Turkish Delight!!

So we have been in Turkey now for just over a week, and it has been an unbelievable experience. It is difficult to really know where to begin. From Sofia we had over 1000 miles to cover until we arrived at our charity in Diyarbakir. We had put aside four days for this, and during that time we were introduced to the fantastic people and landscapes of Turkey.

Our first stop off along the route was Istanbul. Unfortunately we had only a few hours to see a city, more appropriate for a few weeks, and thus could only get a small taste. It was, however, beautiful, and is certainly somewhere I would like to see again. Turkey, however, had so much more to offer, and after a night in the car in Ankara, we arrived at Cappodocia on Saturday (6th).

Many people would have heard about Cappodocia, or seen pictures in Kebab shops all over England, it is, however, impossible to express how stunning it really is. This is not a holiday blog, so I won't go into too much detail, but all I have to say is ancient caves and hot air balloons in combination... winning!

As we headed further south we came across more and more examples of the incredible nature of Turkish and Kurdish people. There are too many of them to individually thank, but we were offered tea at every petrol station free of charge, had people giving up hours of their own time to assist us in finding hostels, restaurants, supermarkets etc, was given a free scarf as a gift by a parking attendant, and just this morning was invited for breakfast at Apo's house, who directed us to our car park yesterday.

The charity we visited in Diyarbakir, was 'Kamer', who are a non-governmental, non-religious organisation, working with Women's Rights across Turkey. They mainly deal with domestic violence issues, not only in respect to physical abuse, but also psychological. Their work is directed to addressing the issue of gender inequality, and focusses on giving women the basic human rights they deserve. In addition to this, they deal with more extreme cases, such as honour killings, and are very much a feminist, activist group.

We witnessed some of the work they do with regards to entrepreneurship schemes, firstly at a craft workshop, and secondly at a restaurant. At the workshop, they were making a variety of goods out of recycled materials. These included, purses, bags, wallets etc, and I was especially happy to at last have a place to store my coins, which had been dropping out everywhere for the past few weeks. At the restaurant we ate what is undeniably our best meal of the journey so far, and in such a fantastic and positive atmosphere. Both schemes are directed towards empowering women through work, and are set up by Kamer, to be handed over to the women to manage themselves, once they have learnt the necessary skills.

Some of the statistics we were given with regards to women's rights issues in Turkey, were shocking, and many involved young girls falling out of the education system. A huge percentage of women had suffered some kind of abuse, and also arranged/forced marriages are still extremely common. The work that Kamer has done over the past 17 years or so, has had a huge impact on the mindset of many women, men, and children alike. They themselves confess that it is a huge task to break down 'traditions', which have existed for years, but are determined to progress the mindset, and give women the freedom they deserve as human beings.

Here is a photo of me writing the blog, with Apo (more photos to come)