KOCAELİ - In KARKAD, the first women’s production center of Kocaeli, women keep the knowledge from their roots alive with the products they produce. Ece Çiftçi, the Chairperson of the Association, makes a call, saying, ‘’We women exist if we produce.’’

 

It is the solidarity and collective way of life among women that keeps women alive against all policies of exploitation and oppression. Women create spaces of their own in such a period when they are left face to face with isolation. KARKAD is one of these places. Kartepe Kadıneli Association (KARKAD), located in Derbent Neighborhood of Kartepe district of Kocaeli, was founded by women on September 19, 2019, with the support of the municipality.

 

In the cooperative, which is the first production center where women work in Kocaeli, many products from jam to pickles, filo pastry to bread are prepared for sale with traditional methods. The products are delivered to the public at the sales office. The production of women working collectively has its roots in traditional recipes dating back a long time. The women in the cooperative both achieve economic independence and strengthen sisterhood bonds.

 

Building a life of their own

 

The neighborhood where the cooperative was established is in a relatively more developed position compared to many districts of the city. When we enter the neighborhood, we feel that women touch life here. In Derbent, the women who wanted to be confined to the house took the step of creating themselves in all areas of life by making their efforts visible. Cooperative Chairperson Ece Çiftçi, whom we talked to about the cooperative, states that the most important aim of KARKAD is to get women out of the house and to enable them to build a life of their own.

 

‘90 percent of the raw material is obtained from women producers’

 

Ece states that 90 percent of the raw materials of the products are obtained from women producers. Thus, the solidarity of women reaches outside Derbent. Ece emphasizes that the main purpose of the cooperative is to bring women into the economy by making invisible labor visible, and she says that the aim of KARKAD can reach up to 80 percent.

 

‘Women exist if they produce’ 

 

Ece states that they enjoy making vermicelli, folded filo pastry, jams and marmalades with traditional methods, and that they love to do it. Ece says that sisterhood bond is the greatest solidarity. Stating that it is a joyful situation that the cooperative is growing, Ece says that they are preparing to sell their products to the markets by expanding their targets. Ece says she desires a world where women are independent from men and can exist as women, and then gives the following message: ‘’We women exist if we produce.’’