A sociological perspective on humanitarian aid services given to children: The case of UNICEF in Iraq, Erbil

There are many factors that are effective in the situations of children who have been affected by conflict and war. Previously these are studied from different angles and in different places, but they are very few in number. One of the effective effort groups is the efforts of institutions and organizations such as UNICEF. However, studies sometimes focus on the perspectives of mothers, sometimes volunteers and sometimes children. In such environments, there are no studies that study the perspectives of these three groups by paying attention to differences between sub districts. The reserach focused on fieldwork. In the poor neighbourhoods of Kasnazan, Shawes, Mamzawa and Daratu on the outskirts of Erbil, the children's situation which UNICEF also works on, is tried to be evaluated directly from the perspectives of the children demselves and in directly about them from the perspectives of the mothers and volunteers. For this purpose, 52 children, 52 mothers and 15 UNICEF volunteers sampling groups have been sellected according to random sampling and appropriate sampling techniques. A literature review hase been done and questionnaires were applied to the sampling groups and observations were carried on them. The survey data was presented after being analzed with the SPSS program. The study consists of four main parts. The importance and orginality of the study are mentioned in the introduction and conceptual and theoretical sections. In the third chapter, the methodological details of the study are given. In the fourth part, the findings and evaluations are included. Here, soco-demographic findings, settlement, educational sitations, health and safety stiuations, family structures, relations with peer groups, relatives and neighbours, changes in residencial areas, interractions with officials and organizations interested in children, UNICEF's practices on children, partners of these programs, differences of childhoods and awarenes and recognitons of them, changes that occurr and targetted in children's lives, and the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic were evaluated. In the conclusion and recommendations section, it revealed that children may have different childhood experiences in these four poor neighbourhoods of Erbil, their perspectives may differ in the evaluations of children, and the results may yield different results according to the subjects (child, mother and volunteers) and settlements (erbil and its four districts) in case determinations. The importance of settlement-based studies is also indicated. It also highlights how important the roles of subjects, governments and the social environment in determining the situation of children affected by conflict environments, as well as international organizations such as UNICEF. This section also provides partial recommendations for future works.