“Civil Society Should Work Coordinately And Share Information: A Lot Is Possible at Less Cost!” 

Our guest in the Pioneers of Civil Society file this week is İbrahim Ceylan, the President of the Volunteers Movement. The Volunteers Movement is a body that includes different NGOs and organizes health aid to Africa as main activities. Ibrahim Ceylan says "A lot is possible at less cost.” by pointing out the importance of coordinated work and information sharing of civil society on humanitarian aid and health.

How do you define your work?

We do professional work with an amateur spirit. Being a business person gives me an advantage, but of course volunteering is at the forefront. If you are not doing this job for money, that means you are a volunteer. I have never done this work with financial concern. I am the head of the Volunteers Movement. I have been chairing it for about 15 years.

Why did you want to take part in the civil area?

We have a foundation culture that comes from the family. I have been dealing with trade for 47 years. The late Özal encouraged us to expand overseas. We chose to be in Africa after the 1999 earthquake and after the Açe experience. When we went to Africa, we saw that there was a need for everything. Whatever you lay hands on  in Africa, there are helplessness and hunger. In 2005, we chose a country in Africa and wanted to take health care there, and we decided in Nigeria.

Volunteers Movement is a Multi-Stakeholder Formation

Can you tell us about the activities of the Volunteers Movement?

Volunteers Movement is a multi-stakeholder volunteer movement supported by public institutions. We have been providing health care to Nigeria since 2005. You cannot pay for this by paying for private hospital doctors on your own. Volunteering is essential here. The healthcare professionals think they should give the alms of their profession. We take volunteer healthcare professionals there. As private hospitals employ a minimum number of healthcare professionals, we can take doctors from public hospitals to Africa. We conduct volunteer activities every year for 15 days of travel and with government support.

The Ministry of Health appoints doctors working in the public sector. A volunteer doctor comes to Niger with us without spending his annual leave, by getting paid his salary, as if he is on a paid leave. As the Volunteers Movement, we have been the first in the world for 8 years, with the number of operations per day at the end of 15 days. This is the success of public support and of operating the movement with many stakeholders. This is an exemplary project, it has been going on for 15 years. We would like it to be exemplary both in the world as well as in Turkey. TİKA has an aid budget for Africa. We get their support. Turkish Airlines (THY) covers the travel expenses of the doctors without additional charge.

What is the mission of the Volunteers Movement?

If you do something right and transparent, people find you. There is a need everywhere to bring people together and to be useful to them, regardless of their opinions. We have not institutionalized the Volunteers Movement as an association. Our association is BISEK and Kutup Yıldızı. Instead of being an association, we have been bringing health aid to Africa by meeting with many associations since 2005 under the name of the Volunteer Movement with a roof identity. We choose doctors based on merits. We went to Nigeria for 26 times, we meet most of the people at the airport for the first time. Their religious beliefs or life views can differ. We just focus on their merits. We only focus on the health of the people there. We do not distribute any brochures, books, etc. or talk about politics. We focus only on our business. For this reason, we have been continuing our work sustainably. Volunteers only focus on healthcare. People who cannot come together in social life can meet there. We make these warnings from the beginning in order not to allow any cleavages. When we come back, we continue our communication. So far, we have taken around 9 thousand volunteers to Africa.

Why do you prefer to go to Nigeria? 

An NGO which especially considers providing healthcare assistance to Africa, should choose a country. If you go to different countries in short term or constantly, they would not be known, would be forgotten and it would be difficult to report on them. There would be no sustainable process for that country. Therefore, the reason we chose Nigeria is because the region is in Central Africa, it is not close to the seashore, 80% of it is desert and there is only 3% arable land. For this reason, we chose Nigeria because it is the poorest country in the middle of Africa. In general, NGOs carry out all their activities in the capitals. We do not go to capitals. It is not meaningful to do health work in a capital city anyway, because there are a certain number of doctors in the capitals and there is no need for medical assistance. For this reason, we chose a region in Nigeria that is far from the capital and has no hospitals nearby. We decided to settle there. We currently have a Turkish family living there. There are advanced diseases because the people of the region do not have 20 or 30 dollars to spend for treatment. We pay for the operations. We only performed 9 thousand cataract surgeries in that area, but the need continues. Now we want to build hospitals in Africa and Nigeria to bring more permanent healthcare services there.

“Working Professionally With An Amateur Spirit”

How have you made the Volunteers Movement sustainable since 2005 with a roof identity?

We work professionally with an amateur spirit. We do not have financial difficulties, we provide as much as we can. We are carrying out the Volunteer Movement with 3 salaried employees, without getting out of control, growing as much as our capacity, creating an impact. While we are helping countries that we cannot go directly to, we work with other associations that go there, for example, we purchased and sent boats to Idlib through a different association or we give away medical devices and through other NGOs we give away other materials if we have more in hand . We also do our work from a corporate perspective. Institutionalization has benefits both in terms of building trust among donors and working well with NGOs. The state can also control your work in a measurable manner. We report our activities (rapor) to the embassy, to ​​the Ministry of Health, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and TİKA after each trip to Nigeria. In this way, civil society activity becomes institutional, measurable and auditable.

