This neighborhood has all the characteristics of constant migration to İzmir; irregular urbanization, muddy streets and ubiquitous poverty. The Gün family was discovered by project volunteers trying to eliminate child labor in the textile sector. The Gün family migrated to İzmir from Muş. Migration is already one of the most important reasons for child labor and the families of many working children in İzmir migrated there from southeastern and eastern provinces, particularly Mardin. The father of the Gün family used to be a construction worker. One day he fell from some scaffolding and was paralyzed. Therefore someone else had to support the family. The eldest daughter, Pınar, now married, started work.
"We were in deep financial troubles due to my disability, but we were mostly feeling sorry for the children," says the father. Their mother Şerife tells of the early days of their trials and tribulations:
‘Children who see themselves as adults’
"I felt saddened the most for Selda. She was a brilliant student. And she told me, 'Mommy, I cannot concentrate on my lessons when we are having money troubles'."
The two elder sisters sacrificed themselves in order that their sister and brothers could attend school and their family could survive, but the third-eldest sister Semra did not return to school despite all encouragement. One of the most distinctive characteristics of working children is, for sociologist Hüseyin Bahçeci, their loss of a willingness to return to school.
"These children become individuals when they start to earn money. School motivations decrease and they become more fragile. Although they are still children, they start to regard themselves as adults," he explains.
The project workers encouraged the girls to attend vocational courses, but they failed to persuade Hakan to attend the regional state boarding school. His brother, Serkan, is currently attending a primary school. Both boys want to be either police officer or army officers. These are the favorite professions for the children working in jobs requiring physical effort, according to a study in which working children were interviewed. In other words, they want to remove their overalls and wear uniforms. According this survey, 25 percent of working children want to become police or army officers, 20 percent engineers or architects, 19 percent lawyers or medical doctors, 8 percent nurses and 19 percent teachers. The rate of children wishing to engage in trade and business is only 3 percent.
The Gün family is hosting us at a table laid on the ground. Şerife, the mother, says, "If they did not help our children, they would become glue-sniffing addicts or psychopaths or vagabonds."
Of course the duties of the volunteers working in the project are not over just by deciding how the children of Gün family will continue with their school or professional lives. They provided their father with legal assistance in the suit launched by him in connection with the accident he suffered at work. They also provided psychological support to Şerife, including wood painting courses at the project headquarters.
Eight different courses have been launched for parents within the scope of the project for the elimination of child labor in the auto repair, textile, ready-made clothing and shoe production sectors. Of the 166 parents who have participated thus far, the project has found jobs for 71 percent who successfully completed courses. According to the project report, transforming unskilled labor to skilled through training courses for jobs with high employment rates helps to minimize families' dependence on child labor for financial support. Providing vocational training for parents is one of the most efficient methods to eliminate child labor.
Having heard that the project officials are paying a visit to the Gün family, Ömer and his mother come over. Ömer is in the second grade of primary school. His family migrated to İzmir from Ağrı. We talk for a while. He gives smart answers to our questions; his big eyes are piercing. Ömer explains us that his father is jobless. Later we are told that since there is no school within walking distance, Ömer has to take a private school bus, costing YTL 35, a fee his family can ill afford.
The project workers take note of Ömer's situation. Actually nothing can be done for Ömer within the scope of the project for the elimination of child labor before he starts to work. Yet they all know that as long as Ömer's parents are unemployed and Ömer cannot secure YTL 35 every month to go to school, they will eventually encounter him within the scope of the project. The project workers once again start to phone to some people and they manage to secure Ömer's fee. But what about the many other Ömers who cannot express themselves? Are they doomed to join the child workforce?
Talking to child workers, their parents and their sisters and brothers, one cannot help but notice their many different needs. It seems every child is a separate project. Moreover providing solutions to these children's immediate problems will not suffice. They have to be monitored and supported. To this end social support centers have been established within the framework of the project for the elimination of child labor.
The center established for the children working in the auto repair, textile, ready-made clothing and shoe production sectors was handed over to İzmir Municipality after the completion of the project. A new center has been established for children working in the furniture center. This new center is located in Karabağlar quarter of İzmir, where the majority of the town's furniture businesses are concentrated. The project workers explain that they feel the need to be close to the children. Also they point out to the importance of close cooperation with the employers.
Under Turkish legislation, child labor is a criminal offense. An employer who violates the law in this respect is fined YTL 844, and this fine is multiplied for each offense. However the project workers have a basic principle: "No punishment."
Sıddık Topaloğlu, head of the İzmir Labor Inspection Group, maintains that they prefer persuasion over punishment. He says: "Actually this does not mean toleration. This project has three piers: the child, the parents and the employer. If one of them is missing we cannot be effective. However the employer should have respect for us, and a little fear."
