Partnership With Turkish Philanthropy Funds to Help Devastation After Earthquake
The Rex Maughan Forever Giving Foundation partnered with Turkish Philanthropy Funds to help support those affected by Turkey’s devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake in February 2023 through a project called Purple Spaces.
Image courtesy of Turkiye Kadin Dernekleri Federasyonu
As a U.S.-based community foundation dedicated to Turkish and Turkish-American communities, Turkish Philanthropy Funds works with organizations like the Rex Maughan Forever Giving Foundation to address economic, social and environmental needs in Turkey and around the world.
The Purple Spaces project will encompass 10 furnished container houses in 10 different cities affected by the earthquake, with one house in each city. The Rex Maughan Forever Giving Foundation will support one of these spaces in Adiyaman, Turkey, where 6,000 people were killed and 1,200 buildings collapsed.
The house will provide a safe space and long-term resources for women and children as they rebuild their lives after the Turkey-Syria earthquake. This is especially impactful for these groups of people since gender-based violence is known to increase in times of disaster. It is being implemented on the ground by Turkiye Kadin Dernekleri Federasyonu (TKDF), a long-established Turkish organization working for the advancement of women.
Opening in September 2023, the foundation’s Purple Space will operate for one year and is expected to help at least 100 women and children recover from the effects of the earthquake. To aid in this recovery, there will be three full-time staff members — a social worker, a psychologist and a child protection specialist.
The container house will have three rooms for use during the day: a play room for children, an activity room for women and children with resources and supplies, and a private room for case management and therapy. The women and children will also have access to hygiene kits (1,000 total will be available), and they will receive materials to help them if they’ve lost their home or job. All resources will be printed in Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish.
“Times of disaster exacerbate already existing inequalities and the risk of vulnerabilities for women and children. To deliver timely and effective assistance to these communities, and to ensure that communities rebuild in a resilient and sustainable manner, we work closely with local organizations,” says Irem Kilic, Institutional Partnerships Lead at Turkish Philanthropy Funds. “We are thankful to Forever Giving’s alignment with this approach and their trust in us. We believe our collaboration will deliver much-needed support to create safe spaces for women and children in Adiyaman, Turkey.”
The project was sponsored by a $63,000 donation from the Rex Maughan Forever Giving Foundation.
“The Purple Space project aligns with the Rex Maughan Forever Giving Foundation’s mission to help women and children,” says Forever Living’s CEO Gregg Maughan. “We are especially moved by this project since it focuses on long-term relief for those impacted by this earthquake.”