Training and paid work
Trainees take part in a six-week programme, based at Imece Initiative’s workshop and training space in Izmir. The course focuses on practical, hands-on, learning including basic electricity, electrical soldering and installation of home solar systems.
Earning opportunities for refugees and migrants are extremely limited in Turkey and elsewhere. But after completing the course, trainees are helped to carry out paid work assembling electronic products.
Imece also creates solar power banks that the association specially designed for migrant travellers. Easy to carry and with integrated charging cables, they come with lights and charge all types of phones through the mains and solar energy. The power banks have been distributed in Bosnian safe houses for migrants and refugees, and also to people displaced by the war in Ukraine.
"Soft jobs and soft trainings became the standard of what women can do. But this time, I found myself in a solar energy program…I felt like I could do it as a woman."
Support for children
The engineering training offered through the Solar Age Programme also provides other services. These include education for the children of those taking part in the programme who struggle to access schooling due to their legal status.
Other elements of the programme range from Turkish language lessons to first aid training, mental health support and sessions helping women grow their own food at home. The course also helps women register their status with the government – although many face huge challenges in doing so.
Trainee Sandra Guylaine, a 28 year-old from Cameroon, says: “Soft jobs and soft trainings became the standard of what women can do. But this time, I found myself in a solar energy program…I felt like I could do it as a woman.”
