Address: Cevatpaşa Mah. Celal Atik Sok. Kent Apt. Çanakkale
Phone: 0 286 217 06 03
Email: elder17kdm@gmail.com
We came together in 1998 as women who have received KİHEP (Women’s Human Rights Education Program) training and began to think about what we could do to alleviate the problems that we face due to being women. This process brought about the founding of ELDER. We are the first organised women’s association in Çanakkale, and we started the Provincial Women’s Assembly. Over ten years, we worked with 3467 women to inform them of their rights. During this process, we also hosted many other events and activities that fell in line with our aims.
Our aims are:
- To eradicate all kinds of discrimination against women and girls.
- To fight against the violence and sexual harassment women experience within the family and in society.
- To support the economic self-reliance of women.
- To support women to take an active role in politics.
- To open a shelter.
- To provide financial and psychological help to women who ask for our support.
By this point we were an organised women’s charity. The next step was to enable women to gain their financial independence so that they would have a life outside the home. We opened various craft courses, and created a group with women who completed the courses and wished to sell their handcrafts. After consulting the local council, we were allowed to set up a stall in Morabbin Park. In the ten years that followed, the hardworking women who have called themselves the Morabbin Group have been selling their handcrafts with great zeal, even carrying their stalls on their back. This group also participates in local markets and handcrafts festivals in other regions.
We then began to offer training on other subjects. Healthcare providers from the Education Department of the Provincial Ministry of Health support us in providing health classes. Furthermore, the Community Learning Centre and Nedime Hanım Vocational School For Girls provides us with classes on folk dances, handicrafts, English, and computing.
We organise events year-wide with a focus on women and children to demonstrate our awareness. We are a part of the Provincial Human Rights Commission and Violence Commission in our province.
We invite friends who are thinking about joining us to our weekly membership meetings. It is important to us that our members undertake the KİHEP training so that we can use a common language and act together. Thanks to new members who become active in our organisation after receiving this training, we are working together to strengthen the women’s movement.
