Özgül Öztürk was the winner of the 2016 Terre de Femmes Turkey Award. She set up a villager coordination platform in her home village.
Coming face to face with the impact of rural flight
Özgül Öztürk is an architect. She lives in Istanbul, where she is a member of Turkey’s female entrepreneur association, KAGIDER. When her father died in 2007, Özgül decided to return with her mother to the village where she was born, Nimri, in Anatolia, in the centre of Turkey. When she arrived, she was confronted with the impact that rural flight had had on the village. A large proportion of the farming community had been migrating to towns and cities since the 1960s, resulting in a deserted village where fields and local farms were left vacant and where cultural activities that were once practised across the region were dying out.
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Coming face to face with the impact of rural flight
Özgül Öztürk is an architect. She lives in Istanbul, where she is a member of Turkey’s female entrepreneur association, KAGIDER. When her father died in 2007, Özgül decided to return with her mother to the village where she was born, Nimri, in Anatolia, in the centre of Turkey. When she arrived, she was confronted with the impact that rural flight had had on the village. A large proportion of the farming community had been migrating to towns and cities since the 1960s, resulting in a deserted village where fields and local farms were left vacant and where cultural activities that were once practised across the region were dying out.
Reviving a local dynamic with the community at its heart
With her association NİMRİ DAYANIŞMA DERNEĞ, Özgül suggested creating a community network for people living in town, particularly to connect the children of those who left the village with those who stayed in Nimri, by organising various economic, agricultural and cultural activities. She set up a cooperation platform for the villagers where they could discuss their needs and hopes, and make collective decisions about which initiatives they could implement, such as organising an annual cultural festival or setting up a community allotment.
A forward-looking initiative
A decade on, Özgül is proud to see the project growing every year, drawing in more and more young people who travel to the village each year to take part in the activities. She sees these exchanges as crucial to preserving their shared history and their cultural heritage and identity. Working within the KAGIDER network, Özgül takes her position as a role model very seriously. She supports a number of projects launched by female entrepreneurs and considers it essential to encourage women to stand on their own two feet, bring in an income, make decisions and create jobs.
Are you working on a project that fosters biodiversity, and has a positive social and environmental impact? Do you need support to take your ideas further?
If so, apply to the Terre de Femmes Award and you may just secure a grant and the support of an entire network of inspiring women!
