Limasol Türk Kooperatif Bankası awarded the projects which recorded the women stories through various means in Cyprus.

You Have Story, You Are Here, You Exist with Your Story

With its vision to stand by women, Limasol Türk Kooperatif Bankası carries out its activities to provide service. This year, it decided convey gratitude to projects which recorded the women stories through various means in Cyprus on 8^th March Women’s Day.

Within this framework, it was announced that; young female director, Gülşen Erçin Vaiz’s “Womaning Stories”, formed of women biographies, Bellapais Inner Wheel Club’s “Cyprus’ Leader Women” book project and the documentary “Lives of Cypriot Women” filming different occupational groups by Women Stories Association were awarded.

Stressing that Cypriot Women’s stories are of great importance and should not be fade in the history, Limasol Türk Kooperatif Bankası thanked to all participants who served in this project leaving important traces for the future and stressed that each story told with this project will make a butterfly effect and touch many lives of various women and change their lives dramatically.

Projects were Explained, Awards were Given

Limasol Türk Kooperatif Bankası paid several visits to convey the awards to those who cared for the stories of women. In visits, one of the Deputy General Managers at Limasol Türk Kooperatif Bankası Müzeyyen Öztürker, Executive Board Administrative Manager Akıle Tatarlar, Corporate Communication Unit Manager İpek G. Halim Taşkapılı, Corporate Communication Unit members Ceylan Çınarlılı and Adem Kavaz were present. The details of the project were explained as the awards were given.

What Did the Award-Winners Say?

Gülşen Erçin Vaiz – Womaning Stories

“At first I would like to thank to Limasol Türk Kooperatif Bankası for this award. I receive this award for my little daughter. I started this project in 2018 by courtesy of a lecture I got during my university years. That project I made affected me to an extent so that I wanted to develop it. To be honest, one of my aims to start this project was to find healing for me as the other was to leave it as a legacy to my successing generations.

At this project there are 8 stories of 8 women. I chose these women because I believed that their stories would inspire us. Before getting started with video shooting, I spent time with them. Sometimes I lived a full day with them. The reason for that was to observe them closely and actualise the project with the best perspective and to convey the message to the audience successfully. Once we associated in their feelings and their routine, we started to shoot the videos. After completing the videos, we worked on the fiction and that is how we got here today. I also would like to state this as well that we have got no contributions or support to complete this project.

Everyone who had a chance to watch the videos reacted very well. Some cried as some travelled back to their childhood times. There had been, even, some women who later on contacted me and told me they understood the importance of what they do in life. This made me very happy and I realised that what I did was a good thing. Additionally, this project facilitated in me as well. It helped me get better at some points where I find myself insufficient.”

Ayşem Uluşahin Erişir – Bellapais Inner Wheel Club Term President – “Cyprus’ Leader Women” Book

“We wanted to collect life stories of 78 women of Cyprus who pioneered in their works and occupations. Yesterday is a very important matter. Why? Because, it enables us to see our actual point once we turned to our back and look behind.

Our book was published in English and Turkish. We wondered the stories of these women and we wanted to actualise such work. This project was prepared in almost 3 years. It took this long, because the context of this book had a vast scale. Majority of the interviews was conducted by our club members. Also, successful journalists and authors Ferhat Atik, İsmail Bozkurt and Orhan Borkurt supported us in proofreading and editing of these interviews and transcripting them into words. We had opportunities to meet the women in person who are alive. This was very important for us because we had the chance to listen their stories with their own words, from the first hand. Of course, we are aware that there are many more successful Cypriot Turkish women who have leader spirits. In the future, we are planning to make another project that would cover their stories.

After publishing the book, we received many calls. We never knew these, but now it is good that we know. Some of our readers told that this book had become a source for them. So, we received many positive feedbacks. We believe that we managed to empower women with this project because it is really important for women to know these stories. Lastly, I would like to indicate that the income earned from this project will be allocated to actualise other women projects.”

Şenay Ekingen, Gülev Sıdal, Fatma Özok and Işın Ramadan Cemil – Women Stories Association – Lives of Cypriot Women Documentary

“Regardless of which part they lived on this island, we aimed to bring into daylight not only the renowned women who left traces behind but also the others who are infamous but equally powerful. As a result of our researches, we managed to complete interviews with women who signed different works during their lives, for those who are deceased, their family members were interviewed. Several association members were present at each video shoot and later on editing.

Every documentary filming was directed by different teams. We received financial and moral support for each documentary filming. Hereby, I would like to take this opportunity to convey my greatest gratitude to them one more time through this medium. These works are important to immortalise such projects and legate these information to the new generations.

After completing each documentary, we received emotional feedbacks. Especially, ones who are close to the subjects of the documentary reached us and delivered their happiness. Not only in Cyprus, but also from abroad, we received many calls. This made us feel proud of our work. After all, all we wanted was to reach many audiences as possible and tell women stories.

Along with our documentaries, we also managed to complete a book of different concept but telling women stories. We hope that we will find opportunity to immortalise this project as well and see our books on shelves.”