Teaching the homeless how to fish – but first, dinner

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Ayse Tukrukcu is wearing an apron embroidered with the words Hayata Saril (Embrace Life) over jeans and a light blue shirt. At 50, she has a world-weary aura about her, but instead of bitterness, she emanates hope.

She begins to list some of the ordeals she’s gone through in her life, but then thinks better of it.

“No,” she pauses, shaking her head. “That’s all behind me now.”

“What I can tell you,” she says, “is about the time I was homeless. It was 13 years ago.”

Tukrukcu is a co-founder of Hayata Saril Dernegi (the Embrace Life Association), an organisation that was formed in Istanbul in February by a dedicated group of five women and two men to help empower the homeless and the disadvantaged. Their first step was to open a restaurant in the vibrant neighbourhood of Beyoglu on November 2. Staffed by people who were themselves in need of a helping hand, Hayata Saril Lokantasi serves paying customers during the day, and provides free meals to the homeless after 8:00pm. 

Tukrukcu says losing her job in the early 2000s led to her not being able to pay the rent; and losing her apartment meant she had to rely on the kindness of strangers. She left her place in Kavacik, a neighbourhood on the Asian side of Istanbul, and started living on the streets of Beyoglu on the European side.

She tears up as she remembers the longest she’d gone without taking a shower: 38 days. And that eventually, employees at a hospital she frequented offered her a job as a companion to patients, which she says was all that she needed to allow her to “embrace life” again.

“I don’t know how long I stayed under water,” she says, speaking fondly of her first shower at a modest hotel in Aksaray after getting paid. “But I stayed for ages. I did.”

Tukrukcu’s ability to empathise with Istanbul’s homeless, as this story shows, stems from the fact that she was once in the same position. She dismisses the notion that the Hayata Saril restaurant will feed the homeless day in day out, without also enriching their lives in a more holistic way.

“We’re not beggars, dear,” she tells TRT World. “We won’t soothe our conscience by giving money away to youngsters and street folk.” Hayata Saril is no ordinary charity, she argues. 

“Our goal is to provide a shot at life for people living on the streets,” she says. “It’s to teach them how to fish, rather than providing them with fish every day.”

Five people work at the restaurant, including Ayse Tukrukcu, two of them professionals. The staff all have access to psychologist Yusuf Kulca, the man who first founded the street kids’ association in Turkey, to help them leave behind their challenging pasts.

She aims for her employees, all of whom have gone through basic food preparation and hygiene training, to be well-positioned to find another paying restaurant job soon after their six months are up at Hayata Saril Lokantasi.

Tukrukcu also envisions a centre where professionals offer psychological support free of charge, and homeless individuals, whom she considers to be her friends, are rehabilitated into mainstream society.

Dilara Moran, one of the seven founding members of the Hayata Saril Association, speaks admiringly of Ayse Tukrukcu. The two met when Tukrukcu was serving soup on the streets to the homeless.

“I was inspired by her story, her stance, her strength,” says Moran, who used to work in advertising before turning to charity work. “She’s a very strong woman, a very strong person who always looks ahead.”

“She always wants to do something,” says Moran, smiling. “It comes from her heart, it comes from a place of love.”

Moran tells TRT World that the small, 21-seat restaurant, is just the first step, that the association has set its sights higher.

Thanks to donations in cash and in kind, the association was able to get on its feet, Moran explains. The restaurant will soon appear on yemeksepeti.com, Turkey’s leading food delivery website, expanding its reach. Once a month, it will also feature top Turkish celebrity chefs such as Mehmet Gurs, Didem Senol, Civan Er, Semsa Denizsel and Maksut Askar.

Moran is also careful to stress that the restaurant will not simply offer free meals to the homeless. She says it should be seen as a stepping stone to a more stable, safer life.

While there are other associations and government venues that provide for the homeless, Hayata Saril is unique in its ambitious goals of providing more than a hot meal.

It has taken them nine months of hard work to open a restaurant, and it may take them a while longer to do all the good they plan to do. But they have their hopes and ideals, and sometimes, that’s all that you need to teach people how to fish.