Leading charity organization Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) introduced its new modular housing unit factory, which is set to be formally opened soon. Situated in the eastern Turkish province of Malatya, the factory serves the needs of the nongovernmental organization and will cater to the humanitarian assistance needs of other countries as well.
So far, the factory has produced prefabricated housing units for the displaced in Syria and Ukraine.
Red Crescent president Kerem Kınık, who gave the journalists a tour of the factory earlier this week, said the factory is the world's largest accommodation unit production center for people affected by disasters. Sprawling across 37,000 square meters (398,265 square feet), the factory also manufactures housing units for international charities.
Built on a place that was formerly a wagon factory, the venue is a source of pride for the charity, as Kınık points out that they used to rely on imports for housing needs they delivered in the past. A contribution to Türkiye's "local and national" initiative, which aims to cut off dependence on imports in every field, from defense to automotive, the factory has a capacity of producing light-steel units in a total size of about 1 million square meters yearly. Kınık says they can produce about 70,000 units yearly.
Kınık said they currently prioritize producing units the charity needs, like blood donation centers set up in 81 provinces of Türkiye. The charity is the leading NGO tasked with running blood donation drives.
Prefabricated units are also sent to war-torn Syria and Kınık said they have produced 2,000 units so far, which houses 2,000 displaced families in that country.
The factory is financed by United Nations agencies and other international NGOs to produce units for those agencies and organizations. Red Crescent crews are dispatched anywhere in the world for the installation of units sought by those organizations.
In one corner of the factory, Kınık showed an example of housing units they sent to Ukraine, another country mired in war. "We installed them in Lviv," he adds. In another corner, there were prefabricated houses that were installed at schools across Türkiye, to serve as small kindergartens. The factory also serves the needs of people in areas hit by earthquakes. Ninety houses were produced in the factory for people in need of temporary housing during Elazığ and Bingöl earthquakes. Along with humanitarian assistance, the factory produces housing units for workers at a natural gas facility in Zonguldak, a northern province where Türkiye's landmark find of Black Sea natural gas will be extracted.
Turkish Red Crescent, established 154 years ago, started its charity work for accommodation with traditional tents and Kınık said they branched out in the following years and now run a research and development center for innovating their humanitarian work. "Research and development allowed us to improve our logistics. Modular units here are composed of 21 modules which can be carried by two trucks," he says. "You can carry 10 containers in two trucks. This also helps us to decrease our carbon footprint," Kınık said, referring to housing units that are called "containers" in Türkiye for their resemblance to shipping containers. Kınık also boasts that all the machinery they use in the factory is designed and produced by Turkish companies.
"When the factory starts production at its full capacity, we will employ 1,000 personnel and it will contribute to the local economy. We are also working on exports to countries including Qatar, the United Kingdom, Hungary and the Middle East. We also saw a huge interest from Europe and plan to set up a "satellite" production center in Germany to meet the demand.
Established in 1868 as the Society for Aiding the Wounded and Ailing Ottoman Soldiers, the charity organization is today viewed as an example for its aid operations both at home and abroad. Whether in the Middle East, the Balkans, Africa, the Caucasus or Asia, the Turkish organization hears the pleas of the needy and offers its best to relieve them of their suffering. The Turkish Red Crescent has responded to needs in at least 138 countries in the past decade, making it a leading international organization regarding aid operations. Defining its mission as an endeavor to be a "proactive institution" to provide help for the needy in times of extraordinary situations and develop a conscience for social cooperation among people, the charity aims to emerge as a role model worldwide.
With disaster management and logistic systems established all around the country, the Turkish Red Crescent is one of the first bodies to step into action during natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes. The charity is a national organization that relies only on donations and does not get any share of the state budget.
