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Friendship match for the Children Under Risk...

Children, who lives in Münir Onat Children and Youth Training Center, one of the pilot projects in Gaziantep, attended to a friendly game organised by Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality’s External Relations Department, and Gaziantep Training and Youth Association on 29th of July.

The game was between metropolitan municipality team, which was composed of children from Münir Onat Training Center, and students who came to Gaziantep through European Volunteer Services. Metropolitan Municipality Team won the game 15-9. The representatives from Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality, Gaziantep Governorate and the Association also watched the game.

The World Bank’s Country Director Visited Sümerpark.

Ulrich Zachau, Country Director of the World Bank, and a group of representatives have visited Sümerpark “Social Life Center” after his meetings with Diyarbakır Governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu and Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Osman Baydemir.

During their visit to Sümerpark, HR key expert Ayşe Saltan, Diyarbakır provincial coordinator Serdar Kesler, Institutional Framework short term expert Emre Koyuncu and Pilot Projects Coordination Short Term Expert Ayşegül Özbek accompanied the group on behalf of EKOSEP.

Ulrich Zachau spent most of the time in taekwondo classes while talking to children. Zachau, who also visited new life workshop, disabled support center and vocational training center, got information from EKOSEP HR Key Expert Ayşe Saltan on the sustainability of the projects.

Barcelona Study Visit.

EKOSEP’s study visit for reviewing international experiences on social inclusion has completed. Study Visit to Spain held between 29 June – 1 July 2009 and organised with cooperation of Catalonia Regional Goverment and Barcelona Municipality. The participants of the visit were representatives from governorates and municipalities of the project provinces, project consortium and EKOSEP Technical Assistance Team.

The subjects elaborated on the visit determined as national and regional policies on social services and social inclusion in line with European Social Agenda. The first day of the programme started with Assistant General Coordinator of Catalonia Regional Government Manel Vazquez’s speech. Mr. Vazquez elaborated about the social services implementations on his speech. The programme continued with sessions on the roles and responsibilities of local administrations and ended with a round table session participated by municipality representatives.

Second day of the visit was allocated to social inclusion policies, plans and services of Barcelona. Gloria Figuerola, Head of Social Policy and Citizenship Department of Barcelona Municipality, opened the program with a general brief on Barcelona and social policies of the municipality. After that Barcelona Municipality Social Work Director Silvia Navarro conveyed about their Social Inclusion plan emphasizing on basic social services and social service presentation program approach of the plan.

Study visit ended with a session on the 1st of July, focused on citizen participation policy development, planning, social service presentation approaches in Barcelona.

Please click here for the photos and to read Barcelona Study Visit report.

Publicity and Visibility of Pilot Projects Started...

Publicity and visibility works for 18 pilot projects implemented in EKOSEP provinces have started. These projects, which will provide services for easening the integration of migrant and disadvantageous groups, will be promoted by short term campaigns and awareness raising activities that will be implemented among the target groups. In this context muhtar meetings and mahalle visits have been completed.
In these meetings and visits, information on the centers and the possible future impact of them on the community life has been elaborated to muhtars. These activities, including preparation of corporate identity for each project, will continue until September.

Conferences in Şanlıurfa and Erzurum.

EKOSEP conferences continued in Şanlıurfa and Erzurum. These conferences aiming to increase awareness among the decision makers and habitants of the city about migration, in addition to review the impact of migration over urban life and the individuals. In this context theme of the conferences were “Migration and Social Services” in Erzurum and “Şanlıurfa’s Migration Profile” in Şanlıurfa.

Conference on Şanlıurfa’s Migration Profile held on 22 June in Hayat-i Harrani Community Center, which is a pilot project itself. Conference programme started with Gaziantep University Faculty Members, Assist. Prof. Dr. Emin Baki Adaş and Şerife Geniş Adaş’s speeches and they have launched results of the field survey conducted in Şanlıurfa. The conference ended with management workshop held, in which strategic planning process was reviewed.

Conference on “Migration and Social Services” held on 24 June in Erzurum Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Assembly Hall. The programme started with a session focused on social services in Erzurum and continued with a panel on the contribution of NGOs to Social Services in Erzurum. This conference also ended with the management workshop that elaborated on population projections and strategic planning process.

Please click here for the presentations of the conferences...

EKOSEP 7th Steering Committee Meeting Completed.

