrians living in Turkey that the biggest obstacle to social harmony among the two communities can be said to be disinformation.

The Human Development Monitor Survey conducted by INGEV TAM in collaboration with Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Communication revealed that local community members possess quite a bit of misinformation about the humanitarian aid provided to Syrians in Turkey.

The research revealed that local community members are better informed when it comes to issues related to daily life such as health care and payments of bills. A majority of the population, however, is under the impression that refugees get special treatment on topics such cash transfers by the Turkish government, reduced taxes, easier access to education and fast-tracked citizenship rights.

Half of the local community thinks that the most tense social relationship in Turkey today is the one between Turkish people and Syrians. Nearly half of the local community members say they do not want their children to be friends with refugees. This tension felt by the members of society seems to stem from pieces of disinformation prevalent in the society in relation to humanitarian aid provided to Syrians.

Click to access the press release. (Only in Turkish)

Click for the detailed research report.

Click for the summary findings of the research.

“Checklist With Renan” Provides Entrepreneurs with Practical Tips And Clues

INGEV added a new service to its entrepreneurial support mechanisms. “Checklist with Renan” sketches out the critical aspects and topics that entrepreneurs should pay attention to in order to effectively deal with the ups and downs in the life of an entrepreneur. Prepared by Renan Burduroğlu, the training is in Turkish and presented with Arabic subtitles. You can access the 8-video series free of charge at http://ingev.org/renanla-checklist/

The topics of “Checklist with Renan” include:

Ideation, creating a business plan, pricing strategies, market-target audience analysis, sales-distribution, creating a marketing plan, brand positioning and marketing communication.

Making a Difference with Impactful Mentorship

We came to the end of the first year in our business mentoring project funded by EBRD. The aim of the project was to enhance business development capacity of Syrian entrepreneurs. In this process, entrepreneurs had the opportunity to strengthen their networking capabilities as they interacted with new network connections from public- private sectors, sectoral associations, private enterprises.

The first year’s closing meeting in June was held with a very strong participation. In the meeting attended by an international team of 40 executives from the EBRD, the project mentors and mentees shared their experiences gathered throughout the mentorship process. All mentees have remained in the project from kick-off in July 2019 to the end of implementation period in December 2019 and very high percentages of satisfaction have been achieved in relation to the target KPIs in the project.

Fast Information Service from INGEV to Refugee SMEs

With İNGEV Flash News, we started to inform refugee SMEs about economic developments. Flash News, which runs on Telegram, aims to quickly report general news about economic developments, regulations implemented in the Covid-19 normalization period, and brand-new supports from non-governmental organizations. “INGEV Flash News” offer news services only in Arabic language.

Vural Cakir Pens His Entrepreneurship Experiences

INGEV President Vural Cakir has started putting down his entrepreneurship experiences on paper with a new series of articles on the INGEV website. The series walk the readers through the stories of 2 major research companies Cakir started; all the way from their founding to their mergers and international acquisitions.

The series, consisting of 6 articles by Cakir, describe the era of the Turkish economy that witnessed the opening up of the national market to the entry of foreign capital for the first time. They cover the birth of private research companies in 1990s Turkey as well as the national and international mergers taking place at the time. The article series have already drawn considerable interest. You can reach them (only in Turkish) from the link below:

http://ingev.org/vural-cakir/

Digitalization Assistance for Refugee Entrepreneurs from İNGEV GDM

Refugee Entrepreneurs faced many challenges regarding putting their business ideas into practice, accessing livelihood opportunities, and recruiting employees. On top of these they now had to deal with the serious difficulties caused by the Covid-19 epidemic. In this critical period, it has emerged that companies could benefit from more digitalization and that e-commerce opportunities are vital for competitiveness. In order to support such needs of SMEs established by refugees, INGEV implemented a comprehensive support program in cooperation with UNDP.

In this process, the expert team of INGEV GDM has provided consultancy services to more than 40 refugee entrepreneurs and SMEs in areas such as digital communications / digital tools; content creation and graphic design for management of corporate social media and accessing e-commerce platforms.

In addition to these, INGEV GDM also developed the corporate web pages of several selected SMEs, designed their web content and followed through on their technical needs to publish their websites.

Two of the companies that received such support from INGEV are:

Alkham Trading Ltd., a foreign trade company established in Hatay Reyhanlı.

http://alhkamtrading.com/en/home/

Kari Tekstil operating in Istanbul in the field of ready-made clothing manufacturing.

http://karitextile.com/en/home/

In the upcoming period, we aim to implement different types of support mechanisms to meet various needs of Refugee Entrepreneurs and SMEs in terms of digitalization and IT infrastructure.

Towards Job Matching for Our Disabled Beneficiaries

The project “Improving Access to Livelihood Opportunities for Refugees with Disabilities”, which continues with the cooperation of Relief International and the support of PRM, has reached a very important stage. Our “Resume-CV Preparation and Interview Techniques” trainings for Syrian and Turkish disabled individuals actively seeking jobs and residing in Istanbul were completed in June. The next phase of the project will consist of providing vocational trainings for beneficiaries and matching them with jobs based on sectoral needs in Istanbul.

Virtual Trade Show from INGEV

İNGEV initiates the İNGEV Digital Fair (INGEV D-FAIRs) chain of events by strengthening its efforts to support fragile community segments with a new initiative. The first digital fair will take place on September 12-15, 2020 and will include SMEs established by Syrians.

Various seminars, panels, business meetings and entertainment events are also included in the fair. İNGEV D-FAIRs will take place in three languages, increase job opportunities for the export of Syrian SMEs mainly in Arabic-speaking countries and also aims to strengthen their contributions to the Turkish economy. In addition to this, İNGEV D-FAIRs focuses on assisting Syrian SMEs to get them into both national and international markets, to extend their operations with new partnerships and to create opportunities to increase social good.

For İNGEV D-FAIRs, İNGEV has collaborated with Endless Fairs, the leading company in its field, which has already delivered digital fair operation services in many countries.

Both organizations aim to continue their fair activities in series, especially for supporting the fragile community segments. Soydan Cengiz manages INGEV D-FAIRs operations.

For more information : https://www.ingev-dfairs.org/en/home/

Stronger Together

We are happy to announce the launch of a new project in collaboration with Relief International, dedicated to Syrian entrepreneurs with disabilities who comply with at least one of the following conditions:

– To have Syrian citizenship along with a disability report (minimum %40), owning his/her own company which is affected by COVID-19 pandemic.

OR

– Has at least one Syrian disabled employee (minimum %40).

Terms of Applications (in Arabic): shorturl.at/koxK5

For further information, you can contact us via 05524502824.

Actions During the Transition Period

It is our hope that the corona virus pandemic has entered a downward trend in Turkey and the world alike. I’d like to call this episode the transition to the post-Corona period. This is an interim phase where we will have to make progress on various fronts. A time of social mobilization awaits us.