Solidarity Heals – Women to Women Health Workshops
We are happy to share with you that we have started the “Solidarity Heals; Health from Women to Women” project with the support of the Sabancı Foundation 2024-2025 Open Call Grant Program, in partnership with the Solidarity Women’s State Association (DAKAHDER) and the contributions of BEIJE.
As the Children First Association, we carried out volunteer activities in Adıyaman, one of the provinces affected by the earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023. We are taking our work carried out in the culture and art center we built for children, youth and women in the Kömür town of Adıyaman to a different dimension by advancing. We continue our work with the Solidarity Improves; Health from Women to Women project to support girls and women’s access to health rights in different districts of Adıyaman.
How Did We Start?
Adolescence is an important period in terms of physical, spiritual and mental development in the human life cycle. However, when we consider both our own adolescence experiences and the adolescence narratives of women and children we have contacted in line with our work, we realize that we are far from having adolescence experiences that are spent with access to healthy and accurate information. When we examine the research and current data on child and adolescent development, we come across data on these experiences.
One of the important problems we face is the lack of information in the field of sexual and reproductive health, especially the fact that girls in adolescence are far from accurate information, guidance and support. Unfortunately, ongoing taboos, misinformation and cultural beliefs about adolescence and sexuality, which are powered by social inequalities, hinder the development of a healthy body perception in girls and women. These experiences and limited information also deeply affect women’s sexual, physical and mental health.
Disaster and crisis periods such as earthquakes are among the periods when information and support on sexual and reproductive health are at their lowest for both women and girls and inequalities in this area deepen. Indeed, during the earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş, we directly experienced in the field how difficult it is for girls in puberty and women in pregnancy to access hygienic products, support, information and guidance during and after the disaster. The work to be done in this context is still of great importance despite the time that has passed since the earthquake.
What Will We Do?
After an intensive feasibility study in July and August, when we started the project, we aim to reach 300 girls by going to the field with 10 different workshops in Adıyaman city center and districts as of September, where we will talk about the menstrual cycle, gender equality and violence against women for girls between the ages of 12-18; and 300 women with 10 different workshops on sexual health, reproductive health and the right to health. In addition, creating serious awareness about the vital importance of important screening tests for women’s health, such as sexually transmitted infections, breast cancer and cervical cancer, and contributing to preventive health services are among our main goals. In addition, during the project, discussing violence against women with both girls and women, how we should combat the types of violence we notice or do not notice, and how we can protect ourselves from these types of violence will be one of the aims of “Solidarity from Women to Women”.
Our hope is to carry the relationship we establish with our bodies to a healthier and more equal ground in the lives of every woman and girl we come into contact with.
In June 2025, we completed 20 workshops and in light of the data and experiences we have obtained from the field for 10 months, we aim to organize a workshop with broad participation with the participation of civil society organizations and professional chambers operating in Diyarbakır and Adıyaman in order to draw attention to the needs in this area, to raise awareness and to share the outputs of the project. In this way, we aim for the outputs of the project not to be limited to the beneficiaries but to also affect service providers and decision-makers.
We would like to thank Sabancı Foundation for the support it provided under the Open Call Grant Program during these processes, our project partner DAKAHDER with whom we will be in solidarity throughout the project with their experience and knowledge in the field, the BEIJE brand that provided 1000 hygiene kits to be delivered to every woman and girl we contacted in the field, and everyone who worked and contributed to our project.
In Solidarity,
Önce Çocuklar Derneği Yönetim Kurulu
Our workshop animation video – 1:
Our workshop animation video – 2:
Scenes from our workshop:
