17 September 2021

Grantees for the Turkey Wildfire Relief and Mitigation Fund Are Announced

Turkey Mozaik Foundation in cooperation with the Support Foundation for Civil Society launched Turkey Wildfire Relief and Mitigation Fund following the wildfires that started on July 28, 2021 and spread to more than 100 areas in different provinces of Turkey. Thanks to your valuable contributions, we've raised over GBP 27,000 with this campaign. Total donations to the Fund, including contributions by other individual and corporate donors in Turkey, was TRY 711,100 TL (approximately GBP 60,000). The following five CSOs will be supported in their work on relief and mitigation.

The Nature Conservation Centre (Doga Koruma Merkezi Vakfi)

"The Labour is Mine" Women's Association (Emek Benim Kadin Dernegi)

Support to Life Association (Hayata Destek Dernegi)

Natura Nature and Culture Conservation Society (Natura)

Yuva Association (YUVA)

For further information on the projects funded, please visit our blog here .

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7 August 2021

Call for Wildfire Relief and Mitigation Fund for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) is now open

The call for Wildfire Emergency & Mitigation Fund is now open for civil society organisations' application. The first part of this call (see below for details) for immediate equipment is due August 9th and the second part of the call is due August 19th. The latter parts of the call will be addressed following the emergency responses. We will be providing updates about the progress of the applications and emergency responses.

As part of this fund, 4 main areas which are detailed below, will be supported:

1-Technical equipment support for the work in the fire zones: This includes technical equipment, such as fireproof clothing, boots, generator, etc, to be used by the Civil Society Organisations' workers and volunteers. These materials will be procured to be used several times and remain on the inventory books of associated CSOs.

2-Activities that ensure the continuity of the livelihoods of those affected by the fires and support their well-being psychosocially: Following the extinguishing of the fires in different areas, needs assessment will be conducted to determine total or partial loss of income (agricultural and farming activities in the villages, tourism, etc) of the affected communities and support will be provided to ensure they can again start to earn their living. This will also encompass psychosocial support to those who lived in the areas affected by the fires or to those who volunteered to extinguish the fires.

3-Protection of living creatures and biodiversity affected by the fires: All living creatures and the ecosystem that have been affected by the fires will be protected and regenerated in line with the scientific methodologies and research to provide the necessary support mechanisms.

4-Awareness-raising and knowledge transfer to be prepared for future natural disasters: There will be awareness building and knowledge transfer to be shared with the local people and general public to intervene in the future natural disasters or fires, either induced by human activities or climate change.

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4 August 2021 Updates

As of today, the campaign passed 20,000 GBP with over 220 supporters and will be open until the end of the month. We would like to thank all of you for your valuable donations and for spreading the word via your networks and social media channels.

We are in close contact with our civil society partners on the ground in Turkey. Our Elazig and Izmir Earthquake Relief Fund grantee, Hayata Destek / Support to Life disseminated its first rapid assessment reports for wildfires in Adana , Manavgat and Marmaris today. These reports are in Turkish, we will also share the translated documents in English once available. We will also update on our grant-giving plan for the Fund shortly.

Please continue to follow our updates via this page and our social media channels, and do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries about the campaign.

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3 August 2021 Updates

On 28 July 2021, wildfires started in nearly 30 different locations in Turkey and are still ongoing in various regions. To date, wildfires have killed eight people and thousands of animals, destroyed many homes, barns, agricultural lands, greenhouses and forests. We have been saddened by the loss of life, the ecosystems, the forests and devastation that struck the country.

We have started a Wildfire Relief & Mitigation Fund, to address the immediate needs as well as the medium/longer term rehabilitation of those affected by the wildfires. We will initially allocate GBP 5,000 to Wildfire Relief & Mitigation Fund, which we hope will grow thanks to your donations and make a meaningful contribution to the rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of these devastating events in Turkey.

To support emergency relief and mitigation efforts, Turkey Mozaik Foundation and our partners Support Foundation for Civil Society have been in contact with our grantees on the field who coordinate needs assessments and communicate with on the ground teams. Updated local impact and emergency needs by the Disaster Platform are published here. As with previous emergency relief funds, following the needs assessment, we will direct the funds for immediate relief to the affected communities and ecosystems and to the mitigation of the post-event measurements.

We have mobilised more than GBP 60,000 via the Izmir Earthquake, Elazig Earthquake and the Refugee Relief Funds to civil society organisations including AKUT, Support to Life, Needs Map and Basic Needs Association in 2020. For this campaign, we will continue to work closely with representatives and support networks of Turkey Mozaik Foundation grantee partners to ensure that funds are directed to carefully selected organisations on the ground for maximum impact.

Thanks in advance for your generous contributions to our campaign. Please follow this page for updates and reports from organisations actively working in disaster areas.

Photo credit: Mahmut Serdar Alakus / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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