Your family have been detained by the authorities. You flee your home country with your children. You’re a single mother with no qualifications, no plans, little hope, and lots of children who depend on you…

Honestly, things like this put our little UK gripes into perspective. While we struggle in the heat and prices have gone up everywhere and McDonalds have raised the price of their cheeseburgers for the first time in 14 years….

Uyghur refugees face crises we can only imagine.

While there’s no magic wand to solve their problems, we at Charity Right have been doing our bit to get their lives back on track and give them a chance at regaining what they lost.

 

Why are there Uyghur refugees in Turkey?

You may find many Uyghurs in Turkey, it’s not their original home.

Uyghurs are actually an ethnic group from the Xinjiang province of China. However, in recent years they have been systematically persecuted by the Chinese government and sent to “re-education camps” – solely because of their ethnicity and Islamic beliefs.

No one can blame the Uyghurs for fleeing their homes and seeking refuge elsewhere. Thousands have done so, many of whom are children or single-mothers with no money, no prospects, and no idea what the future has in store for them. 

But Charity Right isn’t one to turn a blind eye to those in need!

We’ve been focusing on helping Uyghur refugees in Turkey, particularly single-mothers and female-headed families. While they try to rebuild a life for their family, we support them economically by taking care of their food needs. Recently, we moved from delivering food packs to supermarket cards that we top up monthly. 

But this support can only ever be a temporary fix.

That’s why we’ve gone one step further to make them self-sufficient and help set them up for their new lives.

 

How Charity Right has been helping the Uyghurs 

You’ve heard the old proverb: “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”

Well, education is the most important pillar for us at Charity Right. With a better education and strong qualifications behind you, you can become self-sufficient and feed yourself. 

That’s why we’re doing more than just giving Uyghur refugees in Turkey a card to source food from a supermarket. 

We’re giving them the vital education they need to rebuild their lives.

 

What now for this group of Uyghur refugees?

Charity Right have offered Uyghur refugees adult education courses. We hope that this will help them integrate into Turkish society and become self-supporting. These 6-month training programmes teach them core language skills in English and Turkish. Each academic level takes 3 months to complete, so these brainiacs have graduated in 2 levels in each language. 

Out of 272 Uyghur families supported by Charity Right, 213 women answered the call to take part in this course – almost one per family. An excellent uptake!

What’s more, over 90% of them passed their exams and graduated successfully! As for the other 10%, they get a free resit anyway. After all, neither Turkish nor English are their first languages; it’s only fair.

Not only do these graduates now have vital language skills, but they also get to celebrate with each other. We hosted a tremendous graduation ceremony for them where they got to celebrate on-stage and collect a certificate.

With these qualifications and skills behind them, they now have a perfect opportunity to establish themselves in Turkish society and go on to find better jobs or further education.

Nothing’s stopping these women rebuilding their lives! 

 

What YOU can do…

Healthy food, experienced teachers, boring admin… These things are needed to give refugees a second chance. Problem is – they all cost money.

The good news is that this money is not wasted. Far from it – no matter how much these women have gone through, they’re not ready to give up yet.

All they need is a chance to rebuild their lives – and we’re constantly amazed at what they can achieve.

And all we need is a few donations from you to help fund incredible programmes just like this to give a helping hand to those who need it most.

It's amazing how far even just a fiver will go. Help rebuild a life now and click here to donate.