Bridging Hearts

GÖNÜL KÖPRÜSÜ is a non profit organisation that strives to build understanding, peace and prosperity  between local and immigrant communities through creative economy.

We are founded by a group of Turks and Syrians who do care about finding long lasting solutions for the problems of the communities that suffer from shortcomings like inadequate education and incompetency of the youth, gender inequality, religious conservatism, loss of jobs and the lack of social cohesion. We want to spread our energy through arts and creative sectors that have a universal language, through which a new way of understanding may be built, new jobs created, social cohesion achieved.

Our seat is in Şanlıurfa (Urfa), a city of 2.500.000 in the border between Syria and Turkey, that already hosts more than 500.000 Syrian immigrants. We are aware that this region already had development issues, eminent unemployment rates and difficulties in reaching high quality education. We underline our intention to embrace both local and immigrant communities, -our target being foremost the youth and women-, bearing in mind that both share the similar culture and suffer from the same problems.

Despite the fact that our interest region is considered economically backwards, the multi cultural layering of the society, inherited generation to generation, together with the similarities between the hosts and the newcomers makes it an ideal place for reaching the social harmony. We believe that cultural and artistic activities that would praise togetherness in fascinating diversity would be a perfect starting point for a better society where all have a decent place. We target providing digital art workshops, artist residencies, music and theater festivals, literature and documentary researches, crafts training program sto name a few.

We are keen to create a sustainable, circular economic model, that would boost cultural life, create new and highly on demand products without polluting the nature, which we believe is the only way for sustainable growth. What others see as "backwardness", we see rich cultural heritage that awaits to be introduced to the contemporary era.

We are open to new ideas and proposals that fit in our scope in order to change/ challenge the society. In order to achieve our goal of an art loving, tolerant, open society where all may live notwithstanding differences that divide people we are open to your proposals and suggestions.

Please feel free to write and eventually join us.

The world is changing and new knowledge is a sine qua non to cope with the new and often frightening challenges. Digital technologies offer easy to acquire, universally valid new skills for the economically vulnerable segments of the society. We offer a highly qualified digital learning programme for local and immigrant youth. 

We developed a program of 'digital image producing technologies' to provide the immigrant and local youth with a fast learning and low investment model of vocational training. At the same time, these techniques are internationally recognized in a highly competitive market. In the world that we are living in, creative economies are keys to a myriad of jobs.

A person trained in digital technology is endowed with skills that are valid even in highly stagnant economies and is just a click away from a job anywhere in the world. We have to remember that actually niche players are those who can adapt themselves to new and extraordinary situations, and ready to produce highly personalized services.

Growing locally, marketing globally is the motto of the new digital age. In Urfa region where high quality agricultural raw materials are abundant, there is only one more step to take: To add value through creative industries and sold globally. 

Urfa is known for its fertile, vast, agricultural land. Local produce that grow there is diverse and equally delicious, starting from the unique agricultural products like the 'must have' of every Urfa dish, -the 'isot' pepper- to the surprisingly equilibrated olive oil. Moreover, there is an abundance of agricultural products much in demand for the industrial use, such as the high quality cotton and wool.

The Coronavirus outbreak has shown us how much we rely on local produce. Supported by our current times, our organisation is devoted to supporting the local markets and producing value-added products that may be branded and sold worldwide when possible through digital marketing -a key sector for the economic development of disadvantageous regions-.

We believe Urfa would benefit vastly from a circular economy,; produced and designed locally and marketed globally. Imagine that the local cotton transformed into high quality designer's fabric and clothing instead of being sold as raw material.