Ihsanoglu Inaugurates Psychological Clinic for the Benefit of Syrian Refugees in Turkey

Together with H.E. Fatima Shaheen, Turkish Minister of Women and Social Policies, OIC Secretary General, Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu inaugurated the OIC-sponsored Centre for treatment of Psychological and Social Shocks, in the district of Kayleis, Southern Turkey, today Sunday 24 December 2013, in response to the social service needs of the Syrian refugees on the Syrian border. In his address to the attendees of the Centre’s inaugural ceremony, Ihsanoglu said the OIC Alliance in support of the Syrian refugees in Turkey, will endeavour to establish the largest possible number of projects at the minimal possible cost, with due consideration to the enduring situation faced by the Syrian refugees. He further stated that the Alliance’s first project had been the construction of a pilot village on the Syria-Turkish border, comprising one thousand housing units, a school, a healthcare centre, a mosque and drinking water distribution centres. Ihsanoglu indicated that in the Zaatari Camp in Jordan the OIC had offered a project providing housing for two hundred Syrian families, with funding from the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and that OIC preparations were underway for an educational project for the benefit of Syrian children in Lebanon, involving a school with a capacity for six hundred male and female schoolchildren, in Tripoli, Northern Lebanon. It is worth noting that the Centre for the Treatment of Psychological and Social Shocks, in Kayleis already extends a wide range of services to the Syrian refugees, with 344 patients receiving medical treatment every day, while the Centre’s staff also make regular visits to hospitals, schools, refugee homes, and even parks where some Syrian refugee families have found shelter.