CVF 2024 Background

Organizing: The Act of Aspiring for the Future

The time is coming for civil society organizations from all around Türkiye to come together. We have two days to talk and debate, to share concerns, to understand and explain, to see and show, to listen and be heard, to strengthen and be strengthened.

In this era of great uncertainty and crises, let us first acknowledge that seeing civil society as a cure-all solution would be a dangerous illusion. Wherever we turn our heads, it is impossible not to see the suffocating dark clouds: deepening poverty, chronic injustices, spreading wars and genocides, economic crises, declining public services, panopticon technologies from which it is almost impossible to escape, the climate crisis, disasters, migration movements…

Yet, there are also those who live with these concerns, who see, know, care, and desire a better future—people who come together and start searching for solutions. To overlook this would be an even greater illusion.

The organizing of countless volunteers striving across the many fields of civil society are the bold, courageous, and hopeful precursors of the storm needed to disperse these dark clouds. As we experienced once again after the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, these precursors generate solutions and innovations in every field—from humanitarian aid to disaster and emergency response, from environment to health, from combating poverty to education, from culture to sports. Beyond producing services, civil society plays an even more crucial role: becoming the voice of those who benefit from services and introducing an agenda, perspective, and innovation to ensure that public authorities deliver the right services in the right way.

Still, for these precursors to be better organized, more effective, and more efficient is one of the most important conditions for creating change.

The Civil Voices Festival invites you to gather with the belief that we become stronger when we come together. Each of us may have our own unique contexts, yet our different experiences are waiting to be shared to inspire one another. Since a part of our program was literally washed away by historic rainfall in last year’s festival that began with a wonderful Friday in İzmir, this year we are giving priority to those events.