By Finans Rotasi
Watching economic news in Turkey, we kept seeing the same thing: The numbers concerned everyone, but the language spoke to only a few. Terms like inflation, interest rates, and exchange-rate risk filled the headlines, yet most people were not given the tools to understand what these words meant for their own lives.
We also saw who this gap affected the most. A working mother who feels grocery prices rising but cannot connect it to state monetary policies. A recent graduate who, while job hunting, never finds clear information about their financial rights. A migrant who tries to open a bank account but faces both a language and a knowledge barrier. The people most affected by economic decisions were often the least equipped to question them.
This is what troubled us: When information is this unequal, so is power. When people do not understand something, they cannot challenge it or claim their rights. This is why we came to believe that economic literacy is not only a practical skill, but a right — a tool that lets people demand accountability based on facts.
In fact, at Finans Rotası, we have been doing this work for years: Explaining the economy in plain language and making complex data understandable for everyone was our starting point. But over time we realized that the audience we reached consisted mostly of people who were already interested in the economy and had a certain level of knowledge. Those who needed it most (women, young people, and migrants) were often left by the wayside.
One day, someone we know asked us a simple question: “If inflation is 36 percent, what exactly does that mean for my salary?” The answer was easy to explain. What troubled us was why this question had been asked so late. Because the economy is one of the subjects least explained to the very people it affects the most. The idea behind Fin-Civic was born from this realization — so that those who most need financial literacy can access it.
Who we are and our goal
Fin-Civic was created to make economic information accessible, simple, and useful for everyone, regardless of their background or level of education. Our aim is to help vulnerable groups read official data, recognize financial disinformation, and understand their rights as economic citizens.
Our main target audience is the vulnerable groups who remain economically invisible and are left outside the system. By this, we mean women seeking economic independence, young people entering working life, and migrant communities facing legal and cultural barriers to the financial system. Many people live with several of these realities at once, and we aim to produce content that speaks to all of them in plain, respectful language. We carry out this project with a “leave no one behind” approach, with the belief that financial knowledge is for everyone.
What we are doing
Over six months, we are building a small but complete program. Each month, we publish a newsletter that summarises the most important economic developments in Turkey in clear and neutral language. We are producing a 12-episode podcast series that strips away technical jargon and turns complex topics into everyday conversation. We are also holding four interactive webinars on financial rights and digital security, and bringing all of this together on a single website that works as an open library for anyone who wants to learn.
To measure whether our work truly helps, we use a short self-assessment survey before and after the webinars, so we can see how people’s awareness and confidence change over time.
For us, the most rewarding moment was publishing our first newsletter. It may sound simple, but turning a month of confusing economic news ( inflation figures, interest-rate decisions, rising rents, youth unemployment) into one clear and readable summary felt like proof that our idea works. We did not just report the numbers; we explained what they mean for an ordinary household. Seeing people respond to it and ask for more told us we were on the right path.
Continuing the work
Because the project is still young, the real outcomes will become visible toward the end, in September, when we compare the results of our first and final surveys. We hope to show, with concrete data, that participants feel more confident reading economic information, are more able to spot financial manipulation, and are more aware of their rights.
But some changes are already visible. People who once scrolled past economic news now tell us they read our newsletter to the end. That small shift in attention is, for us, the beginning of something larger.
We want Fin-Civic to outlive its grant period. The website will remain a permanent and free library of newsletters, podcasts, and webinar recordings. The community we are building can continue to function as a solidarity network against financial disinformation.
Our goal is to create, in the next stage of the project, a page accessible from all social media platforms and a comprehensive website that makes financial knowledge truly reach everyone. We want every person to be able to access accurate and simple economic information, no matter where they are, which platform they use, or how close they are to the subject. The methods we are learning now will help us reach new groups in the future.
This experience taught us that making information simple is far harder and far more valuable than making it sound complex.
