Emerging from the needs of the refugee community in Turkey, UDER started this project in order to deliver health education at the community level, and to raise the awareness of the Syrian and Arab refugees about the best way of utilizing health services in Turkey.

When an elder refugee spends hours at a hospital because he or she doesn’t know how to book an appointment, when a mother leaves her children at home to visit a migrant health center without knowing what services this center provides, and when a worker takes few hours from his job to take his child to a health center only to find out that what he needs is not offered at this level; all of these are forms of knowledge barriers facing refugees everyday. Such barriers and challenges can easily be addressed with community health programs.

Building on its experience in community health programming in Syria, UDER started this project in Gaziantep and Istanbul in 2019. The project requires a close coordination with different levels of services providers, civil society actors, and above all the large refugee community in Turkey, and UDER decided to take this challenge with the aim of reaching the best utilization of refugee-focused health services in Turkey.