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Making willingness and motivation count
Trainings were on three main subjects: Empathy and communication, felt design and civic engagement of women at local level.
The trainings titled “Empathy and Communication”, welcomed 253 Syrian and 553 local women in the provinces of Mardin, Şanlıurfa, Gaziantep and Kilis. The subjects of means of communication, empathic thinking, cooperation, solidarity, tolerance and how to break prejudice have been at the focus of women and trainers’ talk.
Besides this, fourfelt design workshops in and 1 textile product design workshop in ÇATOMs of Şanlıurfa, Mardin and Kilis gave some new ways for gaining new income-generating skills for women. The design of felt, as one of the first tissue used by human beings in history and so it vast application areas, gave way for both economic gains and fun to women participated. 34-year-old- -Syrian woman Emine Hemoye. “It is the first time that I have been here. We learned how the wool turns into the felt thanks to this course. We had wonderful time with women from Mardin in here and we felt closer. We hope that these courses continue” said. Income generation opportunities were also provided by establishing market networks in Turkey and abroad for the newly designed products.
Regarding the civic engagement of women at local level, the theme of two workshops in Kilis was social cohesion and women empowerment. 26 women on behalf of 7 women organizations participated actively on the trainings and at the end of workshops, on 8 March World Women’s Day, an Action Plan were prepared with the large support and shared with the relevant Deputy Governor of Kilis.
With ÇATOMs, under the administration of GAP RDA, the main target was to support women to engage in public spaces, get more benefits, and implement particularly the participatory and sustainable models. UNDP Turkey’s work on capacity building of local institutions will continue in cooperation and coordination with the local partners and private sector.