Effects of social assistance and solidarity foundation in fight against poverty: Review about Bartin Province Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundation

Poverty can be defined as deprivation of people of the means to meet their basic needs and of minimum living standards. To this context, poverty appears as an economic and social problem that prevents individuals from living in a manner compatible with human dignity. Poverty that has become one of the most important problems both in the less developed countries and developed countries since the second half of the twentieth century continues to be a global problem today. Poverty in Turkey came into sight with the effects of economic policies adopted in the 1980s and globalization. Law on Encouraging Social Assistance and Solidarity and Social Assistance and Solidarity Fund were established in 1986 in order to fight against poverty. The Fund continues its services through 1.000 Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundations across Turkey. This study intends to research the contributions made by Bartın Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundation to fighting against poverty. The findings obtained from the field work through literature review, examination on documents belonging to the foundation and interview techniques from among qualitative research verifies the hypothesis that Bartın Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundation has been effective in overcoming poverty to the extent of the means provided to the foundation. Keywords: Poverty, Fight against Poverty, Bartın Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundation