![Turkish Red Crescent Community Based Migration Programmes – COVID-19 Needs Assessment Report [EN/TR] – Turkey](https://globalresearchsyndicate.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/1525288-Turkish%20Red%20Crescent%20Community%20Based%20Migration%20Programmes_Covid-19%20Needs%20Assessment%20Report.png)
INTRODUCTION
The COVID-19 outbreak, which started in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province of China, has affected the whole world in a short time. The effects of the outbreak, which was declared a pandemic in March 2020, have increasingly continued to the date this report is prepared, June 2020. The outbreak has had significant social, economic, and psychological impacts on our country, where the first case was identified in March 2020. Many researches show that the vulnerable groups have been affected more during this process in Turkey, as in the whole world.
16 Community Centers, which carry out activities for all vulnerable groups under the Turkish Red Crescent Community Based Migration Programmes Coordination Office, have worked actively to respond to the needs of the target groups in the COVID-19 period. The diversifying needs in the field caused changes in the activities from the Community Centers during this period. Continuing many of their activities remotely such as psychological screening, training, and informing, The Centers have also conducted new activities to meet important needs such as mask production and hygiene items distribution.
This report was prepared to present the needs of vulnerable groups, which emerged due to COVID-19 and were identified in the field. In addition to the findings of the beneficiary-based survey, the data consisting of field observations of Community Center personnel who actively worked in The field as well as services requested by the beneficiaries of the Community Centers during COVID-19 period was assessed. A secondary data analysis was carried out to make assessments in consideration of the findings of other organizations. Methods used in the survey include a combination of expert opinions and statistical methods.
According to the needs of vulnerable groups assessed in the report, the challenges in accessing basic needs such as food and shelter stand out in addition to economic problems. As it is clearly seen in the survey results, the COVID-19 outbreak has caused a significant decline in household income and a significant increase in the number of households with no income at all. Challenges emerged due to COVID-19 such as unemployment, wage deduction, unpaid leave, and going into debt constitute the basis for the economic problems.
In the survey, the changing needs of Turkish citizens and migrant/refugees were assessed separately. It was understood that there are apparent differences between these two groups in terms of the emergency of the needs. The areas of greatest need identified included food, rent, and cash support for migrant and refugees, while these were not needed as much highly by locals.
