MARDİN - Hatice Eren, who was a farmer, worked in the fields for years and made her children educated. Children who are not appointed by the government continue to work with their mothers in the fields.

 

Hatice Eren, 45-year-old, who lives in Mardin, has been farming since her childhood. Four children of Hatice, who raised eight children, graduated from university, and worked in the field with their mothers because they could not be appointed despite being a doctor and teacher. Hatice explains that they are going through difficult times due to the wrong agricultural policies and the economic crisis and increasing unemployment.

 

‘We do not see the required value’

 

Hatice, who was married as a child, is one of those who built her life with her own labor. Like her family, her livelihood is farming. Although she works everywhere from the field to the plateau, from the house to the vineyard, she is troubled because of the agricultural policies of the government and that she cannot get the reward for her labor. “Most of our time has been spent in poverty. When I turned and looked back, we did not have a fortune that we made even though we worked so hard. When did the agricultural workers get the value, they deserve? We suffer poverty throughout our lives because we do not see the value we deserve,” she emphasizes that she and her family work in someone else's field, but still scrape a living.

 

‘The state has wasted my labor’

 

Hatice said that she had to move to the district due to the lack of school and income in the village, and noted that she had eight children educated, four of whom were university graduates, three were teachers and one was a doctor. Stating that she is making an effort for her children not to grow up with difficulties and poverty like her, she said: “I resisted very much for my children. I moved from the village to the district so that my children could study, and I was going to Yedikardeş village, where I moved every day, to work. I can say that I worked in all jobs for my children. While I was trying so hard to get my children to study, none of them were appointed due to the opportunities the state did not recognize and all my efforts were wasted. We are currently working in the fields with my children because we do not have any oracles. One day the governor came to the district. I told him about the difficult situation we were in, and he just kept quiet.”

 

‘Provide job opportunity’

 

Hatice stated that she could not sell the vegetables she had planted on the land she rented, and that last year even tobacco remained in her hands. “As if this wasn’t enough, we give half of the money we could not earn to the landowner. How will we pay for the expenses we incur to educate the children? Now, if I say to my children, go to a job, there is no job to work. Why are workers not supported? Why are young people not provided with job opportunities? Shall we tell you what to do? Provide young people with job opportunities so they do not regret what they read.”