Put an end to child brides in Turkey

Dear donors,

Boy, have we quite the news for you! We spent the past two weeks visiting our projects in Turkey and have uncovered beautiful stories, photos and successes. TPF teamed up with UNICEF Ambassador and Founder of WomenOne, Dayle Haddon on this trip. All of the projects we visited pertained to women empowerment – we feel the bottom line to gender equality is access to opportunity. So that’s where we’re investing! Click here to read and watch our pre-trip post.

In Istanbul, we visited a grantee partner that provides scholarships to young girls, a human rights organization that raises awareness, a center that provides literacy training to adult women and an organization that teaches women life skills to become financially independent. Click here to read our post about our visit in Istanbul.

While we were in Trabzon (in the north, along the Black Sea), we heard the phenomenal story of an illiterate entrepreneur who didn’t let her lack of opportunities stand in the way of success. Read her story here.

We visited Van (in the southeast, bordering Iran), and met with young girls who have started working, as early as 14, to support their entire families. Read about the kilim weavers who are our role models here.

TPF travelled to Diyarbakir (also in the southeast) to hear the stories of women, young and old, who have overcome domestic violence through one of our grantee partner’s meetings.

Lastly, we met with young refugees from Syria, in the southern city of Hatay, who have been denied access to camps because it is over capacity. These young girls desperately want an education. Stay tuned for blog posts on Diyarbakir and Hatay.

 We’ve been keeping busy! Stay up to date with TPF’s work on gender equality by following #womenonamission on Twitter and following our blog posts!

Thank you so very much for your donation – without you, this work would be impossible!

All the best,

Melis