The Syrian Friendship Association

The Syrian Friendship Association (Syrian Friendship Association, SFA; Suriye Dostluk Derneği, SDD – here the English abbreviation is used) was founded 2009 with the goal of finding solutions for the problems regarding the people from Syria living in Turkey.

There are 18.000 members in the SFA and 9 establishments in Turkey: Ankara, Istanbul, Hatay, Mersin, Sanliurfa, Gaziantep, Kilis, Bursa, Karhamanmaras.

SFA is a non-profit organization that also wants to strengthen Syria with this enterprise. SFA offers vocational preparation and language courses for about 250 participants in Ankara, where around 46.000 Syrian refugees are living. About 70% of the participants are Syrian refugees, 30% are disadvantaged Turkish groups.

SFA is committed to the areas of social, economic and cultural development. It aims to build up partnerships with national and international organizations in connection with the above-mentioned subjects. They mainly do projects in these areas: Sport, culture, education, environment, women, children and people with disabilities. Esra Aygün is the chairwoman.

There is a corporate protocol with the Turkish Ministry of Education, so they can give Certificates from the Turkish Ministry of Education and certified educational training in 81 provinces.

SFA is funded by membership fees, donations, public funds and international projects.
They cooperate with the Turkish presideny, the Turkish Ministry of Education, the Ministry of the interior as well as the Foreig Ministry with city councils the in Ankara (e.g. with Keciören, Altindag).