On April 25, ANZAC Day, then Rotary International President Gordon McInally and his wife Heather visited the Golden Needle Project training centre in Adiyaman Izmir, Türkiye.
The project aims to empower women by encouraging them to participate in economic life and fill the gap of intermediate staff in the textile sector.
Handcraft sewing and embroidery is the most common hobby among women in Türkiye, passed down from generation to generation, however, these skills rarely become an employed occupation that contributes to family life and the national economy.
To address this gap, the Golden Needle Project established three training centres – eventually to be expanded to five – that enable women living in Izmir to be trained to work as intermediate staff in the ready-made clothing industry. The project focuses on the uneducated and less educated women in the community, and hopes to see 250 women graduate from the program each year.
The Rotary Club of Chatswood Roseville, NSW, is the international partner for this global grant project, with the Rotary Club of Izmir-Dokuz Eylul as the host club. The total budget was US$71,050, with the Rotary Club of Chatswood Roseville, together with district designated funds and directed gifts from District 9685, providing more than 70 per cent of the total funding. Eighty-seven per cent of the global grant was used to purchase equipment, ensuring the project is ongoing.
To date, 206 people have directly benefited from the program, with more than 100 women gaining employment. Key partners of the grant were The Aegean Clothing Manufacturers Association, which helped source and install the equipment, organised training, helped in the selection process of the trainees, and visited the course centres during the training program. They also provided fabric to the centres and crucially coordinated the employment of more than 40 per cent of the graduates.
The other key partner was the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, which provided the buildings for the centres.
The project recently won first prize in the Competition for Women’s Employment and Gender Equality in Izmir and received the Star of Izmir award.