CARE International in Turkey began responding to the needs of Syrian refugees in Southern Turkey in October 2014. As of 27 November 2019, Turkey hosts 3,691,333 Syrian registered refugees, accounting for around 5% of total resident population in Turkey and over 365,000 refugees of other origins. Of that total, around 45.8% are females, with 21.4% of those female refugees are below the age of 18. A total of 62,216 individuals are hosted in 7 camps.

The impact of the now nine-year old conflict on Turkey’s economy, livelihoods, public infrastructure and services have been so profound that it is starting to affect inter-community cohesion. Off-camp refugees face several challenges linked to their ability to meet basic needs and are especially vulnerable to protection risks, forced to resort to negative coping mechanisms such as early marriage, child labour and reduction of meals since their original displacement.

CARE's experience in South East Turkey illustrated numerous gaps in access to services (education, health, legal), financial security, protection risks (child labour, sexual and GBV) and access to sufficient current information for the refugee population. Building on this CARE’s prior experience, we embarked on the Knowledge Attitude and Practice (KAP) Survey to provide additional context and aims to understand the changes in the community as a result of CARE’s protection programming.

The overall purpose of the KAP/base-line assessment is to provide valid reliable information focusing on Syrian refugees’ knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and behaviors related to some crucial topics such as; child/early/forced marriage; gender-based violence; child protection; information and access to services and sexual and reproductive health.