You have been conducting neighborhood-based work for many years. Could you briefly share the founding story of your association and how you started working with children in Sulukule?
The founding story of the Sulukule Volunteers Association (SGD) is rooted in a struggle for rights that took place in Sulukule, one of Istanbul’s historic neighborhoods. The enactment of Law No. 5366 in 2005 paved the way for Sulukule’s demolition and renewal, and this process resulted in multifaceted rights violations—above all, the forced displacement of residents, most of whom were Roma families.
The volunteers in the Sulukule Platform, who were fighting this unjust eviction process, realized that most of the school-age children living in the demolition area were either not attending school or had dropped out. As a result, the fight against displacement evolved into a struggle against the devastating effects of displacement on children. Over time, the work undertaken by the founders necessitated a legal entity, and in 2010, the Sulukule Volunteers Association was established in Karagümrük/Fatih. The struggle in the demolition area evolved into a fight against the impacts of the demolition and rights violations hindering children’s well-being after the destruction.
In its early years, the association, with support from its volunteers, provided social support activities such as academic and nutritional assistance for children in a small space of 35 square meters. To help children develop social skills, arts-based workshops such as rhythm and photography were organized both within the association and in local schools. Over time, SGD transformed into a civil society organization operating as a rights-based community center, and the range of children benefiting from its activities diversified. Long-term, multifaceted, and play-based activities became our core approach. Programs targeting caregivers, teachers, and school administrators were developed alongside children; women’s initiatives also became one of our key activities. Today at SGD, we see support for children not as passive aid, but as a process of active participation and rights-based transformation. We aim to ensure access to equal and fair education by supporting the well-being of all children in Turkey.
The Heaviest Burden of Displacement Falls on Children
Urban transformation, poverty, and displacement are often discussed as the concerns of adults. So how do these processes affect children’s daily lives, their right to play, and children’s safety?
Although urban transformation and displacement are discussed in terms of economic or legal issues for adults, for children it directly entails barriers to the right to education, loss of play areas, and serious safety risks. As seen in our study "Roma Children: ‘Even if We Study, What Will Happen?’", these processes profoundly impact children’s lives.
First, economic deprivation and displacement push families to direct their children towards insecure and unregistered work rather than school. As financial difficulties deepen, undernourishment and the inability to meet the most basic school needs—like clothing, bags, and stationery—completely sever children’s ties to school. Poverty and displacement directly increase the risk of child labor and make school dropouts widespread.
Spatial transformation and poverty are also key factors here: they destroy the neighborhood fabric to which children feel connected. The lack of well-equipped community centers and social support spaces where children can safely spend time and socialize with peers after school pushes them into unsafe streets and exposed areas. Deprived of their right to play, children are forced at an early age to join adults in the struggle for survival.
And again, deprivation, hunger, and urban insecurity unfortunately expose children to judicial problems. As our report reveals, poverty increases children’s exposure to neglect and abuse, while also raising the risks of child labor and child marriage to the highest level.
Therefore, to protect children’s safety and development during urban transformation and poverty processes, it is vital to provide free school meals, support families with educational scholarships, and establish neighborhood-based community centers that safeguard children’s right to play and socialize.
Children Are Not Beneficiaries for Us—They Are Decision-Makers
How do you define children’s participation? How does listening to children affect your work? How do children transform the way you work?
Children’s participation, above all, is a fundamental child right, and acts as a guiding and dominant principle for the realization of all child rights. While it is often associated with asking children’s opinions, for us, it goes far beyond that. By participation, we mean children being active agents in decisions affecting their own lives. Therefore, truly ensuring children's participation at SGD is one of our main goals, and inclusion of participation is a core principle throughout our activity design and even in our budgeting processes.
Truly listening to children forces us to constantly question our adult-centered perspective. When we listen to their voices, we sometimes see that the programs we design with the belief that "this is best for them" do not actually match children’s real needs. Children push us to make our work more flexible, dynamic, and definitely more creative. At SGD, there is no hierarchical teacher-learner relationship; there is a collaborative creative process shaped by children’s feedback and guided by them.
Purple Box: A Safe Space for Children’s Voices to Be Heard
Your “Purple Box” application is inspiring. Where did this idea come from? How do children use this mechanism? Do they use the box only for feedback? Or is it a wish box as well?
The Purple Box emerged as a tool we use to bring children’s participation from an abstract principle to concrete practice and to open a safe, possibly anonymous, channel of expression within the association. The box—which was named by the children themselves—enables us to diversify the ways we hear children’s voices.
The Purple Box is not just a feedback or complaint mechanism; it is also a box for wishes and dreams. Children use it in a multilayered way. In the 2024-2025 term, 67 notes came out of the box. The vast majority were requests: to go to the movies, to have a dance workshop, to have the center open more days, pizza… Some were complaints: "adults interfere too much," "too many rules," "too much noise"… Some were expressions of affection: "I love you," "so much fun"… Others were practical needs: toilet soap, tissues, band-aids. And, of course, wishes about the future and notes on topics that are difficult to share directly.
