Success Stories Archives - Stichting United Work

Muhammed Elezzu

Muhammed Elezzu https://unitedwork.org/wp-content/themes/movedo/images/empty/thumbnail.jpg 150 150 Stichting United Work Stichting United Work //unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Foundation_united_work_light.png June 27, 2024 June 27, 2024

Finding Stability: Muhammed’s Story of Employment and Growth

Muhammed, a Syrian refugee born in Aleppo, moved to Türkiye in 2015. Now 27, he is continuing his high school education through Open Education.

Having no prior work experience in Syria, Muhammed first came to Gaziantep and later moved to Istanbul. He mostly worked in textile factories without a work permit due to his unfamiliarity with the labor law process. His previous employers were reluctant to handle the expenses and procedures of the work permit application, leaving Muhammed unprotected by labor laws. “I used to work long hours, and my salary was below the minimum wage. I was also at risk of getting laid off because I was hired as a daily worker, not a formal employee.”

Despite these challenging conditions, Muhammed was determined to develop his skills. He actively attended and completed language courses to improve his Turkish and English, and he took classes on Microsoft Word and Excel.

One day, he saw an ad on Stichting United Work’s Facebook page, marking the beginning of a significant change in his life. Muhammed contacted Stichting United Work to inquire about available job opportunities. At the time, Stichting United Work was implementing the Wage Subsidy project in coordination with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC). Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the German Development Bank (KFW), the project is part of the BRIDGES Programme. It matches job seekers from refugee and host communities with positions in the private sector and supports employers with work permit applications. The project addresses issues such as limited familiarity with labor laws, lack of job search knowledge, and financial support needs. The key goal is ensuring access to decent jobs for vulnerable groups of refugees and host community members while enhancing economic resilience and social harmony.

Muhammed found a job at a hotel and started working there as soon as his work permit was issued. His responsibilities at the hotel include cleaning.

“I feel relieved,” he said. “First of all, I am aware of my legal rights and responsibilities in my job, and my salary meets the minimum wage law in Türkiye. I also have health insurance that allows me to go to any hospital and benefit from the available health services. Additionally, I can receive a pension when I retire.”

Over time, Muhammed has impressed his colleagues and managers. They all agree that he is a well-liked employee who performs his job exceptionally well. This formal employment not only provides him with stability but also enhances his sense of belonging and commitment to his work and community. “The work environment is very friendly here,” he said. “My Turkish is good, and that helps me communicate with everyone and establish new connections.”

Muhammed does not want to stop here. He is studying to finish high school, hoping the degree will help him enroll in a university and improve his chances of employment. He is not sure about his field of study yet, but he is stable for now.

Hanadi Karoot

Hanadi Karoot https://unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Hamadi-Karout.jpg 360 450 Stichting United Work Stichting United Work //unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Foundation_united_work_light.png June 9, 2022 March 21, 2023

Hanadi is a hardworking person. She was born in Homs city in Syria and she is 33 years old. She graduated from English literature when she lived in Syria. She used to work as an English teacher in kindergarten and other educational institutions in Syria. Also, she worked on a United Nations project before moving to Turkey in 2017. Hanadi strives to improve herself continually.

Hanadi is currently living with her husband in Istanbul, and they have one baby, but she is taking care of her parents who are still in Syria. According to the UN, 80% of people in Syria live below the poverty line. ‘‘I take care of my family financially as much as I can, as they are still in Syria and the economy is bad there,” she said.

Hanadi did not work in her first three years in Turkey, because she didn’t speak Turkish and had a newborn baby. The language barrier was a problem in achieving social harmonization and finding a sustainable job. When Hanadi decided to look for a job in kindergartens, she faced difficulties. She couldn’t teach because Turkish law has strict rules for hiring foreign teachers. At the time, her baby was less than one year old. That is why she waited until her baby was two years old, then she learned about United Work. The organization carries out a project under BRIDGES Programme in coordination with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC). Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through KFW-German Development Bank, the project provides career counseling, assists in job placement, pays the work permit application fees, and provides wage subsidy in the first two months of employment. Hanadi got this job in Aman Kindergarten as an executive assistant. This job is Hanadi’s first professional work experience in Turkey and this is also the first time she got a work permit in Turkey.
‘‘I heard about United Work’s activity through my friends, and I saw some of the job opportunities and I wanted to contact them to see if there were some job opportunities suitable for me” she said.

