The most striking moments of the recently concluded PEXforum in Istanbul were the voices and stories of Turkish civil society.

Turkey hosts the largest numbers of refugees in the world. The 1.5 million Syrian children in Turkey currently face a precarious future – one of the reasons being an unequal access to learning opportunities. Fifty thousand Syrian children do not go to school while the rest do not understand the lessons delivered in a foreign language. With this the future of all these children is at stake and their capacity to imagine a future and hope denied. Yuva, a national NGO shared the story at the forum about their efforts to build this hope and provide equal opportunities in education to Syrian refugee children. The story focused on one child among 1.5 million conveying a deep sensitivity to the suffering in the life of each child, the call to our collective humanity and the overwhelming awareness of the sheer scale of the tragedy that might unfold if enough is not done soon.

Another story focused on a problem that Turkey shares with much of the world – from India to the United States – of deepening divides and political polarization, all the pain it comes from as well as the stress and conflicts it causes. Strategies and Tools for Mitigating Polarization in Turkey Project, also known as the TurkuazLab at the Istanbul Bilgi University investigates this polarization and uses creative gamified tools (among other interventions) to engage citizens in examining their biases and discriminating behaviours but more importantly to reveal commonalities across divides and highlight our shared humanity.

However, the atmosphere for such critical work, of darning the torn social fabric of the country and of building hope, is far from conducive. Much of the work is being carried out against a background of fear. Another Turkish organization at the conference, Hafıza Merkezi painted a chilling picture of the smear campaigns, judicial harassment and stigmatization that civil society organizations are up against. ‘It’s a choice between surviving or being targeted.’ Yet, the speaker offered her source of hope – solidarity across civil society actors translated into strategies of open communication and the strength that comes with the wisdom of knowing that you are not alone.

Turkey, in this sense, is but a microcosm of the whole world. For me, the lessons of the PEXforum were embedded in these stories of people working at the frontlines in the country, protecting the vulnerable and defending hard-won freedoms. What role can philanthropy play in supporting transformations from this dim reality? Can we overcome our carefully measured models to offer true ‘solidarity’ without a sense of beneficence?

There are efforts around the world to align philanthropic agendas with ground realities, but one example in particular at the Forum offered by the Global Philanthropy Project (GPP) struck a chord with me. In 2021 the GPP organized an event called ‘shimmering solidarity’ for funders with the objective of building coherence in their response to the threats faced by LGBTQI rights defenders. The use of the term ‘shimmering’ derives from the action of honeybees who flip their abdomens upwards in split-second synchronicity to produce a wave-like pattern called shimmering in order to repel predators. The speaker noted that this is ‘a function that can only occur collectively’. If there was a takeaway at the Forum for philanthropy, I think it was this – a call to rapid collective action based on radical solidarity. 

Chandrika Sahai is the Programme Manager for Philanthropy for Social justice and Peace (PSJP), housed at Global Dialogue (UK).