Children’s shoes for Şanlıurfa

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The population of Turkey as of 31 December 2019 is 83,154,997, of which children between the ages of 0 and 14 account for 24.29%, making them a large and important part of the Turkish population. They are the future. We all have a responsibility to uphold children’s rights, because every child has the same right to equal treatment, health, social participation, good opportunities in life and for development, and much more besides.

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The majority of children in Turkey live in rural areas and are therefore closer to nature. The children spend much of their free time there playing, running around and climbing outdoors with their friends and siblings. The SARIAS Foundation heard about a middle school in Şanlıurfa, in the south-east of Turkey, where the shoes of some pupils in the 5th to 8th grades had suffered from playing a lot of football, climbing and running around in the sometimes rough outdoor environments. They therefore lacked adequate and seasonally appropriate footwear for walking to school and attending lessons. To remedy this, in January 2021, the SARIAS Foundation asked teachers at Mehmet Akif Ersoy Secondary School to determine the children’s requirements and was subsequently able to send 45 pairs of children’s shoes to the school. 15 girls and 30 boys between the ages of 10 and 14 each received a new, warm pair of shoes. Every size between a 34 (UK size 2) and a 41 (UK size 8) was provided and the children were very happy to exchange their old shoes for new ones.