“C-ESSN Gave Me the Hope to Work and Produce Again”
Among the most vulnerable foreigners living in our country, there are also people with disabilities. “Complementary Emergency Social Safety Net (C-ESSN)” Project, which is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Ministry of Family and Social Services in cooperation with Türk Kızılay, provides the support that allows the people with disabilities to have hope for the future as well. Syrian Muhammed el Acuz (40) who is benefiting from the C-ESSN assistance while purchasing his wheelchair; stated, "It is my biggest dream to work and produce."
Muhammed el Acuz lost his ability to walk as he got his spinal cord damaged due to conflict in Aleppo. Muhammed tells us about those days as follows:
“As of 2012, it became very ordinary for the people of Aleppo to see the houses becoming wracked and ruined with the armed hostilities. Our neighbors were fleeing to other provinces or countries. Yet, we did not want to leave our neighborhood solely because we were so used to living there. Then one day, there was an explosion in the street, right in front of our house.It was so shaky that my spinal cord was injured. From that moment on, I had no option of staying there or leaving. My father had already called the ambulance for me.”
“My Father became a father again at the age he should have enjoyed being a grandfather”
Muhammed was taken to the Turkish border by a Syrian ambulance and then was transferred from there to a Turkish hospital. His father Aref stayed with him as he went through an emergency surgery at Hatay State hospital. Muhammed says, “The doctors said I could lose my ability to walk but I was only worried about my wife and children who were left in Syria” and that it was his father who came to his rescue again. Aref, who was 64 years old back then, goes back to Aleppo after the surgery to take his daughter-in-law and grand-children and place them in a tent city. Muhammed says, “My father placed all grandchildren at minor ages in his own place and he tried to comfort them and provide the safest environment to the best of his ability. He became a father to me again and to his grandchildren at the age where we should have let him enjoy being a grandfather.”
“I Look at the Future with Hope Thanks to C-ESSN”
During approximately one year of physical therapy for Muhammed, Acuz family lived in the tent city. But as the conditions in the tent city were not appropriate for a person in a wheelchair and Muhammed wanted to work, they moved to Kahramanmaraş. Muhammed depicts the first days when their neighbors came to their door to help them with clothing and food, among the happiest memories in Turkey. He learned about the KIZILAYKART Programs from an official of Türk Kızılay in the same period. He completed the application procedures easily and therefore his family started to benefit from ESSN program and his children whom he enrolled in school started to benefit from Conditional Cash Transfer for Education. Acuz family was transferred to the scope of the C-ESSN project in 2021.
Muhammed tells “My biggest wish is to work” and says that he feels closer to this wish thanks to the C-ESSN project. Muhammed says that he got a new wheelchair which he can use in the streets as well thanks to the contributions of the C-ESSN assistance and adds “Since my first wheelchair was only suitable for use at home, it was impossible for me to get a job. But thanks to my new wheelchair, I can go out. I believe I can now work in flat-floor areas such as a supermarket. My doctors say that there are developments in neurosurgery as well. The C-ESSN’s contribution helps me to - continue my treatment and look at my future with hope. My biggest wish is to support my family by working and producing as I did before. I am grateful to the C-ESSN Project, which paved the way for my wish to happen.”
