Turkey Deep Poverty Fund

Although Turkey has made great strides in poverty alleviation over the last 20 years, the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent developments in the Turkish economy threaten to reverse years of progress in the fight against poverty and income inequality. The current state jeopardizes the future of a generation of children.

Poverty is often discussed in terms of dollar amount, yet quality of life should be at the center of the conversation. Living in poverty means a life of struggle and deprivation. It means no job, limited shelter, and often little to no food on the table. It entails not being able to afford a doctor or medical treatment. For young children, it means malnutrition that permanently impacts mental and physical development and lack of access to a quality education because parents cannot afford school fees or because impoverished families need their children to work.

TPF works with partners on the ground to deal with this multi-layered prevalent problem. All donations to this fund will support efforts to address and eliminate extreme poverty in Turkey. Your donations will go to TPF vetted nonprofits such as Cemre Fund and Derin Yoksulluk Ağı to provide food, shelter, job training, cash assistance, and educational support.

Challenge

The poverty rate in Turkey more than halved between 2002 and 2015, and extreme poverty fell even greater. However, COVID-19 has driven an additional 1.6 million people into extreme poverty in 2020. When you add the 4 million refugees currently residing in the country that rely on the informal sector, the need becomes even direr. Almost two years into the pandemic, we still don’t know how it has impacted poverty in 2021.

Retail, accommodation and food, transport and construction sectors, where low-income households comprise a significant workforce, are hit hardest. Loss of employment and income are the main transmission mechanisms of the crisis for low-income households. The income gap between the richest 5% and the poorest 5% of the population widened by 7 points in 2020, with the former earning 30 times more than the latter. Although the full extent of the crisis is still unknown and subject to considerable uncertainty, there is a real risk of a significant setback in the fight against poverty.

Solution

All donations to this fund will support efforts addressing extreme poverty in Turkey. We monitor the impact on affected communities and work with partners to allocate funds. As TPF we are happy to take part in the fight against extreme poverty in Turkey along with other global leaders as part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

How Your Donation Will Be Used?

When you donate to TPF’s Deep Poverty Fund, your donation will be used to:

Provide food and cash support to people
Transition people into a sustainable livelihood

TPF will post reports about how funds have been used and email these reports to donors.

Trusted and Reliable

We are committed to transparency and low overhead. You can read our audit reports here.

TPF quickly delivers funds to its eligible partners on the ground that are best suited to provide support. Our relief funds have been recommended by many international organizations as well as local Turkish-American organizations.

TPF’s Track Record in Relief

TPF has been responding to disasters and supporting emergency aid and long-term relief programs since 2011. We have facilitated more than $2M in donations to relief funds just like this one.

See how we’ve responded to similar disasters like this, including:

The grant application is now open! To apply, please fill out this form.

Grants from this special purpose will support nonprofit organizations assisting individuals living in extreme poverty. The grant guidelines are subject to change in order to be flexible and responsive to needs as they arise.

Grant Criteria:

Target population. The extremely poor are the people in the bottom half of those living below nationally defined poverty lines. At the global level, the extreme poor are generally understood for an upper-middle-income country like Turkey to be living on less than $5.50 per day. This population tends to be food insecure, have poor health, lack education, own few or no assets of even a non-durable nature (e.g., livestock), have limited livelihood prospects, and be socially isolated.

At this time, grants from the fund will be considered for the following types of activities.

Increase Food Consumption

The top priority is to increase household food consumption. This prioritization holds promise for breaking the seemingly intractable, multi-generational nature of extreme poverty since child malnutrition in particular causes serious problems such as lower IQ, stunting, and mineral deficiencies, which adversely affect the development of both the individual and thus society.

Funds will be provided to organizations providing direct food and cash support.

Sustainable Livelihood

Once the consumption needs have been sufficiently addressed, to move individuals to a sustainable livelihood, the following activities can be supported:

Support in saving money
Technical skills training
Asset transfers (generally in-kind assets such as livestock),
Intensive life skills coaching.
Psychotherapy

Grant Awards

Grants are expected to range between $1,000 to $10,000. We expect the needs to exceed the available funds. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis while funds are available as this fund is intended to be responsive to the community’s ongoing needs. Applications will be reviewed by TPF staff for approval by the Board of Directors. Grantmaking decisions will typically be made within two to four weeks of receipt of the proposal.