Name and leading organization
UN Women, ASAM, ILO.
Target VG and type of host community
Forcibly displaced women living in Turkey (Syrian, Afghan, Iraqi, Persian) – Turkish women.
Objectives
Micro: Helping to build an entrepreneurial spirit in women under temporary protection. Meso: Improvement of the sustainibility of social cohesion among forcibly displaced and women from the host community.
Length
September 2018 – ongoing.
Performance procedures
Within the scope of the “Enhancing the Resilience of Syrian Women and Girls’ Project”, which was carried out in Gaziantep with the cooperation of UNWomen, ASAM and ILO, efforts were started to establish a women’s cooperative in September 2018. Informative seminars were held on more than 300 people, including Turkish citizens, Syrian, Iraqi, Iranian and Afghan women, who benefited from basic life skills and vocational training courses offered at the SADA Women’s Development and Solidarity Center. As a result of the seminars and trainings organized with the support of the Women’s Labor Assessment Foundation (KEDV), 49 women who were candidates to become founders of the cooperative were given leadership training, cooperative principles and production trainings and capacity building trainings for women’s cooperatives. With the suggestions and voting of 49 women (37 Syrian, 11 Turkish Citizens, 1 Afghan) from the Women of Tomorrow Committee and courses (Turkish language, computer operator, basic makeup and hairdressing, textile, packaging and shoemaking) that took part in the establishment of the women’s cooperative on March 15, the name of the cooperative was determined as SADA Women’s Cooperative.
At the meeting held on 18 March 2019, the founders and co-founders of the cooperative were unanimously elected. Accordingly, a total of 14 women, (7 Turkish Citizens, 6 Syrian and 1 Afghan) became the founders of the SADA Women’s Cooperative. The SADA Women’s Cooperative, whose formal establishment processes have been initiated, is a special example of cooperatives because of bringing Turkish citizens, Syrian, Iraqi, Afghanistan and Iranian women together, offering disadvantaged groups economic opportunities and the social benefit they will create. The cooperative works in the fields of shoemaking and packaging, manufactures textiles and local kitchen products.