THE CAMPAIGN "WOULD YOU BE MY GUARDIAN" HELPED 1893 CHILDREN WORKING IN STREETS IN SOUTH-EASTERN ANATOLIA FIND THEIR VOLUNTEER SCHOOL GUARDIANS
The 2nd stage of the campaign will cover children from other provinces as well
"Osman G is 12 years old and attending grade 6 in primary school. He is a member of a family with 6 children. Despite his very young age, Osman has a rather heavy burden on his shoulders. Instead of studying or playing as his peers do, he has to get up at 5 o’clock every morning and go out to sell simit. Osman’s father is working in a market and his mother is a housewife. Although his father and elder brother have their jobs, he is forced by his family to work. Now he has been working out in streets for 4 years, either selling simit or shining shoes. The difficulty and cruelty of life has found its reflection on Osman’s face. He has had almost no childhood to recall. As people get to know him better, one can notice a deeply hurt personality behind his childish face, looking with hatred to the vagaries of life. With others’ help, Osman will most probably feel himself valued and for the first time he will feel as a child".
From Osman who wants to live his childhood to Emine who wants to be a teacher, and from Hanefi planning to be a doctor to Beţir who has never had a chance to appear as his name suggests (Besir means “smiling face”) many children in South-eastern Anatolia were covered by the campaign and they eventually found their school guardians. Open to popular participation and contribution through the website (www.velimolurmusun.org) this campaign went beyond initial expectations thanks to the sensitiveness of citizens and, within such a short period as one month 1,893 children working in streets found their volunteer guardians to provide for their school needs and expenses. The second phase of the campaign starting on March 10 is presently continuing to find supporting guardians for 2, 272 children more.
The campaign, which is one of the supporting mechanisms of the “Project on the Rehabilitation of Children Working in Streets” jointly conducted by the GAP Administration, UNDP and Governorates of Gaziantep, Batman and Þanlýurfa was launched on 25 January 2006 upon the undertaking of Dr. Abdüllatif Sener, Deputy Prime Minister and State Minister in Charge of GAP, to be the school guardian of Ahmet, with code number 337, living in Gaziantep. Under the campaign, school expenses –textbooks, stationery, uniforms, etc. - of children working in streets in Sanliurfa, Batman and Gaziantep were covered by volunteering guardians. Persons interested in the campaign selected a child from a list which gave information about schooling needs and familial characteristics of needy children working in streets. Materials provided by charitable persons were delivered free to children by Express Cargo which undertook the sponsorship of the campaign.
Observing wide public interest in the campaign within a month, it was decided to spread the campaign to other sectors and provinces. In this context, the campaign will be expanded to cover the provinces of Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, Çorum, Diyarbakir, Istanbul, Izmir, and Kocaeli, which are also provinces covered by the ILO Project on the “Time Bound Policy and Programme Framework for the elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour”. The project is now continuing with the periodic addition to the website of about 4,000 children who were identified as working in manufacturing industry, seasonal commercial agriculture or in streets by the joint ILO-SHÇEK project for “School enrolment of Children Working in Streets in 11 Provinces” and joint ILO-MoNE/Directorate of Primary Education Project on the “Elimination of Seasonal Commercial Child Labour in Karatas/Adana".