TURKEY/SYRIANS CARPETS

Forty Syrian refugees were  given a crash course in carpet weaving at Adiyaman camp in Turkey. The workshops have been a success, the carpets are now being sold in the US and UK. UNHCR

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:03:05
• Production Date: 25 October 2013
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: EDUCATION; TRAINING PROGRAMMES; REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: SYRIA; TURKEY
• MAMS Id: U131025i

Description

STORY: TURKEY / SYRIANS CARPETS
TRT: 3:05
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC/TURKISH/NATS

DATELINE: 24 OCTOBER 2013, ADIYAMAN, TURKEY

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, camp
2. Wide shot, carpet workshop in tent
3. Close up, cutting edges
4. Close up, motifs
5. Wide shot, women making a carpet
6. Various shots, Rula Qasim at work
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Rula Qasim (19), Syrian refugee:
"Women want to work here in order not to think about Syria all the time, and about the tragic times they've faced back home. This helps them not to recall traumas like losing relatives or to stop thinking all the time about their children still in Syria. This course can offer relief."
8. Pan, women
9. Various shots, Warda Beitun at work
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Warda Beitun (15), Syrian refugee:
"The most difficult part of this job is to match the motifs exactly. There are big parts of this profession that are hard to learn, it's not easy. Like when you bring this thread here and lay it in the right place, you must learn that. It's challenging."
11. Wide shot, scene
12. Various shots, Turkish handicraft teacher Gamze Karayilan
13. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Gamze Karayilan, handicraft teacher, Public Education Center:
"They have certain traditions. From a man’s point of view, the main aim for women is to have children. At the beginning we even criticized this, but that's their tradition. Here in the camp men dominate life, they look at women differently. This is a minor effort, but at least we are trying to change the culture."
14. Wide shot, women working
15. Close up, hands
16. SOUDNBITE Rula Qasim (19), Syrian refugee:
“And at the end, if we take a look, we have something real what was created with our hand."
17. Wide shot, tents
18. Various shots, men are looking at their Turkish teacher in the textile course
19. Pan, tents in row
20. Wide shot, refugee man sitting outside
21. Med shot, refugee woman doing house work
22. Wide shot, refugee woman walking with her child

STROYLINE:

Life with 10,000 other Syrian refugees in the Adiyaman camp in Turkey. Endless days of blank boredom and mundane tasks.

A few are lucky. The camp management, with help from the local municipality, has set up experimental workshops. The first for women – 40 of them – with crash courses in carpet weaving.

Rula Qasim has been in the camp for 13 months. Her mother urged her to join the workshop.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Rula Qasim (19), Syrian refugee:
"Women want to work here in order not to think about Syria all the time, and about the tragic times they've faced back home. This helps them not to recall traumas like losing relatives or to stop thinking all the time about their children still in Syria. This course can offer relief."

The women are taught to imitate the traditional carpet designs and methods that have made the country’s carpets famous.

Warda Beitun is just 15 but she’s been in the workshop for almost a year and has finished two carpets. Both were sold. She made $175 on one.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Warda Beitun (15), Syrian refugee:
"The most difficult part of this job is to match the motifs exactly. There are big parts of this profession that are hard to learn, it's not easy. Like when you bring this thread here and lay it in the right place, you must learn that. It's challenging."

Turkish carpet companies supply the wool and sell the finished carpets.

The workshop has been a success, most make their way to the US and the UK markets. The Turkish teachers and leaders of the workshop are not afraid to suggest to the Syrian women that this work can empower them.

SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Gamze Karayilan, handicraft teacher, Public Education Center:
"They have certain traditions. From a man’s point of view, the main aim for women is to have children. At the beginning we even criticized this, but that's their tradition. Here in the camp men dominate life, they look at women differently. This is a minor effort, but at least we are trying to change the culture."

These women now have a craft and the pride that comes with it.

SOUDNBITE Rula Qasim (19), Syrian refugee:
“And at the end, if we take a look, we have something real what was created with our hand."

The carpet workshop has recently been followed by another pilot project, sewing and tailoring for men for the moment, just a few fortunate men.

Outside, in the ruled rows of UNHCR tents, thousands of others sit, or stand and wait. There is, for them, almost nothing else to do.