Support for Online Activities to NGOs from Beraberce Association

We’ve talked to Ayşe Öktem and Soner Şimşek from Beraberce Association which started to provide infrastructure and expertise support to non-governmental organizations to continue their activities online about the online support program and the effects of the epidemic on civil society.

How would you evaluate this period in terms of civil society, will the activities to be carried out online be sufficient for sustainability?

Ayşe Öktem: I think that we’ve adapted to the situation quickly because we already have online training studies and as our space is suitable for this. However, the situation is different for the NGOs working in the field or doing activities that are not suitable for online training, they will be affected by this situation and will mostly have to stop their activities. In other words, we are faced with an immense danger of downsizing in civil society. In this case, many NGOs will be shut down and civil society will lose a lot if the donor organizations cease their support as the NGOs that will be unable to continue their activities will not fulfill their responsibilities or that will have to limit their work. The situation will normalize one day and then there will be a lot of need for NGOs. For this reason, NGOs who cannot operate during the corona days need steps to survive and funds should not be cut. I hope the donor organizations will act responsibly in this regard.

Soner Şimşek: I think many NGOs first tried to understand what was going on and how long it would take. Those with infrastructures and capacities — most of them have already been using these tools in some way — tried to respond to the situation that was challenging this rapid change. Under the quarantine conditions in which we have to stay home, of course, the solutions are in technology. Now NGOs are in search of these technologies. While some are looking for more efficiency and effectiveness, others are after the simple and the costless ones. But at the end of the day, technology is a matter of cost, investment, and more importantly of access and justice.

I think we once again understood the necessity to share technology and information after the epidemic.

Soner Şimşek: That’s right. Globally, humanity is experiencing something with results that will be extensive and long termed. But of course, the ways of coping and reacting will differ, and will mostly cease being equal. When we look at what is happening now, societies and naturally the countries have turned in upon themselves. After all, we are locked down in our homes as well. So the best thing to do is sharing and solidarity and it is the same way for technology and information. Sharing information and technology is inevitable both in the fight against the virus and in dealing with the effects of the epidemic. But it’s not that easy. The grounds for this are worth a long evaluation and discussion, but let’s put it briefly. When more information and technology is on the table, the sphere of power is a matter of sovereignty. It’s not easy, that’s why it’s not just the information and technology you share.

Let’s turn to your call for solidarity and sharing right here. Do you offer NGOs infrastructure support so that they can continue their activities online? How did this idea emerge?

Ayşe Öktem: It actually includes educational activities. These activities can vary of course such as training programs, seminars, conferences, etc. and support on infrastructure as well as expertise. As we already have online training programs within the scope of our projects, we have an infrastructure and we have well-equipped friends on the subject. However, our solidarity support is not under any project. When we decided to close the office at the team meeting two weeks ago, we talked about what we would do when the office is closed. The idea of ​​presenting the expertise and technical possibilities to other NGOs had emerged in that meeting. If we are talking about living together, if we are giving trainings on responsibility – perspective – freedom – democracy – peace, we should also practice what we say. It was a collective decision taken at that meeting to come up with such an offer to continue our projects, to carry out the face-to-face trainings we planned online, to strengthen our growing conscience and hopes archive that are among the projects we receive support for.

Have you received response on your call? 

Soner Şimşek: Yes. We were not expecting to receive so many quick responses. We contacted organizations from different cities in different sizes. We have planned and operated processes together in line with their needs and demands.

Perhaps this is an opportunity to focus on learning, but to give priority to its social dimension, and to achieve a collaborative and most importantly a transformative and emancipatory form. Because information flows from infinite sources, both digitally and online, the source is not unique. So its power is not unique. I think it is time to reestablish the relationship between the teacher and the learner, which is the only source of information.

So how do NGOs apply to you? And how does the process operate?

Soner Şimşek: We provided a contact information in our call: akademi@beraberce.org.tr. We want NGOs to reach us through this e-mail address. We contact immediately in response to the request / reply. At the first stage, we conduct a needs analysis together and plan the training-learning processes. Then, we define a field where organizations / institutions can continue their activities with various learning designs under the category of “Solidarity”, which we have created within the learning management system which is online under the name “Academy together”. Many online learning tools including virtual classrooms and webinar tools which we have heard of and also used a lot recently, are available for free in this platform. We do not leave users alone during the application phase and offer our instant support. Finally, we share our expertise and infrastructure opportunities regarding the monitoring and evaluation stages.

Which solutions are mostly used or preferred as of the situation we are in? Why?

Soner Şimşek: We have inevitably started to use concepts such as online learning and distance education. We are in the same situation for different scales and sectors. But first of all I would like to state that serious info-pollution has come with it, many things are mixed with each other. Educational technology literature is quite extensive and advanced. It is necessary to listen to this area of ​​expertise rather than following the popular and trending things. Secondly what I want to say is to turn this necessity into an opportunity. This opportunity is to get rid of the mainstream approaches that we fall into in face-to-face trainings. Perhaps this is an opportunity to focus on learning, but to give priority to its social dimension, and to achieve a collaborative and most importantly a transformative and emancipatory form. Because information flows from infinite sources, both digitally and online, the source is not unique. So its power is not unique. I think it is time to reestablish the relationship between the teacher and the learner, which is the only source of information. I even suggest this in formal education as much as in non-formal education. Let me get back to your question. There are endless tools and Solutions, both digital and online. We should approach these solutions with the goals and learning objectives of educational activities. Will the tools and solutions we want to use take us to our goals? The question we should ask should be in this direction. So we shouldn’t make the tools our goals. This can be our general misconception. This is what I wanted to draw attention to on using popular and trending tools and solutions. As I said before, there are endless solutions and tools, and there are countless parameters that determine which one to refer to. That is where expertise comes into play at this stage.

Are those solutions and tools available for free?

Soner Şimşek: Some of them are, yes. But not many of them. Some of them are expensive, solutions. You also need a budget to use some of the free ones. For example, there are open source solutions for learning management systems that provide the opportunity to create, manage, monitor and report related processes, especially the management of users who will participate in training activities, for example Moodle. But first you will need a domain name and server service to host this solution, and then a professional effort for installation, customization and various integration works. Then there will be a need for a system administrator to manage the processes here, and maintenance-support service when necessary, so that an open source, free solution will become paid. Or let’s take a look at Zoom, one of the most popular tools used recently. It is used a lot in education and learning processes as a tool that enables online video and audio transfer and management. Zoom has a free plan, but it’s limited to 40 minutes. If you make a request, it may sometimes extend due to Covid-19 period, but you have to pay a fee for longer periods. Free alternatives are of course available, but they can have performance problems.

As I said, countless solutions are possible, but if you want to step into online learning, try to determine your needs first.

Finally, how do you think your solidarity initiative will receive an interaction among civil society?

Soner Şimşek: We of course started this call for solidarity to share the possibilities we have on challenging days. We know that sharing and solidarity will overcome difficulties, and even if they cannot, it will do us good for a while. We also think that there is a lot to learn by solidarity and standing together, by contact. As we have planned our learning processes, this experience is mutual and there is a lot we can learn from each other. Of course, our main desire is this initiative to support solidarity, cooperation and coexistence which we lack among civil society.