The government is to provide an additional US$200,000 to fund the operations of the Taiwan-Reyhanli Centre for World Citizens in southern Turkey, Taiwan’s representative office in Turkey said.
A memorandum of understanding outlining the allocation of the funds to the center over the course of one year was signed on Wednesday in Reyhanli by Representative to Turkey Volkan Huang (黃志揚), Reyhanli Mayor Mehmet Hacioglu and director of the Taiwan Center Chiu Chen-yu (裘振宇).
The funding will allow the center to provide vocational training programs to Syrian women who have fled their country’s civil war, and help them earn a living independently, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Mission in Ankara said.
Photo: CNA
The center will also produce documentaries to promote humanitarian efforts undertaken in the area by Taiwan in collaboration with Turkey, the representative office added.
Taipei provided US$400,000 for the construction of the center in Reyhanli, a municipality near the Syrian border that has received more than 120,000 Syrian refugees since 2011.
The building, which has 3,000m2 of floorspace, provides shelter for refugees, vocational training, and religious and social activities, the center says on its Web site.
After construction was completed in October last year, the center was transferred to the Reyhanli government, which appointed Chiu, the center’s architect, as its first head.
Reyhanli has been unable to finance the center’s operations, so the government stepped in with funding, the representative office said.
Taiwan is funding the center as a way of contributing to the international community, Huang said.
The Syrian refugee crisis is still an important issue 10 years after the war broke out, and Taiwan will continue to help those forced to leave their homes, he said.
“The responsibility to address the refugee issue should not fall solely on Turkey’s central and local governments,” Huang said, adding that “every country in the world should lend a helping hand.”
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