A new three-year protocol for the Economic and Social Integration Project has been signed between the Women and Democracy Association (KADEM) and the Prime Ministry of Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD) to improve the living conditions of female refugees and ease the integration process in Turkey. Speaking at the event held in Ankara on Feb. 23, Sümeyye Erdoğan Bayraktar, deputy head of KADEM, stressed that the integration of refugees in Turkey, including many qualified women, will be ensured with this project. "We are approaching the [refugee] issue in an original and fundamental way. Our goal is not to save the day, but to create long-term solutions," she said.The new project conducted by the KADEM-AFAD partnership is expected to provide both psychological rehabilitation and economic and cultural integration of refugee women into Turkish society. Under the project, a study will be carried out to compile 5,000 refugee profiles in relation to economic and social integration in Istanbul and Ankara to build a database for use in future projects. Thereafter, "The Istanbul Social Support Center" is expected to be established as a second step of the project. The center will likely pave the way for the easier integration of Syrian women and their families in to Turkey as well as likely provide psychological support from prominent experts to treat refugee women's mental problems.Regarding the project, which is being carried out by various figures, including politicians, academics and experts in different fields, Bayraktar said, "As a women's association, we believe that it is not possible to discuss women's rights in any real sense without discussing the state of refugee women. For this reason, we are working on refugee women." Bayraktar further said that women are not in need of shelter alone, they also need help with integration and rehabilitation. Bayraktar pointed out that those who were forced to migrate due to war and social conflict in their countries have a more challenging integration process than those who migrated voluntarily.As part of the project that aims to help the refugee women who fled from war-torn Syria to establish new lives in Turkey, Bayraktar underlined that the project will likely allow for language education, which is essential to the integration process."Since [refugee] women are not able to speak Turkish, they can neither explain their problems nor gain employment. Children are also unable to adapt to society. For this reason, we attach importance to language education. There are very few associations that provide language training for Syrian refugees in Turkey. Language education will not only help integration in Turkish society but also help [refugee women] to overcome psychological disorders with rehabilitative activities and to look at their lives with hope," Bayraktar added.As a response to the misperception that there is a single-type of refugee in Turkish society, Bayraktar pointed to women who had occupations in fields such as teaching, engineering or economics in their own countries before the Syrian Civil War and who now have to work in low-wage jobs in the private sector.KADEM President E. Sare Aydın Yılmaz emphasized that despite the importance of the initiative of nongovernmental organizations to address the refugee issue, governmental support is crucial where nongovernmental organizations are unable to meet the needs of refugee women and children. "We have the duty to develop top-level policies to touch the lives of these people and to also ensure their participation in social life," Aydın, speaking at the press conference, added. She also expressed her sadness that humanitarian aid provided by Turkey was not well-known in the international arena. Moreover, she said that KADEM will likely participate in the United Nations meeting concerning policies on women on March 18, with the project titled "Women on the Way to Migration" to address the problems of refugee women.Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak, also speaking in the meeting, stressed that Turkey applied the open-door policy for Syrian refugees because the issue is a humanitarian one. Emphasizing that the desperation of refugees presents a danger as it could lead to recruitment into terrorist organizations, Kaynak said that 510,000 children are trained in schools in Turkey to prevent the loss of a generation.Furthermore, top director of AFAD, Mehmet Halis Birkan, stated that more than 3 million refugees is a huge burden for a country, adding that AFAD is therefore pleased to work with the nongovernmental organizations. Regarding AFAD's work, worldwide, Birkan stated, "AFAD is not just serving the refugees in Turkey, but anywhere there are people suffering."