Zakat Foundation in Turkey

We have worked for humanitarian causes and charitable agencies in Turkey since our founding in 2001. Yet overwhelmingly since the beginning of Syria’s civil war in 2011, our work in Turkey has centered on supporting, resettling, educating, and providing for Syrian refugees there.

Our Sigharuna Kibaruna (Our Little Ones Are Our Venerable Ones) Free Clinic in Turkey's southernmost Hatay Province has set a humanitarian standard. It treats hundreds of Syrian refugee children suffering from sensory and brain trauma from physical injuries sustained in the ongoing conflict. Our medical specialists see patients nearly nonstop with a growing waiting list.

Zakat Foundation's Zahraa University, exclusively made up of hundreds of Turkey's Syrian refugees — students, faculty, and staff — has been hailed as a landmark achievement by humanitarian organizations throughout the world. It began graduating students in 2018, with colleges of Engineering, Education, Economics, Arabic Literature, Theology, and an Institute of Islamic Research. English and Turkish are the two main language disciplines. Our University equips students for livelihoods in their current residence and the broader global context.

Our Education Program supports two schools in Turkey that enroll refugee children in primary and secondary levels. Zakat Foundation covers its nearly 150 teacher and administrator salaries. It provides school textbooks, materials, and uniforms for their several thousand students.

Your generous gifts to Zakat Foundation for the suffering have brought elegant, independent, safe housing for widowed Syrian refugee mothers of multiple children in the complex of the Muhammad Ali Safe House, opened in 2016.

The facility features 44 fully furnished, modern apartments, one family per unit, and the entire facility that generally houses about 200 people. There, these Arabic-speaking children learn Turkish in colorful classrooms and play with educational toys.

There are also designated classrooms and programs for Turkish language classes to help Syrian mothers adapt to their new living situation. They also take vocational training classes, including sewing, knitting, and other in-demand skills to start their own businesses or get jobs and begin walking a path of self-sustainability.