Faith Based Organizations in the Struggle Against Poverty

Along with the power loss of welfare regimes in Europe, the problems which have always existed in the field of poverty started to reemerge as the one of the primary matters of humanity. However, in this period, the state whose intervention to economy was being already argued was deprived of the ability of intervention to the issue of poverty. After 1980s, the new generation social aid organizations emerged in the area of welfare, which was covered by the modern state institutions before. Some of these organizations can be titled as "faith based organizations" (FBOs) which are the organizations that refer directly or indirectly to a religion or religious values, and they function as welfare providers or as political actors. Today, faith based social aid organizations disperse into a wide area, from the sub groups of armed organizations to worship centers of several religions. These organizations perform a welfare function by carrying a number of activities. This study examines the FBOs in the sample of a non-governmental organization, Deniz Feneri (Light House) Association in Turkey. In this regard, the study opens a discussion for a new concept for the world as well as for Turkey.