The project workers state that as they inform them of the harmful effects of child labor, employers grow more eager to cooperate. Foreigners coming to examine the project have been startled to see eagerness from employers, they say. There are even employers who usher the children they employ or the children who request employment from them to the center for them to take apprentice or journeyman training.
Just like Turgay Varol, who has a business in the furniture sector. He tells us how he has sent his employee Aykut to the apprenticeship training and encouraged him to attend the activities in the social support center. "When he grows up he will either curse me or pray for me," he says.
Occasional courses are organized for employers, in which they are informed about the measures they should take in their workplaces. The project workers resort to all kinds of methods in raising the employer awareness concerning the wrongness of exploiting child labor. The employers and their families are also encouraged to participate in the jewelry preparation, wood painting and other courses held in the Social Support Center. Hatice, the wife of an employer, also participates in the courses held in the center and says that the center has increased her awareness of the need to eliminate child labor.
From birthday parties to saz classes
The Social Support Centers are in a sense shelters for children. Sociologist Hüseyin Bahçeci tells us the story of a child they have sent to a boarding school:
"He wanted to play a joke on one of his friends. His friend had a pin in his mouth and he swallowed it. He felt so sorry that he escaped from the school. Although the school was 20 kilometers away from here, he came to the center on foot."
Once a child told them that he had never had a birthday party and they organized one for him in the center. The children need the center to complete their training. During our visit we meet with Saim, a child working in the furniture sector. His teacher Haluk Karaca is trying to teach him how to read and write. Karaca explains that there are no courses in the center designed to teach these skills and that he is also giving additional tuition. He shows us a paper, one that belongs to a student attending a complementary course. He has made no error in his arithmetic and his handwriting is very orderly. "It belongs to a working child. I am sure he would become a very successful student if he did not have to work," says Haluk.
In the center we hear music and we are told that they are holding courses in saz -- a string instruments popular among Turks -- during the noon break. Music teacher Savaş Çaygül is happy to work at the center and he thinks that the children are in need of all kinds of training.
The center gives children free lunch in order to attract them to the center. As lunchtime approaches, children start to arrive one-by-one. One such child is Yakup. He is apparently at the age of 11 or 12 at most, but he claims to be 15 years old. Most probably this is because the working children are skinny. The dust and volatile agents they have to inhale as well as working in dim environments under bad conditions have adverse effects on their physical development. When we see that the chair on which Yakup is sitting is covered with dust as he stands up, we recall what one of the labor inspectors said: "It is easy to identify the children working in the furniture sector. There is always dust in their ears and noses which they cannot remove how hard they try."
The Social Support Centers also perform health surveys of the children. Since the children are exposed to continuous noise, audio tests are conducted on them; their respiratory systems are also examined to find out if they have developed tuberculosis. These surveys have shown that some children need hospitalization. The children have also been given first aid courses. The narcotic division, too, has organized courses designed to raise awareness of the problems of solvent abuse among these children who are continually exposed to volatile agents.
The project workers point out that it is very important to ensure that the children feel they belong to the community. In this framework they take children to sports games, organize movie days once a week in the center and hold chess and painting courses. These activities can get partial financial support from the project budget while nongovernmental organizations provide the remaining funds. The children are taken to museums and book fairs, and every opportunity to contribute to the socialization of the children is taken -- such as watching the solar eclipse together.
One thing that attracts our attention while we are talking to project workers is that they do not use the word "our children" when they refer to the children that the project deals with.
Topaloğlu asserts that the people working in the project for the elimination of child labor are selected from people who are able to produce practical solutions, take the initiative and devote themselves to the project, and that otherwise the project will not be successful, adding, "We have a limited budget. We must seek to reach as many children as possible using this budget."
He goes on: "Please, look around. We did not buy some of the furniture here. Those cabinets were granted by a bank as they were renewing their branch. Or, for example, organizing a dinner for the promotion of the project was part of the framework the International Labor Organization (ILO) imposed on us and we have to comply with it. However we organized it, not in a luxury hotel, but in a more reasonable peace. We are seeking support from beneficent people and voluntary organizations in meeting many needs of our children. This is because we are trying to reach as many children as possible."
Will Turkey be able to keep its promise to eliminate child labor by 2015 while there are many working children and the causes of child labor -- i.e., migration, unemployment, disrupted macroeconomic equilibrium -- remain unsolved? To this frequently asked question, Topaloğlu gives the same answer:
"One day the shore was covered in starfish. A child was taking the starfish one by one to throw them back into to the sea. As they pass by, some people ask, 'How many of them can you save?' The child responded, 'As many as possible...'" Topaloğlu pauses for a moment and adds,
"We try to save as many as possible..."
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