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Focus Group Meetings Held at SADA Women Development and Solidarity Centre in the Context Of Establishing a Cooperative
Focus group meetings were held with the Project beneficiaries for a “women’s cooperative” to be established under the “Strengthening the Resilience of Syrian Women and Girls in Turkey” being implemented in Gaziantep jointly by UN Women, ILO and ASAM.
The focus group meetings held by the Foundation for the Support of Women’s Work (KEDV) on 22-23 November at SADA Women’s Centre drew a participation of 80 beneficiaries from the workshops on shoe-upping, textiles and packaging, as well as participants of the training courses on Turkish language, computer operating, basic make-up and hair-dressing. Aiming to assess the basic needs of the Project’s women beneficiaries in the context of efforts to establish a women’s cooperative and held as 4 focus groups, the meetings included an initial getting acquainted of women participants through interactive methods. While refugee women related their stories of migration to Turkey and problems they faced in Antep, their daily lives, and the place of SADA Women’s Centre in their lives; women from Antep told about the changes and interaction in their lives upon the arrival of Syrian refugees, and their opinion on the culture of co-existence. Women at the meeting expressed that they felt themselves important at SADA Women Development and Solidarity Centre, the work at the centre boosted their self-confidence and provided a significant opportunity for time away from their problems. A beneficiary described how frequenting the centre changed her life saying that “Earlier, I used to feel lethargic, I wanted to sleep at home at all times; now my life is livelier, with a schedule in my life. I arrive here in the morning, do something for myself, I am livelier. I realised that women should not be sitting at home.” Most of the women at the meeting indicated that they always wanted to enter the world of work, but needed courage, guidance and support to do that. In the second part of the meeting, the Project’s women participants drew on paper where they would see themselves in five years, then explained it to others using their drawings. Women’s drawings presented common aspirations such as starting a beauty parlour, hair-dresser, factory, tailor-shop, and restaurant specialising in local home dishes.