VTS magazine

Jesus was asked, “who is my neighbor?” For an expansive perspective, consider this: Syrian refugees in Turkey help sustain themselves by practicing a Japanese art form, with financial support coordinated by a Maryland priest.

Amigurumi is the Japanese art of creating small stuffed toys through knitting or crocheting. For the past several years, a group called Knitting for Hope has worked with Syrian refugees in Turkey to create whimsical small toys that can be sold locally or online.

“As a result, these widows with children in the home are able to support themselves,” said the Rev. Jeff Hual ’15. “They’re able to be self-determining and take care of their children as they see fit.” By gathering in groups in individual homes, the women develop a sense of purpose in a safe social setting.

“My job in all this is, I raise the money here in the States to keep all this mission work alive,” said Hual, who is rector of All Hallows Parish in Davidsonville, Maryland, a suburb of Annapolis. He developed a passion for Turkey during a VTS-sponsored immersion trip in 2014.

It was during that trip that he met and befriended Hakan Gülerce ’15, a Turkish sociologist, who then came to VTS for a one-year program in Christian studies while pursuing a doctorate. “I was the only Muslim student at the seminary at that time,” Gülerce said. They graduated together in 2015, then fell out of touch for a while.

When they reconnected in 2019, Gülerce was teaching at Harran University in Sanliurfa, an impoverished city in Turkey on the border with Syria, and home to a high concentration of Syrian refugees. He directs the university’s Center for Migration Policies, Application and Research.

After Gülerce told him about his work, Hual asked how he could help. said: Gülerce told him there were a lot of people who needed new wheelchairs, so Hual’s church held a fund drive and raised between $2,000 and $3,000.

“I said, ‘What do you need next?’ And he said, ‘We need educational supplies.’ So, we were starting to raise money for that. Then at the end of 2019, a parishioner approached me, and said he needed to donate some appreciated stock, and he wanted me to use it all for the benefit of Syrian refugees. And I’m eternally grateful to this parishioner,” because it was quite a bit of money, Hual said.

There are approximately 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, a country of 85 million people. “The government of Turkey has done everything it can,” Hual said. “The whole world needs to recognize just how much Turkey has done to try and help the refugees. But, obviously, they are strained.”

So, in 2020, in an effort hampered somewhat by the pandemic, Hual and Gülerce began building a ministry to help refugees with extreme medical needs, and families with missing loved ones.

The organization was run by volunteers, and one of the college volunteers was a knitter. “[Knitting for Hope] has grown such that the women teach each other to knit Amigurumi products, and then we sell these on the international market,” Hual said. In addition to providing income for flexible work, the program offers a safe environment and fosters community among the women, many of whom are widows who have been traumatized by more than a decade of civil war in Syria.

Hual’s work is supported by Episcopal Volunteers in Mission, a program of The Episcopal Church’s Office of Global Partnerships. The women have been eager to build ties with The Episcopal Church. Earlier in 2024, one woman created a doll in the likeness of then-Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry. The group also produced a batch of knitted Episcopal shields that were distributed to international visitors at the General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky.

Hual describes Knitting for Hope as the flagship part of his and Gülerce work, but it is only a part of what they do. The broader organization is called Social Cohesion and Entrepreneurship Association, or in Turkish, Sosyal Uyum ve Girişimcilik Derneği, known as Uyum for short. Uyum provides an array of disaster relief and refugee support services, including programs for youth, migrant-advocacy efforts, and financial support for refugees with special needs.

“We have one family that has three children with Wilson’s disease,” a rare genetic disorder, Hual said. “We have been helping the family get the medicines that they need, and about a year ago we were able to fund a liver-tissue transplant for the oldest child who had been in a coma for quite a long time.” The boy is now thriving. “He’s about two years behind in school, but he’s always got a smile on his face,” he said.

“I don’t consider myself working for refugees, but working with,” Gülerce said. “Their voices are at the center.”

“We become involved in their lives,” Hual added. “We try and help them find decent employment, and we try and help them keep the kids going to school. We’ve got families with kids who made it all the way through high school, and now we’re helping them pay for college. Syrian refugee kids who are going to university!”

A trickle of refugees have begun returning to Syria since the regime of Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in December 2024, but many more are staying in Turkey for now. “There is no state in Syria, you know. There is no infrastructure. There is nothing left after 13 years of bombing, killings, chemical weapons. Lots of things happened in Syria,” Gülerce said. He does academic research into migration patterns, and he believes as many as 80% of the refugees may remain in Turkey.

Hual spent three weeks in Turkey in January on a VTS immersion tour with two seminarians from Africa: the Rev. Christian Owusu of Ghana, and Debora Okoth of Tanzania. Both seminarians are pursuing two-year master’s degrees. Part of their time was spent in Istanbul, and part in Sanliurfa, where Knitting for Hope is based. In Urfa, as the latter city is known colloquially, “they were the only two people of color, maybe, in the whole city, and people treated them like rock stars. People would come across the street to hug them and welcome them and then ask to take pictures with them,” Hual said.

Hual says Urfa is like a second home to him. The Syrian population there will need support for years to come. “I’m in this for as long as they need me,” he said.