Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (SGDD-ASAM)

The Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (SGDD-ASAM) proposes a project that will increase the quality of service provided to the organization’s beneficiaries by supporting the wellbeing of humanitarian workers through a wellbeing mobile app.

Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (SGDD-ASAM)

Year founded
1995

Location
Ankara, Turkey

Sector
Humanitarian Aid

Stage
Idea stage

Members

Ali Dalmış

Ali Dalmış

Senior Admin and Finance Officer

İlker Güzelcik

İlker Güzelcik

Senior IT Officer

Sibel Kocaoğlan

Sibel Kocaoğlan

Staff Care Officer

Didem Arıkan

Didem Arıkan

Staff Care Officer, Clinical Psychologist

Caner Yener

Caner Yener

Monitoring and Evaluation Officer

The challenge

Humanitarian workers face a number of stressors on a regular basis such as listening to traumatic life stories, bearing witness to violence and its aftermath, working in unsafe environments, away from their families and loved ones.

The coronavirus pandemic has added new stressors such as limited resources, not being able to connect with beneficiaries face-to-face, managing mental health issues stemming from isolation.

Although there is a growing recognition of the mental health risks that humanitarian workers face and their consequences for the quality of services provided to the beneficiaries, unfortunately, the budget for staff care is still usually either low or non-existent which leaves many humanitarian workers with limited psychosocial support.

The solution

Our goal is to provide guidance to humanitarian workers for protecting their own mental health and bolstering their psychological resilience over time. The mobile app will enable humanitarian workers to self-evaluate and access relevant information on topics such as resilience, grief, burnout, stress management and coping skills. In addition, the application will provide an opportunity for humanitarian workers to interact with others who have faced similar challenges.

The app will provide information and guidance regarding mental health to staff who do not have access to a staff counsellor or staff who want to access support during off hours and over holidays. Moreover, there is still a lot of stigma associated with seeking out help from a counsellor /psychologist. Even those who do not think it is shameful do not know necessarily what to expect from a counselling session. For them, this mobile app could help reduce the barrier to getting psychosocial support.