Community action Mobilizing Türkiye’s “Hazelnut Villages”
Mar 13, 2024 8:15:58 GMT 2
Post by account_disabled on Mar 13, 2024 8:15:58 GMT 2
Alongside our work with farmers, the Rainforest Alliance promotes community-wide approaches. “It’s often said that it takes a village to raise a child” says Tülay Güleç, the Rainforest Alliance social program associate. “And that’s exactly how we need to tackle child labor—with the involvement of the whole community.” With this ethos in mind, our local teams have helped set up community-based working groups in selected hazelnut villages across the Black Sea’s Ferizli and İkizce districts. Our working groups bring together a wide range of community members and public figures: from mukhtars (village leaders) and kaymakams (district governors) to farmers, labor contractors, teachers, and healthcare workers. Taking a holistic approach, the goal of the working groups is not only to prevent and remediate child labor cases, but to also spearhead initiatives aimed at improving the livelihoods and overall wellbeing of seasonal workers. For example, we’re organizing trainings on workers’ rights and ensuring that labor contractors use written work contracts, thereby preventing legal loopholes which may encourage exploitative practices.
The village working groups are also working on investment plans to fund the renovation of local farmhouses, so that seasonal workers and their families have access to safe housing throughout their stay in the region. Summer school fun for kids Studies show that children are more likely to be exposed to harmful work when they are out of school. Since peak picking season falls during the holidays, two of our long-term company partners, Durak Hazelnuts and Balsu, decided to get creative—both launching their own summer school programs BYB Directory for the children of seasonal workers. Core subjects like math and science are taught, but fun is also top of the agenda with plenty of time made for sports and creative activities, like making chocolates.
For children, a day without reading and playing games is a lost day” says one of the teachers Damlanur Pıçak. Photo credit: Every child is a world / Durak Hazelnuts Since 2022, as part of our wider hazelnut villages initiative, the Rainforest Alliance has been helping to scale up these programs to welcome many more children in the region. And with additional support from global partners, like Intersnack, the summer schools run by both Durak and Balsu now offer an even broader range of play and learning modules prepared by the Turkish Ministry of National Education. These include photography, mindfulness-based art therapy, music, drama, and even coding and robotics! Teachers also run child-friendly sessions on empathy, bullying, and how to cope with difficult emotions through imagination and creativity. “It’s so important to support multi-stakeholder initiatives like this summer school program” says Özlem Gegez, the Rainforest Alliance social program manager. “When you see the smiles on these kid’s faces, as they practice their reading, you really start to see a future that looks brighter.
The village working groups are also working on investment plans to fund the renovation of local farmhouses, so that seasonal workers and their families have access to safe housing throughout their stay in the region. Summer school fun for kids Studies show that children are more likely to be exposed to harmful work when they are out of school. Since peak picking season falls during the holidays, two of our long-term company partners, Durak Hazelnuts and Balsu, decided to get creative—both launching their own summer school programs BYB Directory for the children of seasonal workers. Core subjects like math and science are taught, but fun is also top of the agenda with plenty of time made for sports and creative activities, like making chocolates.
For children, a day without reading and playing games is a lost day” says one of the teachers Damlanur Pıçak. Photo credit: Every child is a world / Durak Hazelnuts Since 2022, as part of our wider hazelnut villages initiative, the Rainforest Alliance has been helping to scale up these programs to welcome many more children in the region. And with additional support from global partners, like Intersnack, the summer schools run by both Durak and Balsu now offer an even broader range of play and learning modules prepared by the Turkish Ministry of National Education. These include photography, mindfulness-based art therapy, music, drama, and even coding and robotics! Teachers also run child-friendly sessions on empathy, bullying, and how to cope with difficult emotions through imagination and creativity. “It’s so important to support multi-stakeholder initiatives like this summer school program” says Özlem Gegez, the Rainforest Alliance social program manager. “When you see the smiles on these kid’s faces, as they practice their reading, you really start to see a future that looks brighter.