Imece logo in gray with a green and blue chain-link icon and yellow sunburst on a black background.

Imece Initiative :
Supporting Refugee Families in İzmir, Turkey

Imece Initiative (İmece İnisiyatifi Derneği) is a non-profit association that has helped displaced people in İzmir for over a decade, through emergency aid, education and skills training.

What does imece mean?

Imece is an old Turkish tradition of communal work. In villages, neighbours took turns working together on each other's tasks, getting done as a group what no single family could do alone.

We named our organisation after it because it is how we work: volunteers, donors and displaced families, side by side. Read more about the imece tradition.Founder of Imece Inisiyatifi Derneği

Imece Initiative in numbers

Aid worker standing with refugee children in an informal settlement in Turkey.
  • 650+ families supported with emergency aid since 2014 — Source: Imece internal records, 2026.
  • 400 children enrolled through the Back to School programme.
  • Refugee women trained as solar technicians
  • 300+ solar power banks distributed through the Energy for Everyone (EFE) project — Turkey, Bosnia, Ukraine border.

AN URGENT APPEAL

As a small organisation, Imece relies entirely on donors and on-site volunteers in Turkey. When a crisis hits, the most vulnerable are always affected first — but together, we're stronger.
Read The Full Story About Us
★ Where it goes

How your donation helps refugee families

Every gift supports a specific programme on the ground. See what we do and the results so far on our Projects page.

School supplies

Stationery, books, and basic learning materials for refugee children participating in the Back to School programme.

Food packages

Approximately 12kg of essential food supplies delivered directly to displaced families.

Support for a teacher

Funding a teacher working across our programmes, supporting children's education and psychosocial activities.

Over a decade with displaced families in İzmir

For over a decade, our team has worked directly with displaced communities in İzmir — supporting Syrian refugees, and more recently families from Afghanistan, Ukraine, and across the region, with the practical tools to rebuild independent, dignified lives.
Ali Güray Yalvaçlı – Founder of Imece Inisiyatifi Derneği
Young girl drawing with a white crayon on paper while lying on a colorful mat.
“We wanted to create a community free of political and religious considerations. To give the opportunity for anyone, regardless of their background, to contribute with their skills and time to help those in need.

All human beings are equal and deserve to be treated as such. Our philosophy is that empathy makes us human and it is this idea that guides all our actions. Give what you can, take what you need and care for each other .”

Ali Güray Yalvaçli – Founder of Imece

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Imece logo in gray with a green and blue chain-link icon and yellow sunburst on a black background.
(C) 2026 Imece Inisiyatifi. All rights reserved