To eliminate child labour: Young Girls’ House Project
Two major handicaps resulting from children starting to work at early ages are; loss of education and health. Fisek Foundation first took notice of the health issue. Models are developped in order to help child workers about health issues both at work places and Apprenticeship Education Centers. The struggle still continues.
As Fisek Foundation, we are working hard to prevent children to leave their education and join the working crowds. Because just wishing well does not help children continue their education. They need warm and quiet corners and friendly support from elders to study. Sometimes very small amounts of money becomes huge barriers for them.
At our Center for Young Girls , the love and attention shown to girls, help them develop their self consciousness to become an individual and their self confidence. The more succesful they become at school, the more they expect from life and the family hopes increase for a better life. When mothers start to take part in working and producing process, they start to earn income and the whole life standard of the family and spouses increase.
The Center for Young Girls Project must be an ongoing effort all through the education life of the participants. In other words, if the sustainibility of this project is not achieved, then all the effort would be in vain. Fisek Institute proved its compatibility by concentrating on health and social issues of the working children for 23 years and succesfully helping them. The most important guarantee of the sustainability of this project is all these efforts and experiences of the past.
This project aims at specifically the young girls, keeping them away from early working life and early marriages as well. If girls enter the marriage life at later ages, they tend to continue with their profession and decrease the child labour. Educated mothers with few children, would definitely try to give the same benefits of their own Young Girls’ House experiences to their children. A positive result would come out of a positive effort.
To end child labour is the correct aim. But it must be underlined that this aim was born out of a social necessity, thats why we must not forget to end this social necessity while we work towards our aim. The Young Girls’ House Project supports both mothers and their young daughters, thus ending the basic socio-economic reasons for child labour.
YOUNG GIRLS’ HOUSE
(Life Support For The Young Girl Child Labourers)
OBJECTIVE
Ensuring the development of young girl workers as independent individuals, comprehending their situation in the world, recognising themselves and improving their self-confidence; besides, ensuring that they are provided with necessary abilities and understanding in order to build a career in the working life conditions.
GROUNDS
The inequalities between men and women in the social life lead us to comprehend the inequalities in the working life conditions. However, these inequalities are built upon the inadequacies of the females in terms their vocational-technical (dis)qualifications as much as they are built upon the assignment of distinctive gender roles rooted in the cultural determinants.
Our researches show that young girls are stayed in their homes by their parents till they get married rather then being supported to involve in the working life; therefore, they engage in various housework activities. Additionally, even if they are supported to do so, they are worked (till they get married) only with financial concerns, and without considering any of the educational options. It is not possible to say the same things for the young boys.
In order to survive as independent and persistent individuals in the working life, the girls should first realise themselves as independent individuals, improve their self-confidence and reach to the idea that they are the only ones who make plans for their future. Against the realisation of such a point of view, social and cultural factors remain as a resistance.
For the communicative-educational studies to be held, it is aimed that these girl should achieve to overcome these traditional cultural prejudices and then, they would be capable of realising their dreams.
TARGET GROUP
Girl child labourers under 16, living in the city and working without attending to schools.
ACTIONS
Educational group studies will be held with the participation of 60 young girls (salaried workers or domestic workers) who have stopped attending to schools. In order to determine the differences among the girls’ visions and thinking patterns, surveys will be taken both before and after these studies.
These studies will be realised in the form of home meetings and in an informal way, paving a way to the active participation of girls .
During these gatherings, the topics determined for the meetings will be discussed under the directorship of a person, who is competent in that subject matter. The private agenda of these educational studies can be exemplified as follows:
1. HEALTH
Universal and contemporary approaches and preventive medicine
Health rights
Reproduction health
Children’s health
2. WOMAN
2.1 Assurance (self-confidence) melioration
2.2 Socialisation process and identification (self-assigned roles)
2.3 Human relations and the necessity of solidarity
2.4 Womanly problems
2.5 Consciousness on human body
2.6 Woman issues in front of the law
3. LABOUR
3.1 Social rights of a working woman
3.2 Woman and safe-healthy working environment
3.3 Improvement of women’s enterprises
3.4 Co-operativeness
The results of these studies will be discussed in an open meeting welcoming everyone’s participation; new model alternatives will be put forth for consideration in order to attain more concrete results.
Besides, all these studies will take place at the web site of Fisek Institue-Child Labour Foundation (both in English and Turkish); therefore, this will give an opportunity by which the subject matter is shared with a broader circle from different geographies.