Building Resilience through Initiatives Defining Growth Potential of Economic Solutions for Syrians in Turkey (BRIDGES)

completed

Turkey is still the country that has taken in the largest number of Syrian refugees (approx. 3.6 million). The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has been active in Turkey since 2013 in the provinces most affected by the flow of refugees. The BRIDGES (Building Resilience through Initiatives Defining Growth potential of Economic Solutions for Syrians in Turkey) program has been running since 2016. With the support of the BMZ, the program can be significantly expanded over two years in five provinces (Hatay, Kilis, Sanliurfa, Mersin and Kahramanmaras). BRIDGES is an integrated program approach that focuses on promoting the social and economic independence of individuals in order to create sustainable opportunities for refugees to earn a living without being dependent on state or humanitarian aid. The measures are intended to enable them to be placed in the regular labor market or to start self-employment. The activities essentially include legal, economic and social advice, short-term courses (languages, computer skills, CV preparation, etc.), vocational training (technical and craft training in the form of medium-term courses with final certificates), job placement (online platform and local job fairs for arranging internships), start-up advice, workshops on self-employment and support for start-up projects within the framework of business incubators (start-up support program) as well as support measures through contact mediation between producers and buyers.