7th Steering Committee Meeting within the scope of EKOSEP was held on 8-9 June 2009 in Şanlıurfa El-Ruha Hotel with participation of the representatives from European Commission’s Delegation to Turkey, Central Finance and Contracts Unit and the consortium members of the technical assistance team including WYG International, TESEV, and TEPAV.
The representatives of the PCUs from Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Erzurum Metropolitan and Şanlıurfa Municipalities and Governorates and the Senior Programme Officers of Erzurum, and Şanlıurfa Municipalities also attended the meeting.

This 2 days program commenced with opening speeches of EKOSEP Technical Assistance Team Leader Nejat Kocabay, Central Finance and Contracts Unit representative Yeşim Coşar, European Commission’s Delegation to Turkey’s Sector Manager Füsun Çiçekoğlu, and Şanlıurfa Mayor Ahmet Eşref Fakıbaba.
Mayor Ahmet Eşref Fakıbaba emphasized that EKOSEP made them more professional and said that infrastructural works will not be enough in terms of services for migrants, but the works, which will ensure economical and social integration, are also needed. Mayor added that these new centers like Süleymaniye and Hayati Harrani will strengthen them and pointed out to the paucity of the numbers of NGOs in Şanlıurfa.

Following the opening speeches representatives from beneficiary municipalities carried out their assessment presentations. First day of the meeting has ended with a session in which project experts elaborated on project activities in the moderation of Nejat Kocabay.

Conference on Immigration and Social Municipal Work held in Diyarbakır

Provincial conferences, which are among the awareness raising activities of EKOSEP, has continued with the conference on Immigration and Social Municipal Work. The Conference was held in Diyarbakýr between the dates of 13-14 May. More than 20 speakers and 100 participants attended the conference, which was composed of 4 sessions and a half day panel.

Seminar on 'Civic Journalism’ held in Gaziantep

Seminar on ‘Civic Journalism’ for local media representatives was held on 30th of April, in Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality’s Assembly Hall. The seminar commenced with opening speeches of EKOSEP Team Leader Nejat Kocabay and Gaziantep Provincial Coordinator Filiz Hösükoğlu.

The guest speaker of the seminar was Çağdaş Ceyhan, who is Research Assistant at Anadolu University Faculty of Communication. The seminar ended with a workshop on international, national and local news samples, after the presentation on the basic characteristics of civic journalism.

Social Policy Implementation Approaches: Meeting of Local and Central Administrations in two projects funded by the EU

Conference on “Social Policy Implementation Approaches” was held at TEPAV Center in Ankara on the 3rd of February. Conference was aiming to gather representatives from local and central administrations in order to ensure the sustatinability of the pilot projects which are being executed in context of EKOSEP. Güven Sak (TEPAV Director), Muhsin Altun (Head of Central Finance and Contracts Unit), Ýnci Ataç Rösch (Deparment Head at European Union Secretariat General), Füsun Çiçekoðlu (Sector Manager at Delegation of the European Commission to Turkey) and Dr. Ýsmail Barýþ (Head of Social Services and Child Protection Agency) had short presentations in the opening session of the conference.

150 participants from public institutions, NGO and universities had were informed about Economical and Social Integration Project, as well as the recently started In-Migrant Integration Project. In the second part of the half day conference, representatives from Diyarbakýr, Gaziantep, Erzurum and Þanlýurfa Municipalities had presentations about the current status of the project in the provinces. Following these presentations, conference was ended with a Q&A session/panel discussion about the sustainability of the pilot projects, which was moderated by Governor Ercan Topaca (General Director of General Directorate for Local Administrations).

EKOSEP’sSixth Steering Committee Meeting

Agenda of the meeting was started with the conference on “Social Policy Implementation Approaches”. Following this conference, an open discussion session was held for the sustatinability of pilot projects which are being executed in four project provinces. In the second part of the meeting, representatives from beneficiary institutions and Technichal Assistance Team key experts had elaborated on EKOSEP strategic planning, human resources and visibility activities.

In the second day of the meeting, general and implementation progress of the EKOSEP was discussed with the coordinaton of Delegation of the European Commission to Turkey (ECD), Central Finance and Contracts Unit (CFCU), European Union Secretariat General (EUSG). After the evaluation of management activities of the project, the meeting was ended with the wrap-up session, in which also decisions to be taken were confirmed.

The EKOSEP Sixth Steering Committee Meeting was held on February 3 - 4 2009 in Ankara. The delegates of Diyarbakýr, Gaziantep, Erzurum Metropolitan Municipality and Þanlýurfa Municipality, as well as the Governerships of Gaziantep, Erzurum and Þanlýurfa represented with their Project Coordination Unit members in the meeting organised in TEPAV premises.