New initiative to combat loneliness: Speaking Turkish in exchange for affordable rent

Yüksel Tarhangil is 89 years old and has been living in the northern Catalan village of Gombrèn for the past three years. 

She moved to the town from Turkey after her husband passed away, to live with her daughter, Hatice. Yüksel speaks neither Catalan nor Spanish, and communicates solely with Hatice in Turkish.

Now, Hatice has partnered with Kloosiv, an association that combats loneliness in rural Catalonia, to find a woman interested in living with them.
The key requirement is that the person speaks Turkish and is willing to spend time with Yüksel. In return, Hatice offers a room in their home for only €130 a month. 

“In Turkish, we say ‘the soul needs a soul,’ explains Hatice to the Catalan News Agency (ACN), and clarifies that they are not looking for a caretaker but rather someone her mother can talk to.

Twice a week, Yüksel attends a local day center, where she plays bingo.

But she can’t interact with the other people there or the staff because of the language barrier.

“She needs to speak with someone, and for someone to ask her how she is doing,” says Hatice. “I talk to her, but I’m her daughter, and she needs to talk to someone else, too.”

Hatice says that her mother’s eyes light up whenever guests visit, even though they don’t speak Turkish.

“The feeling stays with her for a couple of hours,” she says. But, eventually, Yüksel’s thoughts of ‘Why did I come?’, ‘I have no one here,’ and I am a burden to my daughter,” come back, which pains Hatice.

“I don’t want her to think that,” she says, adding, “I just want to see my mother happy, and that she lives the last years of her life with mental and psychological dignity.”

Kloosiv, an association fighting rural loneliness

Laura Ayala, co-founder of Kloosiv, stresses to ACN that they are not looking for a caretaker, but someone who can share a home with Yüksel and Hatice and provide her companionship “from time to time.” 

“What we mean by that is living together and spending time with the person,” explains Ayala. “Eating together, watching TV in the afternoon, or going for a walk around town together.”

Kloosiv will manage the administrative side of the arrangement, and Ayala also notes that they have facilitated similar companionships before.

Hatice hopes to find someone who will end up “like family”.

“To eat at the same table, laugh at the same jokes, cry over the same series on TV, and speak the same language, is what she’d want,” she says.