Odunpazari Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundation

Odunpazari Social Assistance and Soldarity Foundation takes place under Odunpazari District Governorship in order to raise the life standards of disadvantaged people in the Odunpazari District with 399.451 inhabitants and 40 thousand households we have assisted. General aim of our organization is to encourage social assistance and soludarity with leading projects in order to balance the inequality in distribution of income, support disadvantaged, strengthen the social solidarity, protect the peace and lay a bridge between the government and the people in need without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, disability, marital or veteran. The foundation meets every kind of needs of the ones in need such as fuel, nutrition, treatment, education and other kinds of expenses. Families of war victim/veteran soldiers are visited at their home to provide moral and material support. Poor families are provided food aid in Ramadan. Asylum seekers, who needs initial assistance in their new country, are being assisted due to their needs. Asylum seekers get assistance like funding, social security assistance and language support. Also, except from our own financial sources, distribution of financial aids coming from benefactors are realized by our foundation. In addition, our foundation supports the projects coming from civil society organizations, public bodies and the people who want to establish a new business but are deprived of the necessary facilities. Our assistance in personal development field, can be categorized into 2 groups: 1) supplying trainings which provide unemployed people employment opportunities 2) social assistance or social aid projects With the projects in the first category, our aim was to organize short term technical training courses to make deprived and unemployed young people gain various technical or social skills, which will help these people to find proper jobs. We cooperate with nongovernmental organizations such as associations, foundations which focus on similar issues. Also, we have supported the projects sharing the same goals. The target group of the projects in the second category includes the children living/working on the streets, disabled people, old people, women or men who need protection, unemployed young people. We aim to expand the social services, which is being provided to these people by establishing new centers or by diversifying the available centers’ programs. These projects are led by non-governmental organizations, Turkish social service and children protection institution. Thanks to EVS projects, we will get support from young people from different countries to raise our capability to serve the target people of the projects. We will be able to profit from their different point of views, ideas and ways of thinking. Also, the projects will raise the cooperative capability of civil society organizations we work with thanks to the young people working for the same aim on voluntary base. Furthermore, the people coming to Eskişehir for the projects will have the experiences which will develop these young people’s adaptation and communication skills. Thus, we can consider this project as an informal learning process for volunteers. Also, they will get the satisfaction of being a productive individual by serving to people who need help. Their social responsibility awareness will develop in that way. They will learn how to cooperate to be beneficial or to struggle to be a part of a main aim. Also, they will learn how to integrate in a foreign country, and how to live together with the people from various countries.