Individual Turkey

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Individual Turkey

Turkey
Project Stage:
Scaling
Budget: 
$1,000 - $10,000
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Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

Naside Buluttekin is helping Turkey's poorest urban neighborhoods combat a trend of rising crime by setting up daycare centers where mothers work with their own children. This creates a supportive educational environment for the children most likely to become involved in crime later in life, and gives the women a sense of purpose and community.  

About Project

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

Naside works in neighborhoods that have large populations of Kurds who have been uprooted from their original homes. Poor and isolated, these districts have the highest crime rates in all of Turkey. Naside is going to the root of the problem, by reaching children before they become detached from their families and involved in crime. She is empowering displaced Kurdish women and their children to regain control over their lives at free, parent-led childcare centers, which provide a positive early environment for children at risk. Children's early years are critical to their development as people, and Naside's idea is based on the understanding that parents play a crucial role during that time. By involving mothers in formal childcare, she is strengthening families and communities in places where both have been undermined by poverty and instability. Her "Neighborhood Moms" program benefits families by providing a safe and nurturing environment for children and giving mothers both parenting resources and a sense of worth. In addition, Naside uses the centers to provide mothers with seminars on literacy, women's rights and reproductive health. These mothers then conduct outreach in their own communities, widening the effort to reduce crime amongst young people.