She believes that she must increase her chances to get experience and more skills. ‘‘This work changed me and improved me as a person. It improved me on a social level as I can contact and communicate with more people from both Turkish and Syrian communities. Eventually, if you are working in a position that you don’t have much experience in, you need to adapt and get the experience and this job will add skills to you as a person and improve your work experience,’’ she said. Hanadi believes that she has very good relations with Turkish society. Speaking Turkish helped her a lot and she made friends with Turkish people; she did not have much contact with Turkish people before this job. Once Hanadi started working in the kindergarten, she started to talk with other Turkish employees and the management, which improved her conversation skills significantly. Hanadi has great relationships with her Turkish colleagues in her workplace, but she is not going to stop learning new skills and obtaining experience to be more competent in the Turkish job market.

Souad Almbayed

Souad Almbayed https://unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Souad-Almabayed.jpg 360 450 Stichting United Work Stichting United Work //unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Foundation_united_work_light.png June 9, 2022 March 23, 2023

Souad was born in Duma near Damascus city in Syria. She is 42 years old and is a mother of two. Souad managed to leave Damascus for Turkey in November 2015. Currently, Souad and her family live in Istanbul and her extended family members are living in Jordan.

Souad was a housewife and never worked in a full-time job when she was in Syria. Still, she worked as a freelance tailor in her free time. Willing to be self-reliant and have her own income, she started to work as a cleaner in a kindergarten for almost 1.5 years when she came to Turkey. Later, she and her daughter got very sick, so she had to leave her job at that time as she was working without any social security. After a while, she heard about United Work (UW) through her friend, which works on a project under the BRIDGES Programme in coordination with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC). Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through KFW-German Development Bank, the project aims to assist refugee and host communities’ members in finding jobs through career counseling and job matching.

‘‘I contacted United Work after seeing their Facebook page and they helped me get this job and get a work permit. They were very helpful and cooperative since the beginning and answered any questions I had. They even helped me open a bank account,’’ she said. United Work also paid for her work permit and covered her wages for the first two months as a part of the project.
Souad is currently working in a kindergarten as a cook. She is responsible for preparing breakfast and lunch meals for the children there and she is very happy with her work and with the atmosphere there. “I am very happy with my new position as a cook since I like cooking. Now, this is my chance to prove myself,’’ she said. ‘‘I have been working here in Aman Kindergarten for a while now and I’m very happy here. I don’t have a family member here in Turkey other than my husband and children, but I feel colleagues are like my family too. The management and the other employees are very kind to me and friendly and they helped me a lot to adapt in Turkey,’’ she said.

Souad argues that the United Work project is great for job seekers, especially refugee women. ‘‘This project is great to help women refugees find jobs and protect their rights. I really hope that this kind of project would continue and help other women like me who want to work formally,’’ she said. “In general, it is challenging for refugee women to get jobs. If they do, there are usually in hard working conditions and they work without a work permit, which is important to have the same rights.”

Souad has a dream: opening her own kitchen to prepare meals for school and university students. “I hope one day I will make it happen’’ she said.

Esra Bengisu Şamlı Böke

Esra Bengisu Şamlı Böke https://unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Esra-Bengisu.jpg 360 450 Stichting United Work Stichting United Work //unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Foundation_united_work_light.png February 10, 2022 February 10, 2022

Esra Bengisu Şamlı Böke is a 27-year old Turkish mother. She lives in Istanbul and she has a two-year-old son.

Bengisu has a diploma in Tourism Management. She has been actively working in the tourism industry since she started university. “Many people study at universities but cannot work in their fields,” she said. “I was lucky to continue to work in the sector I wanted.”

Like many other sectors, experience is essential in tourism. Bengisu worked hard to improve her skills in the field she loved before graduation in addition to the compulsory internship period. “Schools provide you with language and technical knowledge that you can use in your career,” she says. “Whether you are a high school graduate or a university graduate, it is an industry entirely based on experience.”

Bengisu, who went on maternity leave when the pandemic reached Turkey, never thought of turning to another sector for work after returning from her leave. When she started searching for a job again, she looked for jobs with weekend holidays and regular working hours to be with her child, but it was not easy in her field where people are requested to work on weekends and holidays.

“Another problem in the business world is the negative perception of women and mothers,” Bengisu explained. “I stopped working for two years,” she said. “When I came back to work I was anxious about the potential negative perception because of not working in the past two years. Men do not have to worry about those issues as they can take their backpacks and go abroad because no one would judge them. Meanwhile, women can be subject to employers’ negative judgment because they will ask them whether they will leave their work again to take care of their children.”

Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through KFW-German Development Bank, the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and United Work facilitates job placement of refugees and host community members in Istanbul. The project aims to improve the beneficiaries’ access to formal job opportunities through identifying their skills and interests, matching them with relevant vacancies, paying the work permit fees for refugees, and subsidizing the salaries of female beneficiaries for the first two months to incentivize employers to hire more women. “United Work has helped me a lot to find a suitable job for me as a mother,” Bengisu said. She is currently working as a Reservation supervisor at Rotana Hotel.

“I am satisfied with my current job,” she said. “It has been two months and I can see myself stable in this job for a long time. I think the references provided to my employer had a crucial role in my recruitment since the tourism industry is newly recovering after the pandemic recession.”

There are still more people from the host and refugee communities like Bengisu who are struggling to find ways to integrate in the labor market. United Work and DRC are working together to increase access to sustainable sources of income for people affected by the displacement and contribute to their economic resilience. .

Başak Ünsal

Başak Ünsal https://unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Basak-Unsal.jpg 360 450 Stichting United Work Stichting United Work //unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Foundation_united_work_light.png August 16, 2021 August 16, 2021

Başak Ünsal, entrepreneur, and mother, is working very hard to make her dream business keep going. After working in banking sector for 12 years, she decides to follow her dreams by building her own business. Making sector analysis and feasibility studies she decides to start her business in bridal wear sector. She comes up with the concept of “try at home” and she starts her business online.

In this business model, the customer books a date for the trial on the website and the sales assistant brings the selected bridal gowns to the customer’s house. This concept is postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic and to keep her business alive she decides to open a store. “I never imagined things would get upside down, my business adversely affected by shutdowns, the weekend bans and wedding ceremony restrictions reduced customer demand, there is a noticeable decrease in foreign customers and I’m the only one to keep up all the work. I hope everything goes back to normal” she said. “the digital transformation training gave me the idea to be more involved in social media, try digital marketing, to open an online store in e-marketplace and seek if there is a demand for my products.”

Emir Selçukoğlu

Emir Selçukoğlu https://unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Emir-Selcukoglu.jpg 360 450 Stichting United Work Stichting United Work //unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Foundation_united_work_light.png August 16, 2021 August 16, 2021

Emir Selçukoğlu was born in Damascus. A Syrian Entrepreneur. He, his wife and 1,5-year-old child come to Turkey in early 2013 to build a new chapter in their life. After several attempts he finds a job in tourism sector to get more practical experience. With the business experience he gained, he starts his own business in the tourism sector in 2019. “It was my dream to run my own business” he said, but yet when the Covid-19 pandemic started it was only his second year of the business. There was too many challenges for the business adaptation in an unstable environment. He added new services according to atmosphere of “stay at home”. “Digitalization is also part of that adaptation” he says. He plans to concentrate on developing his digital marketing skills.

Fariha Al-Sharabi

Fariha Al-Sharabi https://unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Fariha-Al-Sharabi.jpg 360 450 Stichting United Work Stichting United Work //unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Foundation_united_work_light.png August 16, 2021 August 16, 2021

ariha Al-Sharabi, a Syrian engineer, born in Damascus in 1991. She came to Turkey in 2015 and completed her master’s in Material Science and Engineering. “I came to Istanbul with my mother and decided to stay here to pursue my studies and achieve my professional goals, which seemed very difficult in my country recently,” she said.

She read a lot of books about entrepreneurship and observed the companies she has worked with until she established her own company. She and her husband are designing and manufacturing innovative and modern products that meet the needs of individuals and society. “I dreamed to serve the community” she said,” I think that we as engineers, have a duty to find solutions to the problems that our societies are exposed and contribute to protect them”. As a start-up company due to the Covid-19 pandemic Fariha is struggling to find new companies and customers. With Digi-Trade Project “I enhanced my understanding of tax and accounting issues, relevant government platforms, online marketplace, and digital marketing.”

Omran Alhomsi

Omran Alhomsi https://unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Omran-Alhomsi.jpg 360 450 Stichting United Work Stichting United Work //unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Foundation_united_work_light.png August 16, 2021 August 16, 2021

Omran Alhomsi, a mechanical engineer, born in Syria. 8 years ago, he came to Turkey with his wife and three children. He was running his own business in Syria, after few attempts in Turkey, he decided to run a business in the field of medical supply. “When I decided to run my business, my main goal was to support my family”, “new rules and regulations were difficult to learn yet I managed it” he said. Covid-19 was a crisis for all. He has lost most of his consumer demand, but Omran searched for alternative ways to develop his business and minimize the impact of Covid-19. He has joined to courses about natural soap and natural beauty products to be able to add more variety to his products. ” I was also trying to learn more about digital marketing therefore Digi-Trade project was a great opportunity for me”

Abeer Alla Aldin

Abeer Alla Aldin https://unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Abeer-Aldin.jpeg 360 450 Stichting United Work Stichting United Work //unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Foundation_united_work_light.png August 16, 2021 August 16, 2021

Young Syrian refugee found a job in health tourism

Mrs. Abeer Alla Aldin (24) was born and raised in the Syrian capital Damascus. She is the eldest of six children and has one brother and four sisters. She came to Turkey with her family in 2013. Two years after the civil war started in Syria.