This diversity tells us a lot. Children write to this box because they genuinely see the association as their own space. The Purple Box is concrete proof that they are rights holders. We provide feedback in response to what comes out of the box. We explain to the children both what can and cannot be done. Because we believe that being heard is at least as important as the outcome.
We Set the Rules Together with the Children
How do the feedback you receive from children affect your work? If there are examples where you say, "We used to do it this way, but after suggestions from children now we do it differently," we’d love to hear them.
The feedback we get from children are not periodic suggestions, but fundamental principles that shape every stage of our work. We can see how our practices at the association have transformed under children’s guidance in several dimensions.
We are currently in a major transformation process as part of the Child Participation Mechanisms project supported by STGM. Rather than writing the behavioral rules for our Child Safety Policy solely with adults at the table, we are updating them directly with the children. We set the rules together, and we draft all association rules and agreements together.
All activities and workshop content we carry out at the project level fully adapt and take shape based on children's wishes and interests. Instead of templates deemed beneficial by adults, we strive to design learning processes around themes that spark children’s curiosity and interest.
We base decisions on children's feedback when it comes to the association’s physical needs or determining materials. Their sense of true ownership of the space begins by involving them in these space-organizing processes.
When high school-aged youths come forward with an idea or a project they want to do, we don’t hand them a ready-made package. On the contrary, we step aside to let them create their own space and support them as facilitators whenever they need us throughout the process.
We try to embed participation in every aspect of association life, even in the smallest matters. Everything—from daily snacks offered to children to the choice of excursions, festival organization, or entertainment content— is shaped by children’s wishes and choices.
Children Should Also Be a Part of Monitoring and Evaluation
Could you briefly tell us about the guide you prepared with UNICEF? Why was this guide created and for whom?
The "Child-Centered Monitoring and Evaluation System Guide," which we prepared with the support of UNICEF, arose from the question of how we, and other organizations in civil society and working with children, can translate a child-centered approach into practice. In the monitoring of field projects, workshops, or programs with children, children are usually included only at the data collection stage and often never see the reports produced from the collected data. This guide aims to combine child participation with monitoring and evaluation processes so that children are considered subjects within the process itself.
Our path to establishing our own monitoring and evaluation system at SGD also contributed to the background of this guide. When, starting in 2017, we created a theory of change covering all association work and established regular monitoring cycles, we had to question again where children fit into this process. This cumulative reflection is reflected in the guide.
The guide is built on a 7-step system covering preparation, participation, and impact phases. It offers child-friendly methods to assess the quality of rights-based work conducted with children, child safety, and the real impact of programs. Instead of standard, adult-centric surveys or reporting formats, it explains step-by-step how to design play-based, visual, and child-centered monitoring and evaluation tools suited to children's developmental stages.
It was prepared as a handbook for all civil society professionals, especially NGOs working in child rights and child participation, as well as local governments, social workers, educators, researchers, and anyone designing and implementing programs with children and seeking to measure their impact on children’s lives from a rights-based perspective.
Our goal is to move away from seeing children merely as target beneficiaries of projects, and to turn them into monitoring and evaluation stakeholders who help us assess the quality and impact of our work together.
The First Step to a Safe Relationship: Listening
What would you say to a civil society organization that wants to build a safe and meaningful relationship with children but doesn't know where to start? Where should they begin?
Our first suggestion to organizations embarking on this journey would be to leave adult hierarchy and the reflex of "knowing everything" at the door. Instead of starting with large, complex, and desk-designed projects, beginning by just listening to and observing children ensures a much healthier process. It’s crucial not to approach children merely as a target group or beneficiaries, but as founding stakeholders from the outset.
The trust relationship built with children is constructed with consistency. Therefore, making promises to children that are difficult or impossible to keep and building bonds not periodically but as long-term commitments always creates stronger ties.
At the outset, opening a flexible space where children can feel safe both physically and emotionally, and directly asking them, "What would you like to do here? How can we make this place together?" can serve as a guide. After this question, it’s the children’s excitement that naturally sets our direction and next steps.
What has working with children in Sulukule taught you and how has it changed your world?
In the process of trying to create an alternative safe space for children here, we realized that this space held a similar meaning for us adults as well. An accepting, supportive, and nonjudgmental environment allows a child to discover themselves, to express themselves with confidence, and to have an impact on others. We believe this is not just a childhood need, but a lifelong necessity.
The rights-based work we conduct in the association and the culture we have built together over the years have allowed us to express ourselves creatively and go beyond constraining norms when dreaming. The supportive network of relationships established here has strengthened our sense of belonging. Today, the association represents a rich environment where we experience being more patient and inclusive toward each other and at the same time can learn from one another.