Turkey has hosted around 1.65 million Syrian refugees during the last 3.5 years. 13-14% of these refugees are sheltered in 22 camps (accomodation centers) located in 10 provinces; Şanlıurfa, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Mardin, Adana, K.Maraş, Adıyaman, Osmaniye and Malatya. The real mass of the at least 1.4 million people are outside the camps, spread across almost everywhere in Turkey. More than 53% of the Syrians in Turkey are children and youth below 18 years old. There is a serious problem about the education enrollment of Syrian children since their stay was not expected to take so long in the beginning and the medium of instruction is Turkish. Despite better conditions in camps, the general rate of enrollment remains at the low levels of 15-20%. Our Project's main objective is, as highlighted in the project title, to "Develop and Implement Science Training Program for Young Refugees" and the main target group is young Syrian refugees who are not attending any regular education program. Project will be considered under 4 phases: 1st Phase - Workshops: There will be three workshops under this phase. First workshop will be held in e-Campus University's place in Italy and the second workshop will be held in Iserundschmidt's place in Germany. Experts from all project partners will attend to these workshops in order to get the experiences of the practices and activities in partners' countries related with the education/training of young refugees. These workshops are very important for experts for experts to have the experience and approach of these countries on the issue since these countries have been dealing with refugees for many years. Therefore, at the very beginning of the project, it is very important for the experts to know and learn the practices and activities by these experienced countries and, during the execution of the project, as equipped with these experiences, they could have the chance to adapt new and innovative methodologies by considering the conditions in Turkey regarding Syrian refugees. 2nd Phase - Science Training Program: Iserundschmidt will develop a Science Training Program with the contribution of all project partners. Basic approach of this training program is; to target young Syrian refugees who are not participating to any formal education program so that these young refugees will be dealing with different aspects of science in a different method. Basic idea is, to train young refugees in a fun and enjoyable way through this science training program so that attention of these young refugees would be kept alive. Besides, by this training program, they will not be getting away from educational environment and keep their certain knowledge alive. For this purpose, special tools, experiment kits, booklets, methods etc. will be developed. 3rd Phase - Implementation of Science Training Program in Refugee Camps (if it is allowed to organize such events in the camps) or in the cities where the camps are located: As the 3rd step, this Science Training Program will be implemented by the experts in 3 refugee camps or in the cities where the camps are located, as a pilot implementation. Camps or cities will be determined afterwards. Maximum participation from young Syrian refugees is expected. 4th Phase - Informative Media and Final Report: Informative Media will be one of the most important outputs of the project in order to provide dissemination of the project results on a high level. Informative media will consist of a video and some brochures reflecting a general overview of science training program, besides, some examples on the practice of this training program. On the other hand, by these informative media, we are aiming to build capacity and awareness amoung young refugees and also to attract the attention of society on the opportunities and possibilities for young refugees. Participating organizations have experience in research and/or education at academic level. They will combine their experience and expertise to develop science training program for young Syrian refugees. This training program will be internalized by the experts and these experts will implement this training program to the young Syrian refugees. In other words, involved experts will be equiped with such a training method and they will have the capacity to implement this training program. The other and, may be, the most important impact of the project is; Young Syrian refugees, who are not involved in any formal education, will have the feeling of hope, they will have an education environment and this training program will make them focus and concentrated on a certain issue that would keep them away from dangerous and illegal activities. Besides, this training program will help the young refugees for the adaptation process, in other words, that would be an integrated part of adaptation process.
Background of Project went back to 2015 as Syrian Refugee issue began to increasingly affected not only Turkey, but all Europe and the World. Then as an academic institution Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University (AYBÜ) academicians had felt responsibility to deal with the refugee issue. Main idea of Project was to train experts with a specific training program about young refugees aged between 13-18 who did not have access in formal education. Thus the Science Training Program (STP) aimed to attract and stimulate the interests of Syrian youth towards science and education with an enjoyable methods through playing games and making conversations. Throughout the project, staff of our partners have been trained both as experts and trainers. AYBÜ-ULİSA directed all activities of Project while it led dissemination works under its main responsibility. AYBÜ-ULİSA has thus spent very extensive efforts by convening meetings for every week without interruption during two years period. Between 8 to 20 project partners' staff participated in each TNM meetings and workshops according to necessities. About two thousand audiences joined projects' dissemination activities and through media the project reached to many thousands As for the main activities, Kick-off meeting held on 14-15 December 2017, in Ankara. Major aim was to inform partner organizations about their duties and responsibilities and to deal with the details of the project’s intellectual outputs, workshops, transnational meetings, multiplier events and budgetary issues. These all managed without problem. Then in the first workshop, held in e-Campus University, on 12-16 February 2018, in Italy, activities and performances of partner organizations were discussed and the results proved with fairly success. Then three prominent professors had given lectures about integration and education of refugees from the aspects of sociological, historical, pedagogical and legal points. The results helped to raise the quality of Project. Second workshop held Germany on April 3-7, 2018. Meeting organized for planning work pack of STP and dissemination activities and strengthening for management, and so on. This meeting satisfactorily ended. Then second TNM held in Strasbourg, on June 24-27, 2018. Two crucial achievements were obtained: the first was the satisfactory results of evaluation form/survey conducted by ULİSA and USDAD in order to assess the performance and efficiency of project management; the second was the presentation of the project in a Conference in the Council of Europe, with all partners and it provided for the promotion of project's objectives in Strasbourg to European statesman, media, and to wider communities. Evidences of these activities included in attachments. Third TNM held in Germany on 27-29 August, 2018. At this meeting, iserundschmidt introduced several experiments/games that were components of STP; Right-Challenge introduced four games and the way how to use them and e-Campus introduced some cartoons related to refugees and an e-learning platform that providing for a tool for trainers for transmitting knowledge to young refugees. Third workshop held in Turkey on 5-7 December, 2018. First pilot field works regarding the implementation of STP was conducted in GAV’s place, Ankara. In addition to project partners 15 young Syrian refugees attended to the pilot implementation with age groups between 13-18 years. Then the informative media was introduced. On the last day of workshop, an International Symposium on Syrian Refugees was held. Also a Photograph Exhibition about Syrian Refugees was opened in partnership with GAV and with UN High Commissioner for Refugees which also was an extra contributory activity. Last TNM held in Portugal on 1 May, 2019. Partners overviewed and evaluated all intellectual works of project and impressions and, experiences in the refugee camps and workshop in Kahramanmaraş were discussed. In short Iserundschmidt has successfully completed the STP with the contribution of all partners which trained young refugees in an attractive way and raised their desires towards science and education. Then brochures, CDs and special booklets were produced for dissemination. The STP was further tested in the field, in refugee camp in Kahramanmaraş on 5-6 March, 2019, in collaboration with GAV. On 7 March, 2019, further to test the practicability of final version of STP and to disseminate projects’ findings, an international workshop held in Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University. After then to further disseminate Project’s results; Project’s second intellectual output Informative Media consisted of a series of videos, brochures and a website was completed. In short it could be summarized that all targets of the project were successfully completed. The ongoing international academic book, Informative Media consist of series of videos, brochures, printed booklets and the website all will ensure sustainability of Project.