05/08/2023 - 16:13
As the Haklara Destek Program was coming to an end, representatives from the beneficiary organisations came together with the program team in the closing meeting held in İzmir, between October 18 and 20, 2021. This first face-to-face meeting held despite the ongoing pandemic, was attended virtually by representatives from 9 organisations, and physically by representatives from 39 organisations.
Before the meeting program took off, Hafıza Merkezi co-director Meltem Aslan, and board member Deniz Türkali welcomed the recently arrived guests with a discussion on “The Past, Present and Future of Human Rights”. Following the opening remarks on the morning of October 18, the “Inspiring Stories from Beneficiaries” panel featured representatives from Diyarbakır Association for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Assets, Migration and Humanitarian Aid Foundation, Red Umbrella Sexual Health and Human Rights Association, Center for Spatial Justice, Clean Clothes Campaign, where they talked about their activities and experiences during the grant period and how Haklara Destek strengthened their organisation.
In the last session before lunch, panelists Murat Çelikkan, Banu Tuna and Burcu Bingöllü came together under the facilitation of Murat Çelikkan from Hafıza Merkezi to discuss their observations on “the Effects of the Pandemic and the Narrowing Civil Spaces on Civil Society in Turkey and the World”. By sharing striking examples both from Turkey and other countries, panelists prepared ground for further discussions on the same subject the next day. During the afternoon session titled “One Year of the Haklara Destek Program”, Aysel Ergün, Bilge Taş, Evren Ergeç and Hatice Kapusuz from the consultation team shared their evaluations with participants with the help of project managers and consultants. Towards the end of the day, various workshops were held, including Non-Violence and Activism by Umut Güven from Kaos GL, and Body Percussion by Gökçe, “CheChe” Gürçay from MANG. The last event of the day was a showing of the movie Farming in the Shadows by Kültürhane, where the audience had a chance to watch and discuss the movie with its researcher and director Melike Selin Durmaz and its executive producer Ulaş Bayraktar.
During the second day of the meeting, civil society organisations separated into four groups with different themes and began discussing the Effects of the Pandemic and the Narrowing Civil Spaces on Civil Society in Turkey and the World. These four themes consisted of Women/LGBTI+, Minorities/Peace/Academia, Immigration/Human Rights/Refugee Rights, and Children/Youth/Cities/Ecology, and each group exchanged ideas and experiences within the course of three sessions. During the last session of the day titled “Networking as a Collaborative Practice”, representatives civil society networks that focus on youth, human rights, ecology, and gender issues got together under the facilitation of Özlem Zıngıl and Burcu Bingöllü and talked about their networking experiences.
The last day of the meeting began with a session on the “Experiences of Grant Providing Organisations”, held with the goal of informing participants about other funding opportunities for the future. Under the facilitation of Semahat Sevim from Heinrich Böll Stiftung Foundation, representatives from Etkiniz, STGM, Sivil Düşün, Hrant Dink Foundation, Support Foundation for Civil Society and the EED explained their grant conditions and answered questions.
In the family photo taken at the end of this meeting, where we made new connections and friendships, we posed with the motto selected for this meeting: We Need Each Other. Being able to come together during such hardship, leaning on each other and giving each other strength was a very special experience for all of us. As the preparations for the new round of application to the Haklara Destek program continues, we are looking forward to getting together with dozens of civil society organisations with our institutional support program.