“I studied business administration at Aydin University in Istanbul”, she says.

“And in a short time I learned to master the Turkish language as well. In the third year at the university I didn’t have many courses and a lot of free time on my hands. That’s why I started working as an English interpreter for the International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental organization that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants”.

Her father had left for Germany where he got a legal status as a refugee. Later Abeer’s mother and siblings went to Germany as well for a family reunification. “As I was over 18 years old I was not allowed to join them”.

“Now I work here in this company. Thanks to United Work I found a legal job. Without them I would not have this job as executive assistant for the operations manager. He is Syrian too. This is one of the many Syrian companies in Turkey.”

Ana Clinic, the company she is employed in is part of the fast expanding health tourism sector. It is a call center that has a contract with a plastic surgery clinic, where hair transplants are the most popular procedure. Most of Abeer’s colleagues are Turkish and Syrian, but there are also workers from Italy, Spain and Morocco. “I feel good and happy here. People are very kind and friendly”, Abeer says.

Abeer, who is single, lives in an appartment with a Syrian friend in the Beylikdüzü district, a suburb on the western edge of Istanbul. “My roommate is a student. Her family is in Qatar”. Abeer only has to commute for 25 minutes by metrobus to get to her work. She works 9 hours per day, five and a half day per week.

This young Syrian woman is one of the many examples of Syrians who succeeded to change their status from refugee to employee. “United Work changed my life”, she says with a smile.

“I found a comfort zone here in this job. Because of this job I got via United Work I decided to get a Turkish citizenship. I plan to stay here in Turkey”.

Shahed Gozum

Shahed Gozum https://unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Shahed-Gozum.jpeg 360 450 Stichting United Work Stichting United Work //unitedwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Foundation_united_work_light.png August 16, 2021 August 16, 2021

“It is really difficult for a Syrian to find a job in Turkey”

For more than four years Mrs. Shahed (23) from Aleppo worked as an English teacher for Turkish kids, in private schools, in public schools, in a company.

“I didn’t have a work permit. But the thing was, nobody knew I was Syrian. They thought I was an American from Los Angeles. Nobody asked for my ID. When I told them I wanted to have a full time job and legal papers, they first learned that I was Syrian. The problems started and they fired me.”

Her years in Turkey as a refugee thaught her that ‘it is really difficult for a Syrian to find a job here’. “In may places they didn’t pay me. And if they get to know that you are Syrian they don’t want to work with you anymore”.

In September 2012 she escaped the war in her country with her mom and dad. Her oldest brother lives in Saudi Arabia. Her younger brother was in Lebanon and joined his family in Turkey three years ago.

Shahed was not able to graduate from high school as she had to leave her war-torn country before her final exams. Before she tried to restart her education in Turkey she lived for one-and-a-half years in Egypt.

In Istanbul she tried for three consecutive years to enter a Turkish high school. “In the third year, during the entrance exam for Syrians, I missed only 0.5 points, that’s two questions! And I was like ‘that’s it! I want to start working’.

She heard about the program ‘From Refugee to Employee’ by Dutch NGO United Work in Istanbul and contacted them. “They found me a job here in Galata at the Turkish online wedding marketplace Düğün (Wedding). I work here now for two months at the telesales department. Here I feel happy. I call to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. As I lived in Egypt and was with my brother for two months in Saudi Arabia I am familiar with their different Arabic accents too. So that helps”.

Düğün is Turkey’s dominant online wedding marketplace where young couples can connect with numerous dress shops, restaurants, photographers, bands, hotels, juwelers, hair dressers, lingerieshops. In 2015 Düğün opened an Arabic-language site called Zafaf.net (Wedding). They have expanded into a dozen countries.

“Our star market is Saudi Arabia”, CEO Emek Kirbiyik says. “Every year there are 160,000 weddings in Saudi Arabia. 25 Percent of them used our platform. We have at the moment a sales team of 4 in Saudi Arabia”.

United Work didn’t only give Shahed an opportunity to get a legal job and a work permit. Mr. Kirbiyik doesn’t hide his enthusiasm either. “United Work helps us in a super way to find proper Syrian workers”.

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