Say Yes, Spring 2005: İsmail Barış

Turkey’s Social Services and Child Protection Agency (SHÇEK) is responsible for children that are found to be in need of special protection measures. For all street children, this means that SHÇEK is the foremost government agency to offer them protection. The General Director, Mr İsmail Barış, spoke to UNICEF Turkey about the issue and how SHÇEK is dealing with it.

The institution of the family remains strong in Turkey although we can also see that economic and social hardships have debilitating effects on the institution. Many view their children’s employment as an ‘economic necessity’ and this is how their children first meet with life on the streets.

Industrial relations, and the proliferation of poor suburbs as a result of a rather distorted pattern of urbanisation, poverty and unemployment have all contributed to the increasing numbers of street children.

Various governmental units have tried to address the issue but the lack of a multi-disciplinary approach means that it hasn’t been possible to create a chain that would lead to the desired result. A worsening social and economic climate and the relatively poor level of cooperation between sectors and non-governmental organisations on the other is surely one of the factors precluding success in this area.

Prime Minister Erdoğan took the matter in hand and formed a committee from the ministries of Interior, Justice, Health and National Education under the coordination of Güldal Akşit, the State Minister in charge of SHÇEK.

The committee instructed SHÇEK, as an institution specialised in the subject, to develop a workable and sustainable solution to the problem. Staff from SHÇEK studied the experience of neighbouring European countries and, combining these observations with our own experience, they came up with a general framework that envisaged the cooperation of all relevant sectors. The primary step was to test this model in eight priority provinces where the problem is acute. These provinces are İstanbul, Adana, Bursa, Diyarbakır, Antalya Mersin, İzmir and Ankara. The pilot model has already been launched in İstanbul. There are some shortages, but we are working to eliminate them with strong support from MONE and the Ministry of Health.

We’re working with the Provincial Governorates through the Ministry of the Interior which satisfies the principles of sector-based cooperation and sustainability.

What is new in this model is that it envisages province-based coordination centres with their own units. The Mobile Team, bringing together social workers, psychologists and teachers is one of these units. They are on call around the clock to reach the hot-spots where street children gather. If a child is involved in substance abuse and is amenable to treatment, he will be referred to a branch of ÇEMATEM (Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment and Support Centres). Other children can be referred to rehabilitation centres for up to 1 or 2 years. The programme foresees the re-enrolment and education of school age children and also the enrolment of those over the compulsory school age to vocational training courses.

Sheltering centres for children involved in substance abuse but who are not accepting treatment will be phased in. These shelters will only respond to the basic needs of the children. All the same, professionals will monitor the children and try to convince them that referral to an addiction treatment centre is the best option. This method involves something of a ‘deep breath’ but I think it is a promising model if society as a whole supports it and other relevant organisations do their best in their respective fields.

We have been working with UNICEF in many essential areas for a long time now. Our resources are limited and I want to stress that we need UNICEF’s support in terms of technical expertise, training and financial assistance if we are to get this model to work and make the difference for children living on the streets of Turkey.

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