Dunya - New Single to Raise Funds

I am Djanan Turan, a singer-songwriter, originally from Turkey, based in London for the last 16 years. 
www.djananturan.co.uk

I have lately produced a track called Dunya, a plea for peace in the world. 

I have produced the video which you can watch above, in Adana, my hometown. The children in the video all live in Adana, and they are the ones who will be most affected by conflicts going on around them.

I wanted this song to generate energy and be useful for the lives of others. As many refugees in Turkey at the moment are trying to build their lives there from scratch and with limited or no resources, I have chosen Small Projects Istanbul to donate to. 
It wasnt hard for me to choose this charity, as our Director of Photography, Gorkem Tas, has already been volunteering for a while. His enthusiasm and love for this organisation  and what they do have made me believe that this was the right choice. 

This campaign will run until the 3rd of May and we are aiming to raise £4000.  The donations will directly be transfered to the charity's account at the end of the campaign. 

Small Projects Istanbul is a grassroots NGO operating in Istanbul, Turkey to support those displaced by conflict in the Middle East and North Africa Region.

Through skills development training, livelihood support, and supplemental education and language programs, SPI offers practical support and a sense of belonging for Syrian families rebuilding their lives in Istanbul and beyond.

SPI manages a team of international volunteers to offer 40+ programs a week that aim to improve the skills of women and their children toward brighter futures in which they will be the decision makers. Children participate in childcare, language and psychosocial support to better cope and integrate into mainstream Turkish schools. Meanwhile, their mothers take part in the Women's Skills Development Program which transfers entrepreneurial, leadership, and technical handicraft skills in conjunction with their social enterprise, in which the participants gain a livelihood from their eco-conscious lifestyle brand.


‘It feels like living as a family being part of the community center, it feels like we are all working for our families, inside and outside. We are able to meet people from other communities and we can learn from each other. In Syria, I studied Physics in depth, now I continue to study, these days I study languages, both English and Turkish.’


-Lodi, community member and group leader of the Drop Earrings Not Bombs range of SPI’s social enterprise.





Turkey hosts the world’s largest refugee population with over 3.7 million Syrians in the country, and approximately 750,000 in Istanbul. 40% of the displaced population are women and children.


130 families benefit from participation in SPI’s programs run 7 day/week that are informed by their needs and plans for the future


60 women now participate in the social enterprise where they gain transferrable skills and earn a livelihood




Their Goal:

This year SPI seeks funding to improve the quality of its Youth Development and Psycho-Social Support Programs.

The campaign will close on the 16th of April and once the funds are cleared, they will be transfered to the charity's account. 

A budget of $32,000 AUD would allow Small Projects Istanbul to provide 12 months of programming enhanced by professionally trained staff to deliver case management and psycho-social support (PSS), critical to facilitating healing for youth who have experienced trauma. The funding would also be used to obtain materials needed to run core PSS activities that employ creative exploration as a means for self expression, group cohesion, trust-building, and coping.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97MC3vB6Hnk&t=4s



English translation of the lyrics :

DÜNYA

They destroyed her school and books,
Her bed covered in dust
Her eyes see it all

Memories won't fit into her tiny body
All the wounds have left holes in her heart
Carrying your brutality on her back
She keeps walking and walking

How will you explain all this to the children, without losing your mind?
It was only yesterday that you were reading stories, shameless

World, are you now turning on top of us,
Squashed underneath we can't breath
Justice hasn’t come with peace
Now will it come with bullet?
We wait in vain, who will die next, where

All the heros are on the streets
Who was the enemy?
We got stabbed on the back
When we thought we got the enemy
This is a game, we sense it all

How will you fit the future into this
Without painting it pitch black?
It was only yesterday that we were dreaming
Like sky is the limit

World, are you now turning on top of us,
Squashed underneath we can't breath
Justice hasn’t come with peace
Now will it come with bullet?
We wait in vain, who will die next, where

Was love not enough to make you keep turning
Lets keep suffering, is it never ending?
All the youthful trees are on the ground
Dont their cries shatter your heart?

Life sentence? Haven't we done our time yet?
All the sleepless nights, haven’t they tired you yet?
Look at those rivers, made of our tears
Havent they reached the ocean yet?