Being reliable is very important. After July 15, there was a loss of confidence in the civil society, but donations are increasing day by day. If you manage someone else’s money, you need to present your activities visually and with your documents to your donors. To date, 16 different associations have come to join the Volunteers Movement, our door is open to everyone. We call for the associations when we are going to Africa. Associations that follow the dates and want to join can come with us. Each time different associations join us.

Does it have a political dimension such as contributing to the soft power of Turkey in Africa that the state is supporting you through TIKA, the Ministry of Health and THY?

Of course it does. There are at least 2 Turkish associations all over Africa and in every country. If there is an embassy in a country, we can do business there. Africa used to had no Turkish embassies. There are 14 Francophone countries in Africa and France still has a lot of influence in those countries. It is not easy to operate in such countries. In addition, THY has increased our projection very much. Being able to go directly to African countries has contributed to our growth. Being able to fly directly to a country to take health supplies has increased our service. Because even one day in Africa is very valuable, you can touch the lives of many people in one day and treat them.

Turkish NGOs’ Work In Africa…

What have you and NGOs like you achieved in Turkey and Africa? What have you changed?

Of course, corporate associations and those engaged in voluntary civil society activities like us are different from each other. We work as hard as we can on nice projects. For the last 10 years, Turkey has been doing lasting work in Africa, Malaysia and Indonesia, especially on events such as disasters. When institutional civil society activity is carried out, you receive the recompenses of it in Nigeria in terms of Turkey’s mission. If the Prime Minister of Nigeria calls us and values our opinions, we look at it as a success of Turkey in Nigeria concerning the aid and achievements. They welcome us not as an institution-association but they say “The Turks have arrived.” As Turkey we are the leader in the world in humanitarian aid. We see this as a success for Turkey.

Would you recommend people to participate in civil society? Why?

People who are concerned are interested in civil society. Concerns and unrequited help for others are in the stake of the civil domain. As Turkey we are successful in this regard already. Almost all of the international NGOs that provide health aid to Africa are missionaries. They spend 25% of their resources on mission in the field. As the Volunteers Movement, we are doing our job correctly so we can go to Africa with public doctors for 13 years. Many doctors and nurses want to join our visits to Africa. Many healthcare professionals want to go to Africa and do something for people. Those with such concerns are already involved in civil society activities.

What would you say if I asked you to evaluate the civil society in Turkey with a critical approach? 

The concept of “Let it be small, but let it be mine.” harms the benefactors. Because you manage someone else’s money. You have to spend someone’s entrusted money. We have to collaborate; we must exchange ideas. If you want to bring aid to a country abroad as an NGO, you will have to spend more. For example, to do something in Nigeria, you need to spend at least 10 thousand TL. If you want to do a charitable activity in Nigeria and if you do not ask us to do it on your behalf as a movement that has years of experience, you will be under a responsibility. Everyone establishes associations in Turkey and everyone wants to be president. It is easy to establish an association, but you need to make it sustainable. This has a cost. For this reason, NGOs should work in coordination with each other and share information between themselves. But they don’t usually do that. There are a few NGOs that do it. 

If one of the associations within the Volunteers Movement is going somewhere for a charity activity, we give that association a certain budget and that NGO represents us there. For example, if there is an NGO for collective circumcision in Chad, we prepare a banner and participate in the activity of another association. This allows us to save money. By cooperating more, we can do more with less cost. This is very much needed. NGOs in Turkey are not ready for this, but I hope it will happen over time.

Are there any new projects of the Volunteers Movement? Can you tell us about them?

We are building our own boutique hospital. There is a shortage of human resources in Africa. Therefore, we put a lot of emphasis on education. In the field of education, we establish workshops with 6 classrooms. They live on the border in Nigeria mostly, the other sides are desert. We will provide textile training in these workshops. We will teach professions such as auto repair. We are building a girls’ orphanage. We will raise girls with high intelligence in 36-person classes. We strive to be sustainable. We are building a very nice orphanage. The students will study elementary school there, and after we plan to bring them to the universities in Turkey. Women in Africa are much oppressed. Those who are educated govern the state. We carry out better projects with female politicians.

 “So Many Needs In Africa”

As the Head of the Volunteers Movement, what is your message to those who want to support you and the civil society?

Health system in Turkey is at a very successful level. Emergency interventions, polyclinic service is fine. It is very difficult for the government to overcome this cost because medical devices are very expensive. Medical service is also very expensive as well… Healthcare is very much needed in Africa. Congenital cataracts can be treated for $20, however there are people who have never been to a doctor until the age of 38… There are patients of this type in other regions as well. There are 200 thousand women in Nigeria with urinary incontinence. We need to operate them. Among these people are very young mothers aged 13-14, there are 2 million patients under the Sahara. There are people who drink muddy water in Africa. Clean water is very much needed. Water well aids are very important. There are very few countries and institutions like us that provide health care. Cubans come to Africa, but they approach the issue politically. Europeans send more inexperienced healthcare professionals. There are people suffering in Africa. There is a lot to do there and there are so many needs. Someone must meet them. People can support us by filling out the Volunteer Form (Gönüllü Formunu) on our Volunteer Movement website.

What would you like to say to the young?

We have been in Africa for about 15 years. We have to raise young people on the field of this business. We have volunteers who donate huge amounts. We include medical students in our every trip. We also have the Young Volunteers movement, they have their separate logo. We are conducting separate work for them. Civil society and NGOs that do not care about youth cannot survive. We should include young people in these activities, we attach great importance to this.