EU helps Turkey's child workers back to school

CANKIRI, Turkey (Reuters) - Twelve-year-old Suna Kacar was until recently one of nearly 2 million Turkish child laborers who mostly work in the streets selling cheap goods or shining shoes to add a trickle to their family's income.

Her skin darkened from working long hours under the sun, the blonde, hazel-eyed girl is one of nearly 3,000 children in Turkey benefiting from a European Union project to eradicate the worst forms of child labor.

The 5.3-million-euro project aims to give working children like Suna, mostly from very poor families, the chance of a better life, sending many of them to school.

The scheme is one of many EU aid projects in Turkey and elsewhere, but comes as public support in Turkey for membership of the bloc has dwindled over the last year amid a perception existing members do not really want Ankara to join.

Since beginning accession talks in 2005, Turkey has come under fire from the EU over human rights issues and Cyprus, while nationalism is rising ahead of a presidential election in May and general polls scheduled for November.

"My mother wanted me to work and I didn't go to school in the past. I now see how good it is to go to school so I can have a profession when I grow up. I would like to become a nurse," said Suna.

The scheme in Cankiri province, 120 km (70 miles) northeast of the capital Ankara, is one of seven pilot projects across Turkey in operation to tackle child labor: 15-year-old Gani Gormez explained what it meant to him.

"I had been sent to work in the streets to earn pocket money and buy what the family needed. I understood when I started going to school how bad child labor is," he said.

While Turkey's economy has rebounded from a steep financial crisis in 2001 when many people lost their jobs, a quarter of all Turks live below the poverty line.

UNFAIR BURDEN

According to the UN International Labor Organization (ILO), nearly a quarter of Turkey's 74 million population is made up of children aged six to 17 years.

One in 10 -- 1.85 million children -- are seasonal agricultural workers, or work in small companies or on the street.

"They need to work in the streets because of the misfortune they had from birth or after. This an unfair burden, which they cannot carry. For our future it is very important to eradicate this burden," said Ali Haydar Oner, governor of Cankiri province.

Under the project, the child workers receive benefits varying from education kits to basic food packages, Oner said. They are also monitored to make sure they keep going to school and do not return to work again.

At the Cankiri center, Suna performed her own story for European Commission and media representatives as part of a drama lesson.

The play started with her selling cheap tissues in the street, then in her words "sisters" -- the project officials -- convinced her parents to grant her wish to go to school.

The show ended with a loud call: "No to child labor!"

PARENTS TARGETED

The project also targets the parents of children who work.

They learn to read and write and are encouraged to do vocational courses so that they can start to earn enough money to save their children from having to work.

"It is important not to leave parents out because the underlying cause is of course poverty ... It is important to create better employment opportunities for parents," said Holger Schroder, first secretary of the Commission delegation to Turkey on his visit to the Cankiri center.

Dilek Kekec, a 32 year-old woman and mother of a 14-year old boy who once carried heavy potato and onion sacks at the town's bazaar, welcomed the chance of making more money for her family.

"I would definitely love to pursue a career. I am a widow with four boys. I sometimes work as a house cleaner but the money I make is not enough," she said.

Child labor is also fueled by internal displacement, which is linked to poverty.

A study by the Hacettepe Institute of Population Studies shows nearly 50 percent of the population live in locations other than their place of birth.

Schroder said the EU planned to give more than 200 million euros to Turkey for human resource development projects such as creating new jobs and education improvement within three years.

"We hope at the end of this project child labor will be eradicated here in Cankiri, but we know that the fight against child labor will not be finished in Turkey," he said.