Title: In Turkey, a Syrian Child 'Has to Work to Survive'

Author: Ceylan Yeginsu

The lead in this article is, " ISTANBUL — When he was 9, Ahmad Suleiman watched his father die from a battlefield wound in Syria. Four years later, he now puts in 12-hour shifts at a damp and squalid textile factory in Istanbul as the primary breadwinner for his family, which fled to Turkey after his father’s death. Over one million Syrian children live in Turkey, and thousands of them, like Ahmad, are in sweatshops, factories or vegetable fields instead of in a classroom, members of a lost generation who have been robbed of their youth by war."

Type of Lead- Creative lead

Who

Ahmad Suleiman is a child from Syria.

Where

Syria after the war. Then Istanbul, Turkey where the Syrian refugees came.

What

There are one million Syrian children living in Turkey that are working in sweatshops, after the war in Syria. There are still 400,000 children that are not in school because, "Syrian families are living outside camps, mostly in poverty, and are struggling to secure work that pays enough to cover the basic necessities of food, clothing, rent and transportation, aid groups say."

When

Ahmad Suleiman and his family came to Turkey four years after his father died on a battlefield in Syria. When Ahmad left for Turkey he was 13 years old.

Why

This is happening because fathers of families for example Ahmad's are dying on the battlefield in Syria, because there is a big battle going on there. Those families need to work so that they can survive in this world and not die from starvation, the cold or heat.

How

Mother's for example like Zainab Suleiman, the mother of Ahmad are sending there children to sweatshops to help pay for necessities. Also the manager of the factory acknowledged that Ahmad needed a job, so he took that to his advantage so that he could make more money, because it is cheap to hire young children.

Concluding Statement

" Until now, Turkey has spent billions of dollars caring for Syrian refugees, providing them with free medical care and the right to an education. Yet more than 400,000 children are still unable to attend school because most of the Syrian families are living outside camps, mostly in poverty, and are struggling to secure work that pays enough to cover the basic necessities of food, clothing, rent and transportation, aid groups say. Other factors preventing children from attending school include language barriers, confusion over enrollment procedures and transportation-related issues, said Selin Unal, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee program in Turkey."

This concluding statement means, that Turkey has been reliable towards Syrian refugees because they supply them with free medical care and the right to an education. Although this may be true still 400,000 children are still unable to attend school because of basic necessities, transportation-related issues, language barriers and confusion over the enrollment process.