SİRKHANE
social
circus
school
SIRK = CIRCUS
HANE = HOUSE
For
Children,
Inspired By Children.
Who We Are
Welcome to Sirkhane. We are a vibrant social circus and arts initiative dedicated to bringing joy, healing, and safe spaces to children in Mardin, Turkey, and surrounding regions. Born in a corner of the world shaped by complex realities, we use the transformative power of circus arts and photography to help vulnerable and displaced children reclaim their childhoods.
Our Mission & Vision
We believe that every child deserves a space to play, laugh, and dream, regardless of their background. Our work bridges the gap between local and refugee communities, replacing trauma and isolation with connection, confidence, and shared laughter.
What Drives Us
The Magic of Social Circus: For us, juggling, acrobatics, and clowning aren't just performance arts—they are tools for physical development, trust-building, and emotional resilience. Circus provides a universal language that transcends borders and words.
A Sanctuary of Inclusivity: We create a warm, non-judgmental environment where local and displaced children come together as equals. By learning and performing together, they break down prejudices and build deep empathy.
Creative Empowerment: Through projects like the Sirkhane Darkroom, we put cameras and circus props directly into the hands of children. We empower them to capture their own light, share their unique stories, and rewrite their own narratives.
"We don't just teach children how to perform; we give them the tools to trust, laugh, and believe in themselves again."
WINNER OF AGA KHAN MUSIC 2025
Our impact
Sirkhane is a home which welcomes children from Turkey, Syria and iraq
By offering children and youth social circus, music and complimentary activities, we are proposing an alternative way of engaging refugee and displaced youth in education through non-formal playful means. Social circus helps to engage and harmonize children from different backgrounds. Social circus is an effective tool for releasing traumas and discharging the energy that builds up in young people forced to live in conflict zones.
500,000+ children
Hundreds of thousands of chIldren Impacted
Sirkhanes – offers a safe, creative space for Syrian and Iraqi refugee children, as well as local children and youth. The centers offers activities and lessons including but not limited to painting, music, clownery, handicrafts, analog photography and darkroom, juggling, acrobatics, and dance with local and international volunteer artists and trainers.
4+2 locations and units
Four centers + two mobIle unIts
The center is currently at capacity, serving around 300 children daily and since 2012 reached out more than 500,000 children through festival, events and workshops through mobile units.
16 years
years of servIng communItIes
Sirkhane strongly believes that every child deserves to have their basic rights as described in UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. No matter who they are, where they live, what their parents do, what language they speak, what their religion is, whether they are a boy or girl, what their cultural background is, whether they have a disability, whether they are rich or poor, they should be treated fairly and equally
To keep the sparks of childhood alive
Why do we do this?
How do we do this?
How Can you help out?
We always need your support in order to keep our school running. There are various ways that you can contribute to our programs.
Volunteer opportunItIes
You can volunteer for us and teach our children how to fly
Make a DonatIon
You can also make a tax-deductible donation to our organization.
Our Programs
Sirkhane (House Of Circus)
The social circus is a playful, joyful and laughter-based form of art. It’s a pedagogical tool that promotes the participation and empowerment of children and young people who are in personal or social risk. Workshops on different skills such as juggling, acrobatics, aerials, clowning, theater, pyramids are very important to teach children new ways of thinking, creating and playing while expanding their social environment. Training social circus disciplines and entails the basic element of fun and joy. While learning circus disciplines children and young people also have opportunity to develop life skills such as group dynamics, adopting universal values, improving coordination and concentration, developing a healthy personality and healthy social communication skills.
Müzikhane (House of Music)
Müzikhane (House of Music in Turkish and Persian), is a social musical school based in Mardin Province, located in the south east of Turkey along the border with Syria. Initiated by San Francisco-Based composer, Sahba Aminikia as part of Flying Carpet Festival in 2018, the school continues to grow to become a cultural learning center for vulnerable children. Müzikhane aims to provide world-class cultural and artistic opportunities to vulnerable children in the same region, while also allowing the magic of their music to spread around the world to places where music and beauty are needed most. We connect artists from all around the world to our children, and they learn from those who have been through horrendous experiences and still keep the fire of hope burning in their hearts.
Mobile Programs
FLYING CARPET CHILDREN FESTIVAL
As a flagship initiative of Sirkhane Social Circus School, the Flying Carpet Children Festival stands as the world’s first mobile, multidisciplinary arts festival dedicated to transforming the lives of vulnerable and refugee children living in conflict zones along the Turkish-Syrian border. Founded by Iranian-American composer Sahba Aminikia in collaboration with Sirkhane founder Pinar Demiral, this visionary platform harmonizes the universal languages of music, social circus pedagogy, dance, and storytelling to provide spiritual healing and pure joy to youth affected by war. Since its inception in 2018, the festival has achieved profound milestones, hosting over 220 international artist residencies from more than 20 countries, delivering 600+ innovative educational workshops, and staging nearly 80 live performances that turn remote villages and cities across southeastern Turkey into spaces of wonder. By placing traumatized children at the absolute center of the creative process, the festival fosters a deep sense of identity, confidence, and cross-cultural solidarity. The immense socio-artistic impact of this initiative was globally celebrated when its leadership was honored with the prestigious Aga Khan Music Award, cementing the Flying Carpet Festival’s legacy as a transcendent, border-crossing beacon of hope, laughter, and creative empowerment for the children who need it most.
As featured on TED:
Past Programs:
GALAXI
We may not be able to travel through the whole galaxy, but we may well travel through all of Mardin inside “Galaxy”. Let us introduce Galaxy, our Mobile Circus Unit that has trail through rural areas of Mardin. Galaxy’s mission is to bring child protection services such as prevention of child marriages and child labor, prevention of domestic violence, access to educational opportunities, support for releasing trauma, teaching children’s rights through social circus shows and workshops, laughter, games, puppetry, magic and music is at our hands to make all that happen.
Flying Library
Sirkhane flying library was a mobile educational, child friendly container that lands on places where children don’t have access to inspiring environments and educational resources. It flies from one location to another with children books, handicrafts, circus, films, educational and joyful activities. Flying library stays in the same location at least a year until it completes it’s mission. Then keeps flying to places where it’s needed most. By bringing together the two most fundamental rights of every child, education and play, flying library carries out psychosocial activities and cultural improvement at locations where children has been through geographical, political, social and economical struggle.
Sirkhane DARKROOM
Sirkhane Darkroom was an empowering program initiated by Turkish photographer, Emel Ernalbant in 2016. The project equips children with inexpensive, pinhole andsimple analogue cameras, teaches them the basics of composition and visual arts and how to develop, print and achieve results out of their own art. The children are encouraged to take photos of their own surroundings, and capture the innocence and the beauty inside their own lives. Serbest also teaches them how to develop their photos, print them and makes exhibitions of their art; a full cycle of artistic experience.
PAST Partnerships:
implemented by:
Project carries out to combat child labor in agricultural areas in the Black Sea region (Samsun-Ordu-Giresun) with the partnership of “Ferrero valuable agricultural”. Check for details click.
Partners:
Role Models:
Member of caravan circus
