Frequently Asked Questions

Our association’s origins date back to 2005, and it obtained its official legal status in 2009.

The address of our HQ office is as follows: Cenap Şahabettin Sok. No: 42 Koşuyolu Mah. 34718 Kadıköy/İstanbul.

While our HQ is in Istanbul, we have representation offices in Diyarbakır, Hatay, Adana, Kayseri Mersin, Mardin and Şanlıurfa.

When urgent needs arise due to various disaster situations, our association conducts operations in Turkey and its surrounding region.

Our association’s activities are guided by humanitarian standards and principles that are based on universal values. These principles are humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence and accountability.

Our priority in disaster preparedness and risk reduction is to prioritize participation and strengthen grassroots coordination in order to maximise the local capacities. When it comes to responding to natural or man-made disasters, we prioritize assisting the most vulnerable – those who suffer the impacts the most.

In this vein, as Support to Life, we define our mission as helping disaster-affected communities and individuals meet their basic needs and rights, and acting in accord with universal humanitarian principles while doing so.

Support to Life currently has four main programs:

1. Emergency Assistance
2. Refugee Support
3. Child Protections
4. Strengthening Civil Society & Networking

No.

You can follow our social media accounts, subscribe to our mailing list to receive our quarterly newsletters, or send an e-mail to [email protected] for additional questions.

We conduct needs assessment studies in our field locations in accord with international methodologies and principles. With these analyses, we aim to ensure maximum efficiency with our use of resources and provide assistance to the as many people as possible, starting with those with the most urgent needs.

The projects we implement to fulfil our mission are funded by national and international funds and grants. Our other financial sources consist of member fees, voluntary contributions of legal or real persons, fundraising activities or campaigns organized in accord with charity collection regulations. Our association does not accept contributions coming from sources that pose the risk of harming its independence, neutrality and credibility. We pay close attention to other legal entities we procure goods or services from and maintain a minimum standard against discrimination, violation of human rights, sexual abuse and environmental protection. For furher details, you may visit our web section on Accountability.

You can simply send an e-mail to [email protected] and request a subscription. Alternatively, you can share your contact info from the dedicated section ‘subscribe to our newsletter’ in our website.

You can send an e-mail to [email protected] to cancel your subscription.

You can will in the membership application form on our website and submit your application. Your written application will be processed by our board of directors within 30 days and you will be notified with regard to the decision. Following the confirmation, the members are registered in a dedicated registry. In addition, to legal or real persons who financially or otherwise contribute to our organizations activities may be given an honorary membership.

We are unfortunately unable to accept volunteer support for our emergency assistance, child protection for general security reasons. However, we would be happy to receive voluntary support in administrative or managerial domains and are willing to hear your experiences. You can use this link to post a volunteer application.

Our open vacancies are posted on www.gelbasla.com or www.yenibiris.com. For general applications, you may use the Join Us section of our website.

Our main purpose during the recruitment is to recruit the right person for the right position. Depending on the position, we have at least 2 and at most 3 rounds of selection process. The first interviews are handled by the HR department and candidates are evaluated with respect to their qualifications for the position and their relationship to our institutional culture. Candidates deem fit for the position are shortlisted and these lists are submitted to corresponding managers. This is followed by a second round of interviews with the participation of managers. The final stage of selection consists of reference checks – after which a formal proposition is made to the successful candidate. Additional technical tests and evaluations are conducted for some of vacancies.

One of our primary HR goals is to make sure our pay grades are fairly distributed across different positions within our association. We have a predefined ranking of positions based on a job evaluation study. Other criteria that guide our identification of pay grades are education, experience, language skills and similar.

No. Each application is evaluated as an independent case.

All our vacancies try to make use of our existing HR resource primarily. In this regard, once a vacancy is opened, internal applications are evaluated in accord with our “Career Management Policy.”

Only shortlisted candidates are invited to the interview process. Following an interview, a positive or negative response is given usually between 2 to 3 weeks. If a candidate that had submitted an application through one of our online portals is excluded from the interview process, she/he will receive a notification through the portal. E-mail applicants, on the other hand, do not receive a notification of this sort.

You can support our activities through a one-time donation or regular donations.

For this;

• You can visit our page and donate using your credit card.
• You can make a donation via bank transfer to following accounts.

  TURKISH LİRA ACCOUNTS

EURO ACCOUNTS

USD ACCOUNTS

GBP ACCOUNTS

Yes, if you have a Turkey-based GSM provider, you can type HAYATADESTEK and send it to 8071 via SMS, after which you can give your confirmation by writting EVET in response to the message you receive. By doing so, you will become a regular contributor with a monthly contribution of 10 Liras charged to your account.

For foreign donations, you may use your foreign currency accounts, or you can use your credit card* to donate from bagis.hayatadestek.org.

* We are unable to receive donations with American Express Card.

Your donations are channelled into our Refugee Support or Child Protection programs through our community centres, or are used for related field or management operations. All our donors have the the right to inquire whether their donations have been used appropriately, as prescribed by “A Donor Bill of Rights” to which STL is a signatory.

Our donors are able to request a receipt for their donation. Apart from this, all our donors receive a written thank you letter for their support.

No.

You can donate unused furniture or non-food items. Providing these to our beneficiaries is one of our priorities as prescribed by humanitarian standards. Apart from these, we are unable to accept second-hand furniture in donations since our logistical capacities in terms of transport and storage are limited.

Together we can initiate corporate social responsibility projects, or launch fundraising campaigns. You can become one of our charity runners and you’re your own fundraising campaign prior to a marathon. You can also purchase “special occasion” cards to celebrate an anniversary, a birth, or similar.