News

Turkey: Aviva Insurance initiates a 'Street to School' programme to support services for street children provided by SHÇEK

11 December, 2009

Aviva Insurance is initiating a new corporate responsibility project by supporting the efforts of the Social Services and Child Protection Agency to ensure that children are removed from negative circumstances on the street and returned to their families, and that they benefit to the maximum from the education process.

The support of Aviva Insurance will also assist in providing resources to teams working in areas frequented by street children in order to identify the urgent needs of the children. Every policy received by Aviva Insurance customers will support the Aviva Street to School campaign which is targeted at further improving the lives of children in SHÇEK centres.

Ertan Fırat, general manager of Aviva Insurance, stated: “We as the Corporate Responsibility team at Aviva Insurance sincerely believe that we can make a difference to the lives of street children. Street children are an issue of great concern to our society, but they are difficult to reach and help. We will do everything in our power to support the successful efforts of the SHÇEK Istanbul Provincial Social Services Directorate.”

Andrea Moneta, CEO of Aviva Europe, said he was proud of the contribution made by Aviva Europe in assisting street children. “Aviva is aware of this most defenceless of all groups in our society and I am proud that we are collaborating in making a difference in the countries where we operate.”

Önal İnaltekin, provincial director of Social Services in Istanbul stated that they provide very important services for street children in coordination with the Office of the Istanbul Governor and other public institutions, through mobile teams working on the streets 24 hours a day, first step stations, and child and youth centres. Such efforts will now be intensified with the “Street to School Project” developed in collaboration with Aviva so that a more effective and productive service can be provided for children. He thanked Aviva Insurance for their concern and contributions in this issue.

Project aims:

To bring the services indicated below to children who are living, working or abused on the street within the region served by the Istanbul Social Services Provincial Directorate, to intensify future efforts by means of the support provided by Aviva’s "Street to School" project, and to promote awareness in society through this social care project. The aims of this project are:

• To remove children living and working on the street and children subject to abuse from their negative circumstances in order to permit them to benefit from rehabilitation processes appropriate for their psychosocial and educational development; to ensure, where possible, their return to their families and, where this is not possible, that they should benefit to maximum extent from the education process, and enabling them to attain self-sufficiency.
• To identify the source of problems by means of professional work with the families of children living, working or subject to abuse on the street; to provide such families with guidance and information services, where necessary, to provide mediation for the purposes of resolving the problem, and ensuring that the family have access to institutional social assistance and support services.
• Meeting the needs, within the statutory structure, of children living, working or subject to abuse on the street, encouraging their active participation in social, cultural and sporting activities through the intensive use of reward techniques to produce behavioural change, and ensuring that they benefit to the maximum from educational and institutional processes.
• To ensure that children benefit more effectively from existing services by working together with the families of children who are the victims of crime, monitoring judicial proceedings and protective measures taken by courts in respect of children, and solving problems experienced in the preparation of social inquiry reports in this area.

The intention is to develop public concern for the protection of children living and working on the street, to conduct studies into the problem in collaboration with press and broadcasting organisations, and to channel public resources into solutions for this problem.

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Notes to editors:

About Aviva
Aviva Insurance SA, the fifth largest insurance group in the world, with a 310-year history, has been operating in Turkey as a provider of general insurance since 1988.

Aviva Sigorta AŞ provides services to its insurance customers through 770 agencies associated with the Trakya, Antalya, Denizli, Konya, Eskişehir and Zonguldak Representation Offices, as well as the Istanbul Corporate Sales Directorate, the Istanbul Agencies Directorate, the Brokers Directorate, and the Aegean, Central Anatolia, South Marmara, and Southeast Anatolia Directorates.

Through its bank insurance unit, it also reaches out to its customers through more than 800 branches of HSBC, Anadolubank, Tekstilbank, Bank Pozitif and Albaraka Türk. Aviva Insurance is one of the signatory companies to the “Global Compact” which was drawn up to make the world a better place to live in.

About Aviva Street to School
Aviva plc has, through its international corporate responsibility programme, initiated the Aviva Street to School programme. The aim of the programme is to change the lives of thousands of street children and young people around the world by helping them to find their way off the streets and into education.

Within the scope of the programme, which is planned to continue for at least five years, projects related to street children will be supported in the 28 countries in which Aviva is operating. Aviva companies around the world will collaborate with local organisations and associations to meet the needs of children living and working on the streets in those countries.