 MODEL FROM WOMEN'S GROUP  08 Mart 2008 Cumartesi Saat 00:11 Anatolia aims to create "a feminist women entrepreneur model" that is a 100 percent on women's side and that will enter the market and compete there.... MÜGE AKGÜN DİYARBAKIR – REFERANS An association that supports women subjected to violence in more than 20 provinces in southeastern Anatolia aims to create "a feminist women entrepreneur model" that is a 100 percent on women's side and that will enter the market and compete there, according to Nebahat Akkoç, head of KA-MER. Having founded KA-MER in 1997 in her hometown of Diyarbakır in the southeast in order to provide urgent help to women, Akkoç was extremely happy to see the success of the women working in the organization. "We celebrated the 10th anniversary of KA-MER and this is working. Really, this work is a kind of work that will contribute to both the humane and the economic development of Turkey. There is an incredible change from below in this region," she said. KA-MER operates women centers in different provinces, which work as a shelter to those women who will be the victims of a possible murder and help them find a job. The foundation has two restaurants as well as subsidiary companies. Women work in those restaurants with a social insurance from the first day and are paid minimum wage, which will be increased in time based on performance. "We have a long term plan: Making those women partners in those working places they succeeded in. Actually what is necessary in this world is to change the labor-capital relationship," Akkoç said. The Open Society Institute, Swedish Development Found and European Union Found give financial support to KA-MER.
Local solutions to global problems KA-MER's slogan is "Think universally, solve locally." Although violence against women is a global phenomenon, the solution for violence in Hakkari and in Antep, Adana and Urfa, Akkoç explained their slogan. "Our final target is to reach to Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which was signed by Turkey too," she said. Nothing will happen before the violence against women ends, Akkoç said. "It is not possible to solve Kurdish issue or poverty by ignoring gender discrimination," she added.
Men changed, too The first years of KA-MER were very difficult, Akkoç said. But men's view on women absolutely changed, she added. We started to work with men as well. Gender discrimination is not only women's problem. Men became victims due to their gender roles too," she said. Around 80 percent of those people who brought women under danger of violence were men, Akkoç said. "We could not proceed in our struggle against honor killings without the support of men," she said. There are plenty of men from police who understand KA-MER's work and support it. University students help especially, she said. Some of those men helping KA-MER's work are going to establish and organization in the near future to act in solidarity with KA-MER, Akkoç said. But the name of the organization will not be along the lines of "men's center" to prevent the feeling that everywhere in the world people make jokes about women's organizations, Akkoç said. The organization will be a first in Turkey. |
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