The Aegean Exporters’ Associations, which has mobilized all its resources in 11 provinces devastated by the earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, since the first day, is now extending a helping hand to women entrepreneurs in the disaster zone with the EIB Export-Up Mentoring Program, which has been successfully carried out for three years.
On the morning of February 6, Jak Eskinazi, Coordinator President of the Aegean Exporters’ Associations, emphasized that they have devoted their entire working hours to healing the wounds occasioned by the earthquake and said, “as the Aegean Exporters’ Associations, we have received permission from the Ministry of Trade to use a resource of 6 million (Turkish) liras as aid in kind in the first place. From the first moment until today, there is not a minute that we have not worked for the earthquake region. For the progress of our country, for polyphony, for democracy, we need our women to take a hand under the stone. As EIB, we assume a pioneering role in ensuring gender equality in Turkey. Because our main mission is to support sustainable development.”
President Eskinazi said, “in our 11 provinces in the disaster zone, there are collective structures that reach hundreds of women entrepreneurs who are engaged in micro-exports abroad. Others are working on geographically marked products from Turkey, sustainable and value-added production, holding international organic certificates, dealing with e-commerce and in e-export.
“We want to get stronger and manage the process. For this reason, we will build the new period of our EİB Export-Up Mentoring Program, which is a role model for Turkey, in cooperation with Southeastern Anatolia Exporters’ Associations (GAİB) and Aegean Business Women’s Association (EGİKAD) for 11 women entrepreneurs in 11 provinces whose commercial activities have been interrupted.” Explaining that she mentored Gözde Destek, one of the female representatives of the Turkish textile industry, for 6 months in the first period of the Export-Up Mentoring Project, Eskinazi said, “Our beneficiary had been realizing the production of smart textile product group, which had not been produced in Turkey before, for two years as a result of R&D studies. During my mentorship, I contributed to the product development process by examining the samples of the company during the negotiations. In addition to our beneficiary’s work on smart textiles, it will also play an active role in the US market as a result of the approval of its applications for name registration in the USA in the coming period.”
The Export-Up Mentoring Program has been writing success stories for three years. In 2019, the Aegean Exporters’ Associations signed the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest sustainability initiative, for the first time among Exporters’ Associations in Turkey.
President Eskinazi concluded his words as follows: “as the first exporter association to become a member of the Global Compact, we announced that we will be a signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Principles WEPs, a joint initiative of the Global Compact and UN Women, in 2022. For nearly 5 years, we have been working on gender equality and the empowerment of the female workforce, which is one of the priority principles of the Global Compact.
Source: Tarimpusulasi.com