Volunteers go into overdrive to help homeless survive on Istanbul's freezing winter streets

Every year when winter grips Turkey with its frigid temperatures, municipalities and volunteer groups roll up their sleeves to help out homeless people like the "Aşhane," (public kitchen) a group of students and lecturers from Sakarya University that offer free soup to the homeless and Syrian refugees in need.

Set up over a year ago, the Aşhane volunteers, including Mustafa Fazlı Karaman and his friends, go to Istanbul's different districts with their mobile caravan every night; they take to the roads to find as many homeless people as they can to offer free food to.

Karaman said they were helping homeless people because they are left out from social inclusion.

The group has specific destinations to reach homeless people like the Haram Coach Station and Kara Davut Pasha Mosque in Üsküdar, the Kazlıçeşme Park in Zeytinburnu, the Eyüp Sultan Mosque in Eyüp, the Aksaray Metro Station and certain bus stations in the Fatih district.

"The group believes that it cannot be that hard to share some food with neighbors in need. This is our starting point. So far, our project has found a place in 25 different places in Turkey," Karaman continued, saying they consider Aşhane as a social responsibility project.

"We feel ourselves more relieved when we are helping people outside," he added.

Barış Dertsiz, a homeless man earning his money by collecting waste plastic bottles, said he comes over to get some warm soup at night and is also trying to help the Aşhane members for the distribution.

According to the municipal figures, Istanbul, Ankara, and Bursa have the highest homeless populations in Turkey. One of the main homeless shelters in Istanbul, the Zeytinburnu Sports Complex houses homeless people in the winter months.

Aside from Turkish locals, the shelter also welcomes foreign residents from countries like Georgia, Ghana and Afghanistan. Portable beds are placed into a basketball court at the complex. A special homeless shelter for women has also been set up on the Anatolian side.