ADANA - Women, who are the most affected by the economic crisis, sometimes cannot even bring bread to home in their jobs for small wages. Fatma Kalecek, who makes a living by stringing walnuts on a rope, draws attention to the troubles they experience by saying, ‘’Sometimes we sleep hungry.’’

Women living in the Şahirpaşa neighborhood of the Seyhan district, one of the neighborhoods where Kurds live in Adana, are engaged in many different jobs to earn their living. Women, who have difficulty even taking bread home in the wheel of the economic crisis, work in seasonal jobs for small wages.

Women who produce churchkhela, which started with the maturation of the vineyards in the region, who put the walnuts they bought from factories on the rope and get paid in return, can get 50 liras for 12 kilograms of walnuts they put on the rope. Women, who say that it is very difficult to string the walnuts, do not receive a recompense for their work.

‘Sometimes we cannot buy bread’

One of the women who have been doing this job for years is Fatma Kalecek. Fatma states that they do not receieve a recompense for their work. Stating that her husband is not working and they are doing this job to make a living, Fatma said: ‘’We wait for hours in front of the factory to buy walnuts. We carry sacks of walnuts to our homes with wheelbarrows. We charge 50 liras per sack. We can finish a sack sometimes in a day and sometimes in a week. Because both hard and we have to deal housework. Our monthly income ranges from 300 to 400 TR. We cannot even pay the bills of the house with this money. We cannot go to the bazaar or market most of the time. It happens a lot that we cannot even buy bread and sleep hungry.’’

‘We do it the way as collective work’

Fatma states that if the walnuts are missing or stolen, they have to pay for themselves. Fatma said: ‘’This job can sometimes cause more damage than profit. It is a difficult job. People get very tired. Our rights are not given anyway and women are exploited in this injustice. We want the wages we deserve. We look after the family with this job.’’

Stating that they work together with women as collective work in the neighborhood, Fatma continued: ‘’Solidarity is the beauty of this business. In this way, we also have the opportunity to meet with women and talk about our problems. Women can share the workload. Women are exposed to labor exploitation wherever they work. We deal with this exploitation we are subjected to with solidarity.’’