Street kids in Gaziantep given vocational training
| Street kids in Gaziantep given vocational training | |||
| The Vocational Education and Rehabilitation Center opened by the administrative district of Şahinbey in the southeastern city of Gaziantep has rescued 563 children, aged between 7 to 18, from a life on the streets. |
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The center, located in the Etiler neighborhood of the district, also serves people during the weekend due to high demand. The personnel work on weekends voluntarily. About 150 children benefit from various services every day. Those under 13 years of age make bracelets, necklaces and earrings in the jewelry workshop. They also ornament candles, lampshades and clay pots of various sizes with beads. While a group of "small hands" weave rugs in the looming workshop, another group of teenagers sew bags in a separate workshop. Young girls also receive vocational training for home services. The activities in the center will soon turn into a system of "50 percent education, 50 percent production." A kindergarten for children under 6 years of age offers nursing services free of charge, as well as education for the children of parents trained in the center. The children and their families have weekly health check-ups and the children are transported to the center by service buses, which are also free of charge. In some cases parents are trained in the same workshop as their children. Weaving rugs on the same loom with her daughters, Rabia İnan is one of those parents. İnan, whose husband has been unable to work for eight years due to a problem with his leg, has taken up the responsibility of looking after her husband along with her five children by working as a cleaner. "I come here to master my weaving skills. If they donate us a loom I will weave rugs with my daughters and thus be able to send my other children to school," says Rabia İnan, who has to leave two of her children at home to attend the courses. Lütfiye Kayıkçı, a tutor who works voluntarily in the center on weekends, says that she is really happy to be a part of a project that saves children from the dangerous life in the street and teach them good manners, thereby making them each good citizens. Founded with contributions from the local government of the district along with the Fund of Conditional Cash Transfer with $220,000 in funds, the center carries out its activities under the coordination of Social Services for Child Protection Agency (SHÇEK). Currently 956 people have benefited from the vocational training, rehabilitation, psychological support and nursing services. Some 300 people who have enrolled for the services are on a waiting list, due to the limited capacity of the center. The State Ministry for women’s and family affairs is planning to convert the center into the Gaziantep Center for Children and Youth (ÇOGEM) at the end of 2007. 27.03.2007 SERKAN CANBAZ GAZİANTEP
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