Turkey's Grandmother Project aims to help working moms

ANKARA

Turkey on Wednesday signed a protocol for a pilot project that aims to make monthly payments to grandmothers who take care of their grandchildren while their mothers are at work.

The so-called "Grandmother Project" will initially cover 6,000 families in 10 provinces, and be monitored by the Ministry of Family and Social Sciences, Minister of Labor and Social Security, Mehmet Muezzinoglu said at a signing ceremony in Ankara.

Muezzinoglu said the goal of the project was to support employment of women, adding grandmothers assuming the role of caretakers of their grandchildren would receive 425 liras ($114) a month.

The minister said the cost of the project was 6 million liras ($1.6 million) per thousand families, and half of that amount would be paid by the Turkish Employment Agency (ISKUR), and the other half by stakeholders party to the protocol.

In order to be eligible for the project, which is a first in the world, Muezzinoglu said, a mother should have been working for at least one year, and have insurance. She should also be paid less than two monthly minimum wages, and the whole income of the family should be less than three monthly minimum wages.

"We are planning to go for low-income families," he said, adding the ministry would be reviewing applications by the end of February, with the goal of actively implementing the project by March.

He said the age of the grandmother would also be considered, but that her health would be a more important factor, and someone over 65 could be eligible if she were healthy enough to look after a child.

Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, for her part, said that in addition to empowering women, and boosting their employment, another goal of the project was to strengthen traditional family ties.

"When we support women, we also support the family, and the community at large," she said.

The 10 provinces include Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara, Bursa, Kayseri, Sakarya, Antalya, Konya, Tekirdag and Gaziantep.

Reporting by Ozcan Yildirim; Writing by Didar Yusra Dilruba Oz