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Yunus Yunus – a Syrian refugee and city-worker turned farmer in Turkey

Yunus is one of hundreds of refugees from war-torn Syria benefitting from farming train-ing organized by a partnership between FAO, UNHCR and the Turkish government which trains them in skills needed to find much-needed work in Turkey’s agricultural sec-tor.

Country Türkiye

Duration 9m13s

Edit Version Clean

Video Type B Roll Video

Date 09/19/2018

File size 1.04 GB

Unique ID UF2T41

All editorial uses permitted

Production details and shotlist

UNFAO Source FAO Video

Shotlist SHOTLIST:

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 16, 2018

1. Various of Syrian refugee Yunus Yunus pulling grass

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“I never want to relive what I went through. I get scared even looking at the border.”

Mardin Province, Turkey - July 12, 2018

3. Various of views across desert towards Syrian border

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“Even though it's difficult here, it’s still better than living amidst bombing, without safety.”

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 16, 2018

5. Yunus walking beside vines

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“I used to live on the east side of Aleppo, in El Helou District. Around eight barrel bombs would fall on each district each day.”

Gaziantep City, Turkey - July 14, 2018

7. Various of Gaziantep City in evening light

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“I was forced to leave Aleppo and come to Turkey. I had injuries and broken ribs, and I feared for the safety of my family. I was scared that members of my family, my young boys, would be taken hostage.”

Gaziantep City, Turkey - July 14, 2018

9. Gaziantep skyline

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

10. Yunus walking

11. Various of Yunus buying food

12. Various of Yunus walking in street

13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“Now I have been here for five years.”

14. Spoon taking salad from bowl

15. Family seated eating lunch

16. Yunus’s disabled son, Yunus’s wife

17. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“We have six children, so including us parents there are eight of us. Their mother does not work because of the two disabled children.”

18. Yunus feeding daughter

19. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“My daughter is ten, and she is fully paralyzed. She has no senses except hear-ing.”

20. Yunus picking up daughter

21. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“When I finish each day, I thank God it’s over. I carry a great burden on my shoul-ders. Sometimes there are expenses I haven't thought about.”

22. Various of Yunus reading Turkish language textbook

23.SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“The only job available for me now is agricultural work, even though I have other qualifications.”

24. Yunus reading

25. Yunus and son seated

26. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“I used to be a government employee, a director. I knew nothing about agriculture.”

Sanliurfa Province, Turkey - July 13, 2018

27. Various of FAO expert speaking to group of Syrian refugee trainees

28. Syrian refugee women listening

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

29. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“We took part in the FAO training program.”

Sanliurfa Province, Turkey - July 13, 2018

30. Various of Syrian refugees seated in classroom during training

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

31. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“The theoretical part included lectures on how to store and plant, and how to main-tain the fields.”

Sanliurfa Province, Turkey - July 13, 2018

32. Various of refugee training session underway

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

33. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“On the practical side, we were taken to the fields to see how planting was done, and to learn how to look after crops like grapes and pistachios. I learned many things.”

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 16, 2018

34. Various of FAO expert showing Yunus and other Syrian refugee farm workers how to prune olive tree

35. Yunus picking leaves from tree

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

36. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“Then we learned about the pruning process. They taught us how to cut the olive branches in the right way.”

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 16, 2018

37. Yunus and other farm workers in fields

38. Yunus cutting back grape vines

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

39. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“Now I work on a day-to-day basis”

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 16, 2018

40. Yunus and other refugee farm worker walking with farm owner Mehmet Sait Aslan

41. Various of Yunus and Sait Alsan working on olive tree

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

42. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“I met the farmer through my friends, he is a local Turkish farmer. We work in his fields and the farmers pass our names around.”

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 16, 2018

43. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Mehmet Sait Aslan, farm owner, saying:

“The trainees come here all trained and ready. They do their work well and us em-ployers don’t have to worry about anything.”

44. Refugee farm worker pruning vine

45. SOUNDBITE (Turkish) Mehmet Sait Aslan, farm owner, saying:

“They are our neighbours, we are all human and we try to do our humanitarian du-ty. We help them for the sake of God.”

46. Sun through olive leaves

47. Pomegranates on tree

48. Various of Yunus pruning olives

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

49. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“I trust in my abilities.”

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 16, 2018

50. Olives on tree

51. Olive tree trunks

52. Olive trees in landscape

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

53. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“If someone supported me or gave me a piece of land, and someone else gave me agricultural inputs, for example seeds and fertilizer, I would start my own farm. I would benefit from it, and I could help others.”

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 16, 2018

54. Various of Yunus Yunus speaking to colleagues under tree

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

55. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“Where do I find myself after five years in Turkey? I have no hope of going back to Syria.”

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 16, 2018

56. Farm landscape in evening light

Gaziantep Province, Turkey - July 15, 2018

57. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yunus Yunus, Syrian refugee, saying:

“But unlike in my homeland, at least I feel safe here.”

