The Turkish Family Health and Planning Foundation (Türkiye Aile Sağlığı ve Planlaması Vakfı – TAPV) promotes gender equality and improves access to sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) in Türkiye. Through programs like comprehensive sexuality education and support for disadvantaged women, TAPV empowers individuals with knowledge and resources while addressing systemic inequalities.
With grant support from our Regional Recovery Support Program under the Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Emergency Relief Fund, the foundation has created programs to provide safe spaces, education, and resources for vulnerable youth in these communities.
Read the following interview to learn more about their impactful work.
How do you evaluate the current state of gender equality and access to sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) in Türkiye?
As the Turkish Family Health and Planning Foundation (Türkiye Aile Sağlığı ve Planlaması Vakfı – TAPV), we have been working for years to strengthen gender equality and SRHR in Türkiye. These rights are essential to achieving gender equality and empowering women. When women and girls are denied access to these rights, they face greater risks of gender-based violence, sexual abuse, early and forced marriages, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and maternal mortality.
Türkiye ranks 127th out of 146 countries in the 2024 Global Gender Gap Index, highlighting significant gaps in achieving gender equality. Barriers to SRHR access include a lack of comprehensive sexuality education, limited youth-friendly health services, and restrictions in primary healthcare. Marginalised groups, including young people, women in disadvantaged situations, migrants, individuals with disabilities, and LGBTI+ individuals, face even greater challenges. At TAPV, we focus on addressing these gaps by improving access to information, fostering attitudes that support gender equality, and working to prevent violence.
What programmes does TAPV implement to improve access to SRHR education and information?
We run diverse programmes to empower women and young people by providing education and building the capacities of health professionals, teachers, civil society workers, and others. Our initiatives include:
- Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE): Delivered in schools and through seminars for parents, our Sexual Health Education Programme reaches 10,000 students annually. It equips adolescents with knowledge about their bodies, boundaries, and decision-making skills while addressing sexual development and risky behaviours. The programme has gradually been digitised since 2020 to expand its reach.
- “Strong Women, Strong Communities”: This initiative provides SRHR information and counselling to disadvantaged women. Active in 31 provinces, it has trained over 300 programme instructors and reached approximately 70,000 women.
- Disaster and Crisis Support: We developed a specialised educational programme for adolescents affected by disasters, addressing topics like personal hygiene, puberty, and menstruation. This programme includes materials such as booklets and support kits and has reached 4,041 adolescents and 405 parents in just one year.
- Youth Work and Capacity Building: Our Safe Sexuality and Youth Work programmes aim to raise awareness and drive behaviour change among key groups. Collaborating with universities, public institutions, and CSOs, we provide live counselling through a Sexual Health Helpline and offer resources for teachers and parents.
Through these efforts, we work to ensure that knowledge about SRHR reaches the most vulnerable and contributes to fostering a society based on gender equality.
You launched the project “Supporting Adolescents in Disaster and Crisis Situations” with our grant support. Can you share more about the project’s activities and outcomes?
This project aims to protect adolescents from increased risks following disasters, such as gender-based violence, early forced marriages, and school dropouts. We developed an educational programme tailored to disaster conditions and different age groups (10–14 and 15–18 years). The programme focuses on:
- Helping adolescents understand bodily changes and personal hygiene.
- Raising awareness about gender inequality and preventive attitudes.
- Providing resources such as presentations, booklets (e.g., My Growth and Development Guide, Preparing for the Future), and posters.
We also introduced support kits with basic hygiene items and made the programme accessible to practitioners in earthquake-affected areas. Nearly 600 practitioners accessed the materials through our Adolescent Development portal, and we directly reached over 4,000 adolescents and their families. Feedback highlighted that adolescents valued the safe space created by the programme, particularly around discussing sensitive topics like boundaries and gender equality.
What are the key challenges and improvements needed in disaster and crisis support efforts?
Adolescents are often overlooked in disaster support efforts, even though they are at heightened risk of violence, poverty, and exploitation during such times. Effective support services must adopt a preventive and protective approach, including:
- Comprehensive sexuality education implemented by trained educators with a gender equality perspective.
- Robust psychological counselling and guidance services in schools.
- Adolescent-friendly healthcare and protection mechanisms for gender-based violence.
In disasters, the lack of strong systems amplifies risks, particularly for girls, who face increased pressure for early forced marriages and school dropouts. Adolescents often take on adult roles, further compromising their education and well-being. Collaborative efforts involving educators, healthcare providers, social workers, and CSOs are crucial for addressing these challenges.
The Global Compact on Youth Rights in Humanitarian Situations outlines five critical areas: services, participation, capacity, resources, and data. Strengthening these components is essential to better address the needs of adolescents during crises.
What are your future goals and projects? How has our grant support affected your future goals?
Our future plans include expanding CSE in schools, training more teachers and parents, and developing a digital learning module for teachers, counsellors, and volunteers to support adolescents. This module, set to launch in December, will ensure the sustainability of our efforts.
The grant support from the Support Foundation for Civil Society and Turkey Mozaik Foundation has been instrumental in developing tools and raising awareness about adolescents’ needs in disaster contexts. It has also encouraged other CSOs, public institutions, and local governments to recognise and address these issues.
Do you have a message for the donors supporting this fund?
After the February 6th earthquake, adolescents were one of the most overlooked groups in relief efforts. Thanks to donor support, we have made a significant impact by creating safe spaces for adolescents to learn, express themselves, and feel empowered. Adolescence is a critical period for shaping lives and building resilience, making it a powerful opportunity for social change.
Comprehensive sexuality education not only strengthens decision-making and self-confidence but also contributes to social peace and human rights. Supporting access to SRHR is essential for individual and community well-being, and we are grateful for the donors who enable us to make a difference.
