A note from Leslie and Amber:

We, are two teachers from Novato, California who are traveling to Istanbul, Turkey this June. 

Currently, there are over 2.5 million Syrian refugees displaced by war living in Turkey.  Approximately 200,000 have access to refugee camps, the others are most often homeless and without basic necessities to live.

As teachers, we dedicate our lives to helping children.  Both of us feel a strong urge to assist these struggling families, in such a tragic and uncertain time.  We felt a need to make a difference, so we searched for a nonprofit aid organization that is providing direct support to these families.  Small Projects Istanbul was the organization that met our requirements.  Below you will find the needs letter from Shannon Kay, their co-director. Her letter requests money, as well as other supplies.  

We would like to collect money to buy diapers, formula, and dry food goods. We will withdraw the money from this GOFUNDME campaign and will purchase the supplies upon arrival, because they are less expensive in Turkey and to be efficient with baggage space. 

The supplies we need to collect and bring to Turkey are sturdy, educational games and toys, laptops in good condition, and other electronic goods. If you want to donate items and are unsure how to get them to us, please send us a message on Facebook.  We are working with British Airlines to waive or reduce our baggage costs.

Your help is desperately needed to change the lives of these Syrian refugees. Taking a quote from Small Projects Istanbul, “The future of Syria may be uncertain, but the future of those from Syria doesn’t have to be.” Please join us in making a difference.  

 Leslie Smith

Amber Hatfield


Dear Amber and Leslie,

Thank you for contacting us at Small Projects Istanbul and for your desire to support our community.

I understand your focus on collecting donated items instead of money, in this case the most useful items can be old laptops in good condition and other such electronic goods. 

Baby diapers and formula are also helpful donations and always much needed, however they obviously take up a large amount of baggage space.

Another suggestion is children's educational games and toys, but specifically those that are sturdy and specialised, i.e., things that are difficult to come by in Turkey. For this you would need to do a bit of research about what is available in your area, however these can be very useful for us with our programs and activities and difficult to source locally. 

If it is possible, I can suggest to you that you try to also raise some funds of which you would spend yourselves here in Istanbul for items such as diapers, baby formula and dry food supplies. It is quite impractical to bring such items a long distance since they are all available locally and indeed much cheaper here.

However, if this is not something you are interested in doing I understand and your donations of supplies will always be much appreciated. 


Thanks,

Shannon Kay
Small Projects Istanbul
Co-Director
+90 553 587 47 07
[email redacted]
www.smallprojectsistanbul.org