Evaluation of Vefa Social Support Groups Applications During the COVID-19 Pandemic from Sociological Perspective: A Qualitative Study on the Erzurum Scale

In today’s societies, in parallel with both national and international development, the individual and all his needs have central importance. The individual has a central position in social, economic, political systems and government programs. At the point of meeting the needs of the citizens, which is a requirement of being a social state, states strengthen the citizen–state bond by doing important work in ordinary and extraordinary periods. In this context, various measures have been taken by the Presidency and the Government to control the spread of the epidemic in the face of the COVID-19 epidemic disease, and one of the measures taken is to ensure that our citizens over the age of 65 and our citizens who are chronically ill but have no one to look after the social state within the scope of the curfew. As a rule, by the Vefa Social Support Groups, which are formed by the representatives of the relevant public institutions and organizations, local administrations and non-governmental organizations under the coordination of the Governorships in the provinces and the District Governorships in the districts, meeting all kinds of needs, especially in-kind and cash demands, which are essential for the continuation of life, is the citizen–state bond. can be said to strengthen it. In this study, the sociological evaluation of the practices of the Loyalty Social Support Groups in Erzurum during the COVID-19 pandemic process was made. The official and voluntary services offered to the elderly and citizens with chronic diseases were examined. In our study, a study was conducted on a semi-structured interview form with 17 people who received service from the Vefa Social Support Group in Erzurum, and the data obtained from the interviews were subjected to content analysis and divided into topics, themes, and codes. In the research, a literature review on COVID-19 and epidemic diseases was made, and translations, academic journals, thesis studies, and Internet searches were made on the subject. This research was carried out with the phenomenology pattern, which is one of the qualitative research methods. The determined themes and codes were interpreted by the researcher, the results were interpreted in the light of the findings, and the study was completed with suggestions.

Cite this article as: Kılıç, C., & Duman, S. (2022). Evaluation of Vefa Social Support Groups Applications During the COVID-19 Pandemic from Sociological Perspective: A Qualitative Study on the Erzurum Scale. Journal of Literature and Humanities, 69, 21-31.