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Can we produce handbags from garbage? These women can!
And they are very beautiful, stylish and trendy bags.
The women living in Ayvalık, a district of Balıkesir, give life to different
kinds of packaging and other materials that would otherwise be thrown away.
They are called "Garbage Lady".
In the fall of 2009, when Sabancı Foundation Changemakers program
first visited the center of Garbage Lady in Ayvalık,
Tara Hopkins presented with enthusiasm
her social entrepreneurship project targeting the women in the district.
It has been nearly 3 years since Tara Hopkins shared her work on the Sabancı Foundation Changemakers program.
Since then, women in Ayvalık continued to work, to produce and succeed.
New products such as aprons were produced
as well as the famous handbags.
Their reputation exceeded the country.
The Garbage Lady bags are now sold in the Netherlands, the United States, Spain and Germany.
Having started with 50 women employees, the Garbage Lady project
has now reached 600 women.
The Garbage Lady team was invited to Moldova
to deliver training as part of a civil society project in which
disabled children and their mothers will produce handbags.
- People ask us: "How do you measure your success?"
These women are more self-confident now. You cannot gauge the amount of success.
But they feel better.
It is very difficult to show the difference,
But some of these 60 women can be good examples.
They used to be more timid before.
Now they can stand on their own two feet.
Last year, Garbage Lady was selected as the best
social entrepreneurship project n Turkey by the United Nations.
Until now, they have sold 10.000 products, 8000 of which are handbags.
The women earn 700-800 TL per month
in return for the handbags they produce.
However, the difference she has made in the lives of other women is priceless.
- A woman is earning money for the first time in her life. It is the most beautiful and difficult achievement.
We pay them at the beginning of each month.
When we first pay a newcomer,
we thank and congratulate her.
Then everybody starts to cry without any exception.
It is an unbelievable feeling.
A woman who is 40 or 50 years old is earning money
for the first time in her life.
It is incredible to see and feel it.
When Tara Hopkins and her business partner Melih Özsöz first established Garbage Lady years ago,
their purpose was to make a difference in the life of these women in Ayvalık.
They put their hearts in this purpose and made a difference
in these women's lives who wanted to stand on their own two feet.
- Garbage Lady is a place, a platform for them.
Normally they don't have such a place.
It is something that you cannot buy with money.
Now they own this place and they fill it with their hearts and souls.