ISTANBUL (AP) — In a dark, one-room apartment in one of Istanbul’s poorest neighborhoods, 11-year-old Atakan Sahin sits on a threadbare sofa with his siblings to watch TV while their mother stirs a bowl of pasta.
A simple meal is all a family of six can look forward to most evenings. Atakan, his two younger brothers and his 5-year-old sister are among a third of Turkish children living in poverty.
“Look at the condition of my children,” said 28-year-old Ruqaya Shaheen. “I have four children. They cannot eat chicken, they cannot eat meat. I send them to school with torn shoes.”
Trusted news and daily delights, straight to your inbox
See for yourself – The Yodel is your go-to source for daily news, entertainment, and feel-good stories.
constantly High inflationcaused by the depreciation of the currency and Unconventional economic policies This project, which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sought and later abandoned, has left many families struggling to pay for food and housing. Experts say this creates a lost generation of children who are forced to grow up too quickly to help their families make ends meet.
According to a joint report by UNICEF and the Turkish Statistical Institute for 2023, about 7 million of Türkiye’s approximately 22.2 million children live in poverty.
This deprivation is brought into stark focus in neighborhoods like Tarlabasi in Istanbul, where Sahin’s family lives a few minutes’ walk from Istiklal Street, a crowded tourist spot with brightly lit shops and expensive restaurants.
Meanwhile, Shaheen’s family eats sitting on the floor of their room – the same floor on which Ruqaya and her husband sleep while their children occupy the room’s sofas. On a cold early December night, the stove burns scraps of wood to keep them warm. Sometimes they fall asleep to the sound of mice creeping through the building.
Atakan spends his days helping his father clean garbage bins for recyclable materials to earn the family’s meager income.
Poor children in Istanbul also earn money for their families by selling small items such as pens, tissues or bracelets in bars and cafes in the city’s entertainment districts, often working late at night.
“I can’t go to school because I don’t have money,” he said. “We have nothing. Can you tell me how I can go? On sunny days, when I don’t go to school, I collect plastic and other things with my father. We sell everything we find.”
The cash helps buy basic foodstuffs and pay for his siblings to attend school. On the days when Atakan can attend, he is ill-equipped for success, lacking the right shoes, a coat and textbooks for the English class he loves.
The Sahin family is struggling to raise money to cover rent, utilities and other basic expenses as Turkey’s cost of living crisis continues. Inflation reached 47% in November After reaching 85% In late 2022. Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rose 5.1% in November compared to the previous month.
Under these conditions, a generation of children is growing up who rarely enjoys a full meal of fresh meat or vegetables.
Rukia and her husband receive 6,000 liras ($173) a month in government aid to help with school costs, but they pay the same amount in rent for their home.
“My son says, ‘Mom, it’s raining, my shoes are wet.’ But what can I do? “The state is not helping me,” Ruqaya said. I’m in this room alone with my children. Who else do I have?
The image of children sifting through garbage to help support their families is a far cry from the image Turkey presents to the world: that of an influential global power with a vibrant economy encouraging foreign investment.
Erdogan is proud of the social programs that his party has presented since he came to power more than 20 years ago, boasting that “the old days of bans, oppression, deprivation and poverty are completely behind us.”
Speaking at the G20 summit in November, Erdogan described Turkey’s social security system as “one of the most extensive and comprehensive” in the world. “Our goal is to ensure that no one remains poor. We will continue our work until we achieve this,” he added.
Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, charged with implementing austerity and taming inflation, said the monthly minimum wage of 17,000 lira ($488) is not low. But he pledged to lift it as soon as possible.
Although the government is allocating billions of liras to struggling families, inflation, which most people agree is much higher than the official figure, is eating up any aid the state can provide.
In areas like Tarlabasi, rents have risen five-fold in recent years due to gentrification in central Istanbul, putting pressure on the housing market for low-income families.
Experts say welfare payments are not enough for the millions who depend on them, forcing many parents to make impossible choices: Should they pay rent or buy clothes for their children? Should you send them to school or keep them at home to earn a few extra lira?
Volunteers try to alleviate the cycle of deprivation.
Mehmet Yeralan, a 53-year-old former restaurant owner, brings essentials to Tarlabasi’s poor who can’t afford them, including coats, notebooks and sometimes bags of rice.
“Our children don’t deserve this,” he said, warming himself with a barrel of burning scrap wood in the street. “Families are in a very difficult situation. They cannot buy food for their children and send them to school. Children on the streets are selling tissues to support their families. We are seeing extreme poverty here.”
Hager Fogu, a poverty researcher and activist, said Turkey is creating a lost generation that is forced to leave school to work or are directed to vocational programs where they work four days and study one day a week, receiving a small portion of their income. Minimum wage.
“Look at the situation of the children,” she said. “Two million of them live in extreme poverty. Child labor has become very common. Families choose these education and work programs because the children bring some income. It is not real education, just cheaper labour.”
Foggo points to research that shows how early childhood education can help break cycles of poverty. Without it, children remain trapped, physically and educationally stunted, and condemned to lifelong deprivation.
UNICEF ranked Turkey 38th out of 39 countries in the European Union or the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in terms of child poverty between 2019 and 2021, with the child poverty rate reaching 34%.
The tragic consequences of this want sometimes play out in the public arena.
Five children died in a fire in the western city of Izmir in November, while their mother was out collecting scraps to sell. The image of their sobbing father, who was escorted from prison in handcuffs to attend his sons’ funeral, sparked widespread outrage over the desperation and helplessness faced by poor families.
It’s a situation Rukia completely understands.
“Sometimes I go to bed hungry, and sometimes I go to bed full,” she said. “We can’t get ahead, we’re always falling behind. … When you don’t have money in your hands, you’re always falling behind.
Meanwhile, her eldest son clings to his childhood dreams. “I want my own room,” Atakan said. “I want to go to school regularly. I want everything to be fine. …I would like to become a footballer one day, to support my family.
___
Badendijk reported from Istanbul. Andrew Wilkes in Istanbul and Susan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey contributed.
