Helping Refugees from the Syrian Civil War

Dr. Chiu Chen-yu, founding director and principal architect at the Taiwan‡Reyhanli Center for World Citizens (a.k.a. the Taiwan Center) was in Taiwan ­earlier this year (2021), where he did a whirlwind tour of high schools and clubs giving lectures, raising funds, and conveying the mission of and the need for this refugee center.

After one businessman at the Yilan Rotary Club heard Chiu’s speech “Challenges and More ­Challenges at the Taiwan Center,” he opened his wallet and took out the NT$5000 he had in cash, declared, “You take this 5000 from me, and don’t you let the Taiwan Center close!” Chiu at once felt moved and thought, “It turns out that one can find happiness in being a beggar!”

Chiu Chen-yu, founding director of the Taiwan Center, is constantly active in raising funds for the center in hopes of providing help to refugees. (photo by Jimmy Lin)

Consolation through architecture

Reyhanli is a town located in the Turkish province of Hatay and is very close to Syria. Starting in 2011, as a result of the Syrian civil war and atrocities by the terrorist group ISIS, more than 120,000 Syrian people fled to this little city with a population of fewer than 100,000.

“This is the 11th year [since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war], but the Taiwan Center is the first structure in Turkey to be designed and built specific­ally to address the refugee crisis.” Having given countless lectures, Chiu’s voice is raspy as he points out that the form, objectives, and functions of this building’s architectural design all take the needs of refugees into account.

The buildings, which face toward Mecca, echo the Islamic faith of the local residents. The arched roofs, which reach ten meters in height from the ground and are 6.3 meters wide and eight meters deep, make spaces similar in size to the vaulted room in the Great Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo. These arches, with their religious and historical connotations, constitute a historical reference that symbolizes hope.

Post-war architecture

The core problem for refugees is unemployment. Under the 52 arched roofs of the Taiwan Center, prefabricated concrete blocks originally intended to be used for a border wall between Turkey and Syria now separate 52 individual spaces. At present Phase 2 of the project is underway, and local non-governmental organizations are being allowed to move in. The plan is for these spaces to become offices, ­classrooms, shops, and especially craft workshops. Each unit can create 50 job opportunities, thereby mitigating the problem of unemployment faced by the refugees.

Chiu, who teaches architectural history, relates that modern architecture only began to appear after World War I, and it only became common worldwide after World War II. This is because there was a need for rapid reconstruction following these wars, so that steel-­reinforced concrete (the fastest construction technique) was used, with all historical adornment eliminated, in order to tackle the lack of housing for people living in cities. The buildings at the Taiwan Center are faced with the same task as after the world wars: using limited resources for maximum impact for the benefit of homeless people. This means the Taiwan Center is an authentic example of “postwar modern architecture.”

To save money, the arched roofs at the Taiwan Center are made of galvanized aluminum alloy rather than concrete; they also have the advantage of making on-site construction easier.

Sustainable operations the tough challenge

Chiu, who now rents an apartment in Reyhanli, has brought seven assistants with him to provide on-site services. He points out that Syrian refugees don’t pay taxes, but still compete with local Turkish residents for jobs and allocation of resources, creating tension between the two groups. Chiu’s hope is that the Taiwan Center will not only provide services to Turkish residents, but will also be able to help Syrian refugees find a new lease on life.

It’s hard to imagine the difficulties involved in inviting local non-governmental organizations to participate. Most of the participants in NGOs are women, but Syrian women, dressed in burqas that cover the entire body and leave only the eyes exposed, are very conservative, and, being in a foreign land, are extremely wary. Chiu adopted a strategy of “dogged determination” and dili­gently visited the NGOs, eventually getting quite famil­iar with them. “I became the first male to participate in the NGOs, and each week I lead volunteers to offer these women classes.” The volunteers offer skills training classes, while Chiu teaches a fine arts course for children.

Chiu got to know the stories of the refugees, most of whose husbands have been injured or disabled if not killed in the war. What they are seeking in bringing their young children from Syria to Turkey is simply “to survive.” The greatest hope of these women, among whom unemployment runs at 75%, is to have a job and help defray family expenses.

In order to help refugees “survive” and to give them hope through jobs, the Taiwan Center assists in marketing  the “Woof Woof Scarves” and “Meow Meow Pouches” (with dog and cat designs) currently being made by 150 women. Inside the pouches there is soap made by hand using the olive oil and laurel berry oil produced in abundance in nearby Aleppo. Because it takes ten days to hand-knit one scarf, supply currently can’t keep up with demand for fundraising sales in Taiwan, and the problem of how to operate sustainably will be a tough one.

The Taiwan Center helps market pouches and scarves made by Syrian women refugees, so that they can find hope through employment. (photo by Jimmy Lin)

Taiwan is helping

Volkan C.Y. Huang, representative in the Taipei Economic and Cultural Mission in Ankara, Turkey, took office in March and visited the Taiwan Center in April. Huang says that the center, which was built as a co­operat­ive humanitarian project between Taiwan and the Reyhanli city government, was donated to Reyhanli to be completed and operated by the city government. However, after Reyhanli expended its original budget, they said that they had no more resources to invest in the project. This, coming amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, was a further blow to the refugees and their attempts to find livelihoods.

“The government of Taiwan had already contributed a great deal to assist with the Syrian refugee crisis, and has also stepped up to the plate at this critical juncture. In the spirit of ‘Taiwan can help,’ the government agreed to continue supporting the early-­stage operations of the Taiwan Center for one year, helping out with programs such as setting up craft skills training for Syrian refugee women.” Huang believes that Taiwan, given its advanced digital technology, can in the future assist in closing the digital divide for refugee women and children. He adds that through public‡private partnerships and bringing in the resources of stakeholders like international and Taiwanese NGOs, with everyone working together it should be possible to enable the Taiwan Center to oper­ate sustainably.

Chiu trusts that when the refugees are no longer living in misery, and can settle down and build lives for themselves, the Taiwan Center will have completed its mission and will be able to shut up shop. “But the Taiwan Center will leave behind many stories. Only stories can change people’s hearts and minds, and only by changing people’s hearts and minds can you change the world.”        

Taiwan’s new representative to Ankara, Volkan C.Y. Huang, on a visit to the Taiwan Center. (courtesy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Mission in Ankara)

photo by Jimmy Lin