Azim Is Not Alone

5-year-old Azim* is a child who was neglected and subjected to violence by his family and separated from them after the February 6 earthquakes. We have been supporting Azim, with whom our paths crossed while staying with his aunt, to step into a safe life within the scope of our protection program for about 1.5 years. Social worker Nurbahar Tunka tells our story of supporting Azim's life.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the inability to meet basic needs in a safe area, lack of economic income, and the death of a parent brought new problems, especially in families with low socioeconomic status. We observed an increase in chronic problems such as caregivers abandoning the family or the child, neglect, abuse, exploitation and child labor.

Azim is one of these children. Azim, who was identified as a child separated from his family in the tent area of Kahramanmaraş in the early days of the earthquake, was 4 years old at the time. Before the earthquake, his parents had separated due to severe incompatibility, and Azim had stayed with his father while his mother returned to her home country, Syria. However, Azim was subjected to neglect and violence by his father, and when his father was imprisoned for violence, he lived in a Social Service Center for a while when he was very young, and just before the earthquake, he started living with his aunt.

Aunt Rena and her husband, whose lives became even more difficult after the earthquake, contacted Support to Life  saying that they were unable to meet their basic needs and had difficulty taking care of Azim. Moreover, since he still did not have an official guardian, Azim was not benefiting from social rights such as education and health. Our protection teams immediately took action for Azim. As the implementing partner of our strategic partner Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, in our project funded by the European Union (EU), we provide basic needs in the earthquake zone and carry out comprehensive studies in the field of child protection and child safety to minimise and eliminate possible risks. Within the scope of this project, we first provided translation and transportation support to his Aunt Rena during the court application process so that she could become Azim's guardian. Then we applied to the Provincial Migration Administration about Azim. Since it was a high-risk child protection case, we advocated to speed up the process before the Immigration Administration.

Thus, Azim's new identity and address registration process was completed; he now had a secure place to live. Thanks to this address registration, Azim was included in EU-funded  Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) system and social assistance started to be paid to the household on Azim's behalf. . When Rena informed us that Azim was having difficulty speaking, we helped him get support from a speech therapist. We will continue to support the family to ensure that Azim, who will start 1st grade next year, is enrolled in school and can access his right to education.

“We tried very hard, it was very difficult, but thank God,” says Mahmut, Aunt Rena's husband, during our last household visit to the family: “Azim always lived in different places, no one took care of him. We couldn't afford it either, but we didn't want to leave him. Now Azim is happy and so are we. He talks to his mother in Syria on the phone and has adopted us as his family. He will start school very soon and gets along well with his siblings.”

In the time we spent with Azim, we observed that he embraced the family, his basic needs were met and his sense of belonging developed as he felt safe. Seeing him happy, feeling safe and living in an environment free from neglect is the main goal of the protection activities we carry out both in the disaster area and in our other sites.

*The names of the beneficiaries have been changed to protect their personal rights.

Writer: Nurbahar Tunka
Social worker / Kahramanmaraş

Editır: Gözde Kazaz
Communications expert / İstanbul