Talks aiming to provide psychosocial support to women, children, and young people most affected by the pandemic for about a year, bring together many women and their families in the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) Region with experts in different fields.

“Emotional Healing Talks” that were started to ease the effects of the pandemic on the GAP Region’s people in collaboration with ‘Mummy Brain Builders’ are now continuing with the third session. The talks are held within the scope of the ‘Social Cohesion between Syrian and Host Communities through Women’s Empowerment Project’ implemented by GAP Regional Development Administration (GAP RDA), and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Turkey. The third session will be open for 48 ÇATOMs (multi-purpose community centers) in 9 provinces of the region. The talks, which are organized based on the results of the survey conducted in order to determine the topics that the people of the region need to learn most about, will last for a week. The conversations that will take place online on Zoom on February 22-26 will begin at 14:00 every day.

The topics most needed to learn have been surveyed

A survey was conducted to measure the impact of the pandemic on women from the host communities and Syrian women living in the region and develop support mechanisms based on the results. 306 people participated in the survey, 54% of which were Turkish and 45% were Syrians from the pilot provinces; Mardin, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Kilis, and Hatay. The survey revealed that women in the region need information about 'coping with the outbreak psychologically', 'spending time with children at home and creating activities', and 'communication with family members at home'.

“Emotional Healing Talks” organized as a response to the survey, aims to contribute to increasing women’s awareness towards their own problems, help them take initiative to solve them, be empowered, and achieve equality of opportunity.

Topics to be covered in the sessions with experts are "Developing Communication Skills From Inside Out", "What Do Children Want", "Social-Emotional Development", "Mother-Child Communication", "Communication Between Children", "Neglect and Abuse in Covid-19 Period", "Life Balance”, “Can You Spare Enough Time for Your Child, Your Spouse, Your Friends and Yourself in the Chaos of Life?”, “Healthy Nutrition and Physical Activity at Home”, “Child Health Care” and “Hygiene”. With the question and answer session that follows the lectures, participants will be able to actively express their questions and opinions on the topics they are curious about.

Emotional Healing Talks have run support mechanisms for the communities most affected by the pandemic from the beginning of the process. The conversations that started in June 2020 continue with the support of many participants from the ÇATOMs under the administration of the GAP RDA. In this way, women in the region have the opportunity to communicate with each other, support each other, talk about their problems, seek solutions to improve their living conditions, and meet with experts.

Within the scope of the project, the trainings for specialists and trainers who work in ÇATOMs in Şanlıurfa, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis and Mardin were held in 2 separate sessions between 23 June and 3 July 2020; and between 4-8 January 2021, trainings were given to cover the other GAP provinces Adıyaman, Batman, Diyarbakır, Siirt and Şırnak. In these trainings the following topics were discussed: "Healthy nutrition and physical activity at home in the Covid-19 period, child health and care, hygiene", "What do children want? Social and emotional development", "Mother-child communication, communication between children", "Neglect and abuse in the Covid-19 period", "Work and private life balance", "Value yourself! Communication with the family and the environment”.