As Özne Çocuk Project, we kicked off our work in December 2021. Within the scope of our project, over the course of 3 years, we will carry out activities to support the Ministry of Family and Social Services and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security in the implementation of holistic and rights-based social policies for the best interests of children in Türkiye through a child-centered, rights-based and inclusive approach.
We have compiled the activities we carried out throughout 2022 for you below.
We Kicked off Quickly Our Preparatory Work!
We held our first meeting on 14 December 2022 with the participation of representatives of the beneficiary institutions, key experts of the project, and the technical assistance team. In this meeting, we exchanged ideas on the work we will carry out for 36 months, our expectations for the project, and what we can achieve with our project.
Our project is comprised of four main components and 31 activities in total.
Birinci bileşenin amacı, The first component aims to increase communication, coordination, advocacy, and cooperation among stakeholder organizations of child welfare and protection services in Türkiye.
İkinci bileşenin amacı, The second component aims to improve the standards, professional quality, and service models of the child protection and care system in Türkiye.
Üçüncü bileşenin amacı, The third component aims to develop effective tools for preventing and combatting child labour.
Dördüncü bileşenin amacı, The fourth component aims to strengthen protective, preventive and rehabilitative mechanisms for children under vulnerable conditions.
Özne Çocuk on Social Media!
Part of our preparatory work included creating our project identity and establishing digital visibility. After extensive consultations, we agreed on the short name of our project and, thus, the short name "Özne Çocuk" [Subject/Agent Child] was created. Children as the agents of today, the future, and the agents of the family system!
You can follow us on our social networks.
We Prepared Our Six-monthly Reports!
In the first and second 6-month project interim reports prepared by our project key experts, we had the chance to share our work with the beneficiaries and the contracting authority under a single document.
We were in the Field for Focus Group Discussions in April!
Throughout the month of April, we conducted focus group discussions with the personnel of the Ministry of Family and Social Services and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. These discussions helped us to analyse the needs of the child protection system. Moreover, for the quantitative component of our study, we collected data from 1754 personnel working in the provincial organization of the Ministry of Family and Social Services and 260 personnel working in the provincial organization of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. This data guided our project team in the preparation of both the "Current Situation Analysis" and the "Communication, Coordination and Information Sharing Strategy Document" reports.
Özne Çocuk Meets With Civil Society!
In May and June, we met with civil society organizations working on child rights in Ankara and İstanbul. In our interviews, we had the chance to learn about the needs of civil society regarding advocacy and the challenges faced in public cooperation. We also exchanged ideas on how to solve the problems.
In light of the information obtained in these interviews and the work of our project experts, we have prepared a document titled "Public Advocacy for Children's Rights: A Step-by-Step Guide for Preparing an Action Plan". We aim for this guide to lead civil society organizations in their advocacy work.
We started our work on meeting with civil society organizations in the "Step by Step Advocacy" workshops that we will organize in 2023 and have the opportunity to work together.
12 July Çanakkale Children’s Gathering
Our project also aims to raise awareness about the negative effects of child labour in Türkiye. Therefore, we held our first event in Çanakkale on June 12, the International World Day Against Child Labour. In our children’s gathering carried out with the participation of more than 1300 children, we ensured that they had a pleasant day with outdoor activities, child-friendly games and activities.
Meanwhile, as part of our awareness-raising tasks, we produced "No to Child Labour for our Future" brochures. Click here to see the brochure!
We Started Working on TV Spots!
Within the scope of our project's awareness-raising activities, we plan to prepare TV spots informing the public about early marriage and child labour. In the last three months of 2022, we started working on their scenarios.
Improving Child Care Services is One of Our Goals!
As Özne Çocuk, we aim to improve the standards and the accessibility of child care services in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, and the EU Guidelines on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Child. To this end, we carried out field visits in İzmir, İstanbul and Çankırı. In parallel with these field visits, we completed 11 focus group discussions with the personnel of the Ministry of Family and Social Services.
We also had the chance to observe child welfare policies and practices in Finland during a study visit held between December 11-16.
In line with the experiences gathered, our project team completed and submitted to the beneficiary institutions the following reports on the standards and practices applied in the EU countries: "Desk Study Report", "Comparative Analysis Report on Accessibility and Quality of Child Protection and Care Services", "Training Needs Assessment Methodology Report", "Good Practices Report" and "Quantitative Data Collection Process and Data Analysis".
We Completed our Work on Training Needs Assessment!
We completed a three-dimensional training needs assessment that examined the professional competencies in the field of child protection of the professional staff of the General Directorate of Child Services of the Ministry of Family and Social Services and the General Directorate on the Status of Women, as well as the professional staff working in the Units for Combatting Child Labour under the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
Our project also aims to build the capacity of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to improve intra- and inter-agency coordination, management and planning of actions to prevent child labour, including the protection of refugees and children under vulnerable conditions from abusive and exploitative working conditions.
In line with this goal, our project experts have started their work on training needs assessment. We will continue our work throughout 2023.
Our Work Will Continue in 2023!
This year, just as in 2022, we will continue our efforts to support our beneficiary institutions in implementing holistic and rights-based policies for the best interests of children in Türkiye.