Gaziantep City, Turkey - July 14, 2018

58. Various views of Gaziantep city in evening light

Gaziantep City, Turkey - July 15, 2018

59. Yunus seated stroking son

Ends

Script STORY: Yunus Yunus is one of over 3.5 million refugees from war-torn Syria who are seeking out a new existence in neighboring Turkey.

After the trauma of his family’s flight from besieged Aleppo, Yunus is looking to the fu-ture.

“I never want to relive what I went through. I get scared even looking at the border,” he says.

“Even though it's difficult here, it’s still better than living amidst bombing, without safe-ty.”

The war in Syria has killed around half a million people and displaced more than 10 million like Yunus.

“I used to live on the east side of Aleppo, in El Helou District. Around eight barrel bombs would fall on each district each day,” he recalls.

  “I was forced to leave Aleppo and come to Turkey. I had injuries and broken ribs, and I feared for the safety of my family. I was scared that members of my family, my young boys, would be taken hostage,” he says.

Yunus, 54, now lives with his family in a suburb of Gaziantep, a city near the Syrian border.

“Now I have been here for five years,” he says.

“We have six children, so including us parents there are eight of us. Their mother does not work because of the two disabled children.”

“My daughter is ten, and she is fully paralyzed. She has no senses except hearing.”

“When I finish each day, I thank God it’s over. I carry a great burden on my shoulders. Sometimes there are expenses I haven't thought about,” he says.

Yunus is learning Turkish, but without fluent language skills and connections, he has few options.

  “The only job available for me now is agricultural work, even though I have other quali-fications,” he complains.

Yunus was working as a finance manager at a textile company in Syria when conflict drove him to leave his homeland.

“I used to be a government employee, a director. I knew nothing about agriculture.”

Yunus is among 900 Syrian refugees and Turkish community members who have so far benefitted from a partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the Unit-ed Nations (FAO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Turkish government which provides agricultural training.

  Turkey hosts more Syrian refugees than any other country. Turkey also needs skilled and semi-skilled labourers in the agricultural sector, especially in livestock production, greenhouse cultivation, and the harvesting and processing of various crops (olives, cot-ton, pistachio and citrus and stone fruits).

  FAO has provided agricultural training to Yunus as part of a larger initiative to build the resilience of Syrian refugees and their host communities in Turkey.

  Yunus was unemployed, with no prior experience in agriculture practices when he was included in the FAO program. The difficult but delicate work of harvesting crops like olives, grapes pistachios, and pepper was all new to him after his office job in a big city.

  “We took part in the FAO training program” says Yunus. “The theoretical part includ-ed lectures on how to store and plant, and how to maintain the fields.”

“On the practical side, we were taken to the fields to see how planting was done, and to learn how to look after crops like grapes and pistachios. I learned many things.”

“Then we learned about the pruning process. They taught us how to cut the olive branches in the right way.”

Like other trainees, Yunus received a stipend which helped to pay for his family’s daily necessities while he was taking the course.

  “Now I work on a day-to-day basis.”

Apart from providing training in farming skills, the scheme aims to help trainees find jobs through job fairs and introductions to employers.

Mehmet Sait Aslan is one of a number of private sector farm owners who employ refu-gee workers like Yunus.

“I met the farmer through my friends, he is a local Turkish farmer. We work in his fields and the farmers pass our names around,” says Yunus.

Turkey lacks a quarter of the agricultural labour force it needs, a gap which refugees help to fill.

The availability of skilled workers is good news for farms in the area, who sometimes struggle to find experienced help during harvest and other key moments in the annual cycle.

“The trainees come here all trained and ready. They do their work well and us employ-ers don’t have to worry about anything,” says Sait Aslan.

Of the trainees, 70 percent are Syrian, and 30 are Turkish, creating a setting where Syr-ians and Turks train and work side by side, encouraging integration and opportunities for language exchange.

“They are our neighbours, we are all human and we try to do our humanitarian duty. We help them for the sake of God,” Sait Aslan adds.

After the initial success of the program, FAO, UNHCR and the Turkish government have decided to launch a second phase, that will see 500 more refugees like Yunus re-ceive training.

  Yunus now also has new ambitions in the agricultural sector.

“I trust in my abilities,” says Yunus. “If someone supported me or gave me a piece of land, and someone else gave me agricultural inputs, for example seeds and fertilizer, I would start my own farm. I would benefit from it, and I could help others,” he says.

Whether he likes it or not, Yunus is increasingly resigned to a future in Turkey.

“Where do I find myself after five years in Turkey? I have no hope of going back to Syr-ia,” he says. “But unlike in my homeland, at least I feel safe here.”

Ends.

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Yunus Yunus – a Syrian refugee and city-worker turned farmer in Turkey

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