BUS 221 SOLIDARITY ORGANIZATION CASE ANALYSIS

KEIG- KADIN EMEĞİ VE İSTİHDAMI GİRİŞİMİ PLATFORMU

Women’s solidarity participates in informational, educational and outreach work

concerning women in Turkey, as well as global power relations from a feminist point of

view. The women's solidarity perspective contributes to the establishment and

enforcement of women’s rights and is committed to a world free of sexism, racism and

homophobia. As a developmental policy organisation, it is in dialogue with women’s

movements in Turkey, especially in Istanbul and thereby empowers women and

strengthens the networking of solidarity.

The issue of women's labor and employment, despite being one of the most common

areas where discrimination against women what until recently neither had entered

enough on Turkey's agenda of women's organizations. Together with our negotiations

with the European Union, Social Policy, located under gender equality and employment

issues is defined as a separate title, talked to more and began to be discussed in Turkey.

There was an increase in the number of meetings and reports on women's employment.

However, in these meetings and reports, policy proposals for increasing women's

employment were inadequate. For this reason, after the Women's Employment Summit,

in March 2006, we wrote a press statement under the title of "Joint Press Release of

Women's Organizations" and presented them to the signature of women's organizations.

Following this press release, on April 2, 2006, we organized a meeting where we

discussed a group of women activists and academicians working in the field of women's

labor and employment, organization and policy priorities. The Initiative for Women's

Labor and Employment (KEIG) was established at this meeting.

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On 24 February 2007, the KEIG organized the Women's Labor and Employment

Meeting, which was attended by women's organizations and related parties. After the

conference, the KEIG became a platform for women's organizations.

What are the objectives of your organization?

The main objective of our organization is to Help from different regions went to the

region. There were women coming from Istanbul and these women realized that

solidarity was actually important for dealing with disasters. Women experience

earthquake, disasters and risks more differently than men, because women deal with

housework while men are more traumatized. That is, women experience the actual

difficulty of the situation and thus, they develop a sense of solidarity. A very big center

was built in Istanbul and different workshops were built there to strengthen women and

activities that focus on the development of employment are managed there. Since a

large number of women arrived from Istanbul, it was decided to open an office in

Istanbul. The office in Istanbul is the headquarter and we are here today as another

branch of the organization. Violence against women and migration are the main issues

we are focusing on. We are also receiving applications for violence against women from

different parts of Turkey. We are an organization that focuses mainly on violence and

sex issues.

What are the services you give? What does your organization actually do?

We started as an organization of solidarity that works voluntarily and we are continuing

what we are doing professionally. We have no special services to give but we are

helping women who are exposed to domestic violence become stronger and know the

mechanisms when they experience violence. Apart from this, we are also working on

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employment. For example, there is another community center in Sefaköy. Migrated

women visit there and works related to employment are maintained there. They are able

to design products, sew dresses and other things. They can sell the products they

produce and it contributes to their financial state. We also support women in prison. We

also support LGBT.

What is the background of your organization? What is the rate of growth? How

did the growth happen?

We started as a voluntary organization. We started with the solidarity of a few women.

We are still continuing our work morep professionally and voluntarily. We get our

power from our volunteering.

Who are the members of your organization? Do people help your organization?

We have a connection to women’s organizations and organizations of violence. The

structure of our organization is based on social network. We are a part of this social

network. There are volunteers working with us.

How do the volunteers reach you?

Through the website. We are posting our activities on the website. They can also reach

us through the activities we post on the website. We are also working with Syrian

women. We met many different women. We are experiencing a process of exchange

with these women.

How do the migrated women find you?

As a matter of fact, migated women have such a network that they know ways to reach

us better than us. Since they escaped from the war, they have connections here, so they

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know who they should reach better than us. We are also carrying out activities in the

field. We are also visiting houses. By houses, I mean the paper houses. Also,

information spreads very fast among migrants. Some women come to our field office.

They also reach us on social media networks such as Facebook and Instagram. Other

organizations also reach us when someone applies them for violence. We also have

translators, so they help us communicate with migrants.

What is the focus of your organization?

Fight of women, strengthening women, women’s solidarity. KEIG creates tools and

facilities for economic and social empowerment that lead to power and liberation for

structurally discriminated women. It acts in solidarity with women who have been

confronted with natural disasters, especially those who lost close relatives, and assists

women who are confronted with social pressure related to gender roles in their

region/and deals with problems arise from migration.

Also, it builds networks to provide psychological and legal consultancy, secure

residence, medical care, job training and employment and other social, cultural and

economic needs. Through this, KEIG raises awareness in society to act in solidarity

with women.

Furthermore, KEIG coordinates “Women’s Human Rights” seminars and activities with

governmental and civil organizations and cooperates with other women's organizations

on common activities and campaigns.

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What are your strengths and weaknesses?

We have a very good and strong team. We also get our motivation from women’s fight.

In regards to weaknesses, we have some sort of weaknesses in terms of explaining

ourselves as an organization to the public. Our website is not very explanatory

unfortuantely.

What are your opportunities?

We explect that this kind of activities will be continuing even more strongly in coming

years. The new generation is more aware of this issue. We regard these as an

opportunity.

What are the threats?

If our organization will be closed or not, but still, we are continuing to work harder. All

non-governmental organizations in our country are threated by various factors.

How do you solve problems?

We do not actually solve problems directly.We try to understand what women actually

want to do, for example, whether they want to go back to their husband or find a shelter.

We also offer them alternatives and what they can do, and then we draw a road map.

What about the migrants?

Same way. They can benefit from the same rights mostly. Translators helps us for sure.

How many members do you have?

We have 22 professionally working employees and 50-60 volunteers.

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CONCLUSION

In a world, where women's hatred comes from under every society, we think the

solution is women solidarity, it's women's solidarity instead of adding power to their

power. If there is such a thing as “feminist morality", it can only be women's solidarity.

Neither one more nor one missing. To see other women knowing and recognizing that

there are various kinds of femininity. Women of the past and future generations, the

ones next to us, those who have fallen a bit away. This does not mean to embrace all

aspects of femininity, sometimes just to silence, sometimes to wait for it to pass,

sometimes to help her to hear her own voice. It is knowledge that hearing his own voice

is possible only by listening to his voice and silence.

When women talk about solidarity, the others hope about this situation. We personally

saw a lot of benefits about women solidarity and KEIG's activities. Womens survive

and most of what they do is through women's solidarity. Without that solidarity, these

women wouldn't be alive. That's all we can say.

Women received the most support from women in all matters. If there is such solidarity,

we think it is reflected in the general. Women couldn't breathe without it. Its presence

comfortes people. Only women and LGBTI movement can provide social

transformation. It is very important that these two movements work together. Sex comes

to the mind of men sexuality, unfortunately. So what women do is very important.