YSU graduate works to help Syrian refugees in Turkey
YOUNGSTOWN
Ashley Anderson believes she’s on this planet for one reason: to help people.
The 33-year-old Mahoning Valley native is doing just that. In December, she launched amalShop.org, a site that sells products handmade by Syrian refugees living in Turkey. The money earned from the sale of items such as scarves and hats goes to the women who make them, opening up opportunities previously unavailable to them.
“It’s a way to kind of self-sustain. It’s a part of their culture to knit and crochet, and to make their own clothes, so they’re super talented,” said Anderson, speaking via Skype from Izmir, Turkey. “In this country right now, they’re not able to utilize their skills, so we decided let’s utilize their skills.”
Feeling moved to help refugees, Anderson relocated to Turkey last September. She is no stranger to living far from home, with previous stints in India, Switzerland and Greece, among other places she’s traveled.
Anderson grew up in Liberty and moved to the Warren area in high school. She attended Ursuline, then graduated from Youngstown State University in 2007.
After numerous other endeavors, Anderson went on to work as a United Nations consultant in Geneva, Switzerland, before taking a break to volunteer in Lesbos, Greece, a hub of the Syrian refugee crisis. After spending several months in Greece, then taking a brief break to travel, Anderson felt compelled to continue her work with refugees.
“I had a unique viewpoint because I was hearing what the UN was saying in regard to the crisis. And I was seeing what was happening on people’s blogs,” she said. “I’m quite connected in the refugee community, so I also saw a different viewpoint, which was their suffering. I thought there was something I was missing, and I wanted to see it for myself.”
That’s when Anderson took a leap, and decided to go to Turkey.
In Izmir, there is a refugee population of approximately 90,000 people, Anderson said. They survive however they can, from farming to selling small goods. After the European Union tightened restrictions on immigration, and with the Syrian civil war raging on, many are stuck in Turkey.
“Everyone is in limbo,” Anderson said. “Everyone intended on traveling to Europe or coming back to Syria. People want to go home. They are very tired.”
It was clear to Anderson that the means of making a living she saw were not sustainable for families. So, she and a nurse from Denmark, Nina Aandahl, whom she met in Greece, started amalShop. The name, thought of by the women involved in amalShop, is means “hope” in Arabic.
So far, 12 women are involved. In the span of just a few months, it’s made a marked difference in some of their lives, Anderson said.
One family, for example, has earned enough money that they are able to move out of the basement apartment they were renting and into a nicer one. Money earned from amalShop also allowed that family – mother Najlaa, father Ahmed, Fatima, 6, and Hamze, 3 – to visit the zoo for the first time since leaving their home in Aleppo, Anderson said.
“These types of wins are really encouraging,” she said.
The business model also works well for the women, all of whom are mothers.
“All the women really like being at home with their kids, so they really like that they can just knit and make money at home,” Anderson said.
She is pleased with the results they’ve had so far.
“It’s encouraging. I wish we didn’t even have to do this, because this means that there is a need, and I wish there wasn’t a need, but I do feel happy” that their work is paying off, she said. “24 hours a day I’m thinking about this, and so is my partner, Nina. When we see these results, we’re saying, ‘OK, we can do more.’ And the women want to do more.”
She hopes to expand amalShop, and be able to provide some apartments where families can stay and the women can knit.
Anderson likely will stay in Turkey through this year, she said.
She hopes that her work will have an impact on people beyond Izmir.
“I know the U.S. right now is going through a tough time with all this,” she said.
“I just hope that either my story, or the work that I do will help others see that these people are not dangerous. It’s not them versus us.”