The Head of the European Union Delegation, Ambassador Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, visited European Union (EU) funded projects in Şanlıurfa with a group of journalists from the EU. They saw the projects and met the people engaged in the areas of health, education, entrepreneurship and municipal infrastructure.

Ambassador with the PIKTES Project officials

Ambassador spoke to doctors and patients at the Makam Migrant Health Centre in the Eyyübiye district. İnanç Sögüt, Deputy Director of the SIHHAT Project conducted by the Ministry of Health, says: “There are 17 such centres in 11 districts in Şanlıurfa. Three out of the 17 centres are reinforced health centres. Between January and mid-October this year, 350,000 people benefited from our primary health care services. We have also vaccinated almost nine thousand children.”

Ambassador Meyer-Landrut at Makam Migrant Health Centre

Health centres provide primary healthcare services within the scope of the SIHHAT Project, while reinforced centres provide internal medicine, paediatrics, gynaecology, oral and dental health, as well as psychological-social support services in addition to primary healthcare services.

There are 170 such health centres in 30 provinces with refugee populations. Between 2017 and October 2023, the centres provided more than 33 million medical counselling services and administered 9 million doses of vaccines.

Next stop: primary school

At the Yavuz Selim Primary School, part of the Project for Supporting Inclusive Education for Kids in the Turkish Education System (PIKTES +), Ambassador Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut met pupils, teachers and Mr Doğan Onur Köksal, the Deputy Coordinator of PİKTES from the Ministry of National Education. Mr Köksal said: “In PIKTES schools, Syrian and Turkish students study together in the first and second grades. For students who still lack Turkish language skill when they enter the third grade, we create integration classes consisting of only Syrian students, and we overcome the Turkish language deficiencies of these students.”

Ambassador joined a lesson at Yavuz Selim Primary School

The Ministry of National Education implements PIKTES in 29 provinces where almost 820,000 refugee children enrolled in the formal education system (including pre-school) in the current school year.

Learning new skills and becoming entrepreneurs

At the wooden toy and carpet-weaving centre, developed as part of the Enhancement of Entrepreneurship Capacities for Sustainable Socio-Economic Integration (ENHANCER) Project, Ambassador met trainees and Mayor of Karaköprü Municipality Metin Beydilli. He said: “Our carpet-weaving and wooden toy courses are attended by 225 people, 71 of whom are Syrian. We produce ecological wooden toys in our toy workshop and carpets with old Şanlıurfa motifs from root dyes in our carpet workshop.”

Image

Ambassador with trainees and entrepreneurs

Ambassador also met entrepreneurs, former trainees, who received training in many fields, such as shoe production, tailoring, gluten-free food production, and coffee making within the scope of the ENHANCER Project in Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep.

The Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality Waste Water Treatment Plant

The trip ended with a visit to the Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality Waste Water Treatment Plant, built with EU support. While treating wastewater, the plant generates electricity in its biogas unit and meets 75 per cent of its own energy needs. Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality uses the fertiliser obtained in the city parks and the municipality's agricultural production areas.

The EU-funded wastewater treatment centre opened in 2018

At the end of the visit, Ambassador Meyer-Landrut stated:

“We visited the EU-funded health, education, employment, and municipal infrastructure projects in Şanlıurfa. They help the integration of refugees. Moreover, they also improve lives of the host communities. I was very pleased to see concrete results and speak with so many people who have benefited from our projects as a result of continuing close cooperation between the EU and Türkiye.”

Photos by Murat Baykara

Stories About EU-Türkiye Cooperation