PREVENTION OF CHILD LABOR 

    Seasonal migrant agricultural work is stated as the worst form of child labor within the scope of the National Program on the Elimination of Child Labour 2017-2023, prepared by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

    Thousands of children of migratory agricultural worker families are migrating to various regions of Turkey between April and October for seasonal harvesting of different products. These children are working 12-15 hours a day while deprived of basic needs and can’t continue their education 1/3 of the school year, almost half of them leave school completely. With the pandemic, conditions got more difficult; with lengthening distance education and school closures, the risk of these children separating from education has increased considerably.

    TURKSTAT (Turkish Statistical Institute) data on child labor, our experiences since 2014, related videos and the details of our projects in this field can be accessed below.

    DATA ON CHILD LABOR IN SEASONAL AGRICULTURE 

    30.8% OF 720.000 CHILD WORKERS IN TURKEY WORK IN AGRICULTURE

    64.1% OF CHILDREN BETWEEN 5-14 YEARS OLD WORK IN AGRICULTURE

    SCHOOL DROP-OUT RATE IS INCREASING FROM CHILDHOOD TO YOUTH!

    *TURKSTAT (Turkish Statistical Institute), 2019

    WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED IN THE PAST 7 YEARS? 

    2014
    Our journey started in Düzce with "In a Nutshell!" project. We said, "The place of children is our summer schools, not crop fields". We knocked on the doors, visited houses, tents and barracks. We introduced ourselves and said "Your children are entrusted to us!"
    2014
    2015
    Families, teachers, gardeners, agricultural business intermediaries, private & public sector... We said "Everyone is part of the solution", and progressed together!
    2015
    2016
    It was a long journey for the children… Leaving their homes and going to crop fields where the harvest started for cotton, onion, apple, hazelnut… This time we were meeting them in more cities; We were in Düzce, Sakarya, Ordu.
    2016
    2017
    We wished the children never came out of the cities they lived in! We went to Şanlıurfa, one of the cities that emigrate the most. We wanted children to learn with fun and support their education. Most of all, we have created solutions for youth employment by preventing children from dropping out of school.
    2017
    2018
    We published awareness films and documents with our field experience, and offered suggestions and contributions to national and international committees.
    2018
    2019
    By including Syrian refugees in seasonal agriculture in our work, we started our work in Eskişehir.
    2019
    2020
    We continue to take project development and resource development steps for more holistic and sustainable studies. We work in the best interest of children to improve conditions that have become more difficult due to the pandemic.
    2020

    VIDEOS 

    PROJECTS 

    In A Nutshell

    The project aims to eliminate child labor among the seasonal migrant agricultural worker families and local children.
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    Elimination of the Child Labor in Seasonal Agriculture Project

    “Elimination of Child Labour in Seasonal Agriculture” project aims to contribute to overall policy advocacy and implementation, expansion of knowledge base and improvement of institutional capacity for the elimination of
    Read More

    Scholarship Project

    The Genç Hayat Foundation scholarship was announced to the students identified by the foundation in its studies throughout Turkey and through an open call; It is a scholarship given to
    Read More

    Last Stop for Child Labour: Eskişehir!

    The main objectives of the project are to improve the living conditions of workers in Eskişehir, where seasonal mobile agricultural labor is common, and to prevent child labor for agricultural
    Read More

    Seize Your Dreams Through Sports

    Within the scope of the project, the enhancement of the participation of children (which come from low-income families bearing the risk of child labour, who are forced to migrate with
    Read More

    Beholding Urfa with Youth

    Developing the skills of youth, who have been left out of the school system or have failed to attain a profession, for their employment; after connecting youth and local employment
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    Education for Children, Employment for Adults!

    With this project, it was aimed to find solutions to the problem of child labour in seasonal agriculture, to better the negative life conditions of families on fields who participate
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    Project for Prevention of Child Labour

    The project has been implemented in order to generate solutions to the issue of child labour in seasonal agriculture by developing common working principles with local administrations.
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    In A Nutshell (2014 – 2020)

    In a Nutshell project mainly put children in the center and established summer schools for both the children of seasonal agricultural workers and local children to keep them away from
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