District Level Coordination Meeting Held in Avcılar

The World Academy for Local Government and Democracy (WALD) held a District Level Coordination Meeting with Avcılar District Governorate on July 7, 2021. It was chaired by Avcılar District Governor, Mr. Kemal Inan and started with brief information on the activities of the participating institutions.

Avcılar District Governor İnan stated that the participation of the instituon representatives, which come up with solutions related to foreigners, and carrying out studies on the issue is very valuable. He emphasized that there are also foreigners of other nationalities in Avcılar district and the work carried out for their integration is extremely important.

Mehmet Duman, The Chairman of the WALD Board of Directors, stated that psychological and legal counseling support is provided to refugees at the WALD Avcılar Social Protection Desk (SPD), which was established on April 28, 2018. He shared some statistics about the services provided at SPD. The Chairman Duman underlined that from the date of establishment until June 15, 2021, Avcılar SPD provided 33,590 different consultancy services to 8,984 refugees. 48% of the refugees served were women and 57% of the services provided to women were in between the 25-59 age range. He also stated that 16% of the beneficiaries were adults between the ages of 18-24. Highlighting that financial aid and food aid are the first reasons for applying to WALD Avcılar SPD. The Chairman Duman stated that other issues in which refugees face problems are resettlement to other countries and identity card procedures.

WALD Academy Director Hülya Alper stated in her speech that activities aimed at preventing child labor and early marriages were carried out in Avcılar SPD. Alper drew attention to the public personnel trainings held at Avcılar Leyla Bayram Primary School. Talking about the "Training Series on Cooperative Activities in Local Governments" organized by WALD within the scope of women's empowerment activities, Alper underlined that Avcılar Municipality is one of the eight municipalities to be selected in Istanbul within the framework of cooperative activities. She added that as a result of these works carried out, cooperative systems will be consolidated within the municipality.

At the end of the meeting, WALD Chairman of the Board Mehmet Duman thanked the participants and expressed the importance of holding district level coordination meetings on regular basis. The meeting ended with the participants expression of their satisfaction upon the organization of the event.