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Ms. Esra, whose mother also worked in the directorate of forestry as well as her father, had spent her childhood among the foresters. While she was in high school, a woman who visited their house used the words “I am the forest engineer…” when she was introducing herself. This impressed Ms. Esra so much. Another person who was also impressed by this word at that day was the grandmother of Ms. Esra. She had said to her granddaughter by showing the visiting forest engineer, “Esra, my little one, your mother could not make it, at least you can become a forest engineer”.
Then Ms. Esra had attended to the faculty. She had come to the grade 3. This time the person who had inspired her was a forest chief whom she came into contact with only one day during her internship. With the words of Ms. Esra, “that one day” had changed everything. She remembers how she admiringly observed the chief, the way she sat in the tent drinking tea, her clothes, her relations with the villagers and then she recalls saying to herself “I will also be like this woman”.
Years had passed, this time it was Ms. Esra’s turn to give inspiration to other women. She had met young colleagues who said “I want to be like you”. One of the woman chiefs in the team says pointing her “They are opening the way for us, we follow their steps”. There is solidarity hidden in these words.
The ones who follow, walk with the courage of knowing where to step, and the one who leads them, by knowing that she is being followed.