Health Meetings News

Secretary General praised Turkish Red Cresecent self-finance program

Istanbul, Turkey | September 08, 2007 by D-8 Secretariat

The Turkish Red Crescent (Turk Kizilay) is renowned for its competent self-finance program to support their humanitary activities that can be followed by D-8 red crescent or red cross organizations to break away from dependencies toward grants or government budget. This program is praised by Secretary General Dipo Alam who sent a letter to Turkish Red Crescent on Monday and asked for a meeting to learn further detail about it.

D-8 SG in a meeting with Turkish

D-8 SG, Dipo Alam with the Turkish Red Crescent Chairman Tekin Küçükali

In a recent report in Turkish Daily News, the Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) Chairman Tekin Küçükali said that his organisation is in the process of changing its outer layer. For TRC, the days of surviving on grants alone are over. The production phase has started for the health and disaster relief organization, which has developed various projects and investments in several areas to help resuscitate its income.

According to Küçükali, the organisation has already left away the image of an inactive Turkish Red Crescent. “We have opened the way for production. We are closely monitoring world markets in order to assess the opportunities in the best way possible,” he said.

The institution, producing 1,500 tents a month in the tent factory it established in 2001, has started to export to Germany. Moreover, last year it spent YTL 17 million to renew the mineral water facilities established by Atatürk in 1926, and increased its production capacity by three times. In agreement with Kiptas for residence construction on its land, the organization has now made yet another leap into water sector.

A company making a water investment worth $140 million in Sile granted 15 percent of the investment to Turkish Red Crescent. The Turkish Red Crescent will take half of the profit the obtained from the sale of carboy water. The carboy water label might read Turkish Red Crescent in the future but this has not yet been announced.

Water production is an important development that has helped the institution with 650 branches, 11,000 volunteering staff and 1.18 million volunteers to stand on its own feet, said Küçükali. “We are spending $130 million annually on average for the disasters at home and abroad. Our main source of income is grants. However, even the slightest negative incident reflected in the public about us annihilates the grants. In order to conduct our work properly, we need to stand on our own feet.”

Turkish Red Crescent will pursue the strategy of benefiting from the opportunities, said Küçükali, adding that the institution has designated big targets particularly concerning drinking water project. TRC identifies that one of the biggest problems of the world is global warming, and enter the water business to both secure our disaster stocks and generate regular income for Turkish Red Crescent. “We will become the leader of Turkey in water production,” said Küçükali.

Last year, spending YTL 17 million, Turkish Red Crescent renewed the mineral water facilities set up by Atatürk in 1926 and increased its production capacity by three times, Küçükali noted. Turkish Red Crescent introduced six types of fruit mineral water to the market. “We built a very modern facility next to our older mineral water facility. We have the capacity to produce 500 million bottles annually,” said Küçükali, adding that thanks to capacity increase Turkish Red Crescent started to provide products that reach 80 percent of Turkey. Turkish Red Crescent signed agreements with regional chain stores to distribute its brand of mineral water all around Turkey by 2009.

Turkish Red Crescent to meet German tent demand

After being criticized harshly for its non-waterproof triangular disaster tents following the 1999 Marmara earthquake, Turkish Red Crescent set up a tent factory in Ankara in 2001. The factory, built with an investment of YTL 1.5 million, employs 80 people and produces 1,500 modern tents a month. Turkish Red Crescent signed an agreement with German Red Cross, which was meeting all of its tent demand from Pakistan, said Küçükali. “Germans saw and liked our tents. Germany shifted its route to Turkey. In the first phase we will produce 5,000 disaster tents for German Red Cross.

Turkish Red Crescent now is able to compete with the world in tent production, said Küçükali, adding that it produced five different models of disaster tents, and the tent most in demand is the 16-square meter, lined, based, all cotton disaster tent produced out of fireproof and waterproof cloth.

A convention center in Ankara

Turkish Red Crescent, after conducting a review concerning 3,500 granted real estate, is taking important steps regarding this issue as well. In order to secure a regular income for Turkish Red Crescent, the properties, approximately 1,500 buildings and 2,000 lands, are being reassessed, said Küçükali.

“Within this scope, the construction of a site in Istanbul started following the agreement with Kiptas. We will collect an income of YTL 30 million from this partnership. Moreover, with a tender in the coming days, we will sell off our land in the tourism area of Antalya’s Serik.  “We’re trying to create channels for income,” said Küçükali.

Turkish Red Crescent has developed a joint project with Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) architecture, and is planning to invest in a convention center on its own property in Ankara. Turkish Red Crescent has plans also related to its Medical Centers, said Küçükali. “Turkish Red Crescent has 40 Medical Centers and three hospitals in Turkey. These hospitals, providing service to 3 million people at reasonable costs, deliver 20 percent of their net income to Turkish Red Crescent.

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