Nest Building

If you take a trip to www.citaras.com, what you notice on the home page is this note:

We’ve joined our expertise with Intarsia Concept to make these unique handmade items available through Nest, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting women in craft-based businesses through the provision of micro-loans. Shop here for these beautiful handmade products and 30% of your purchase goes toward raising more money for Nest microloans.

With this post, I wanted to describe these relationships in more detail.

It was not long after moving to Turkey that I noticed the abundance of handmade items and the ability of Turkish women to make just about anything. That's when eBay was becoming a household name so I began exploring ways to sell product online. This is the short story of how Citara's was born.

Through Citara's I developed experience working locally with artisans, developed an eye for design and craftsmanship, and began to learn about Turkish culture and history. Since I was not a business student, I found myself scouring the Internet for topics like marketing, branding, and sales.

Little did I know that my future friend and business partner Figen Cakir was doing the same thing.

It was natural for us to form Intarsia Concept, a site and service that gathers and shares resources people can use to develop their creative businesses. As staunch believers in social responsibility, we have donated many hours volunteering with local artisans to share our experience so that they can also build their own creative businesses.

One result of our work in this area is that we have curated a collection of handmade Turkish products that we've put up for sale on the Nest website.

Nest is a nonprofit organization that empowers female artists and artisans around the world through a unique combination of interest-free microfinance loans, mentoring from established designers, as well as a market in which to sell their crafts.

We've found this relationship to be mutually beneficial in that we can sell local handmade products and 30% of the sale of the products goes back to Nest to be distributed as more microloans.

Shop here for handmade Turkish products that support the cycle of women's creative entrepreneurship.

Everyone wins.

Turkish Grameen Microcredit Project

image credit: www.tgmp.net

This summer I met with Ruth MacQuiddy, Project Director for the Grameen Trust.  We initially met a year previously when she interviewed Linda Alepin of the Global Women's Leadership Network for the Turkish Daily News.
The reason for our meeting this summer was to discuss ways for Citara's to collaborate with the Turkish Grameen Microcredit Project (TGMP), a private, non-profit organization that provides loans and savings programs to the self-employed poor of Turkey.  Their mission is to supply people the capital and tools to work their way out of poverty which they accomplish by providing borrowers access to collateral-free microcredit and other basic training in order to start their own businesses.
The TGMP has 25 branches throughout Turkey and makes microloans on the average of 500 YTL (about 385 USD) to women living below the poverty line.  Many of these women use the loan to start their own business, and one of the popular businesses is making traditional Turkish crafts - something Citara's knows about very well.   From our interview the year before, Ruth was aware of our involvement with women and crafts and thought it would be a good way to support TGMP borrowers who use their loans for craft-based businesses.
As of July 2008, the TGMP had registered over 10,000 members with approximately 9,845 borrowers, all of whom are women.  The cumulative loan disbursements totaled $11.4 million and cumulative savings deposits of about $460,000.
What impressed me most in my discussion with Ruth is that the TGMP is not a finance project, but a project whose aim is to help people lift themselves out of poverty.  In the development of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, the institution on which the principles of the TGMP are based, Sixteen Decisions were developed in order to provide areas for participants to focus upon.  These include:

1. The four principles of the Grameen Bank - Discipline, Unity, Courage and Hard Work.
2. Bringing prosperity to their families.
3. Not living in dilapidated homes.
4. Growing vegetables year-round both to eat, and to sell.
5. Planting as many seedlings as possible during the planting season.
6. Planning family size, minimizing expenditures, and looking after their health.
7. Educating children and ensuring they can earn money to pay for their education.
8. Keeping children and the environment clean.
9. Building and using pit latrines.
10. Purifying water for drinking.
11. Declining the dowry system and not practicing child marriage.
12. Preventing injustice.
13. Undertaking bigger investments for higher income.
14. Helping others.
15. Restoring breaches in discipline within the community.
16. Taking part in social activities collectively.

In Turkey, approximately 25% of the population lives below the poverty line.  Efforts to reduce this number and help raise people above the line are ambitious and necessary.  The TGMP is currently expanding its outreach in Turkey and is connecting with collaborators and supporters to increase the number of branch offices and members.  We encourage anyone who is interested to contact the TGMP through their website and contribute to the important work they are doing for the poor of Turkey.
** Note: Facts and details for the TGMP came from my meeting with Ruth MacQuiddy and information sheets she provided me on the Turkish Grameen Microcredit Project.

Logo Pendant for Nest

Our Iznik Tileware artist created these darling logo pendants for Nest. If you're wondering about Nest, it is a non-profit organization that gives micro-loans to women in developing countries to help start and grow their art and craft-based businesses. The first loan recipient was from our very own Izmit, Turkey! During founder Rebecca Kousky's initial visit to Turkey she loved Citara's collection of Iznik Tileware pendants and commissioned us to create some with the Nest logo. Here is the end result! To purchase these pendants click here and help support Nest's mission.

US women's leadership network searches Turkey for partners

WLW Class of 2006

During Linda Alepin's visit to Turkey this summer, we were interviewed by Ruth MacQuiddy from the Turkish Daily News. The article highlighted GWLN's efforts to expand its women's leadership programs globally and how this effort will begin in Turkey. I was interviewed with regard to how Citara's was influenced by GWLN training and the progress that Citara's has made since its inception. I particularly mention the importance of social entrepreneurship. The full article may be found here for those interested.

The Global Women's Leadership Network Influence

Whole woman, whole leader, whole world

In July 2006 I graduated from the Women Leaders for the World (WLW) program presented by the Global Women's Leadership Network. It was a life-altering event and has had a major impact on Citara's.

From their website:

"The Global Women's Leadership Network (GLWN) is an international network of women leaders who dare to transform their organizations, their communities, and the world. Worldwide, women represent the largest untapped source of leadership. Through training, community building and in-country mentorship programs, GWLN is liberating women leaders to create a new world, built on human rights, gender equality, sustainable development and global integrity."

Originally we simply intended Citara's to be a commercial enterprise. Following my participation in the WLW program I became much more atuned to the potential of Citara's to be a socially responsible business - having a beneficial influence on the community we operate in. Since then, all of our decisions come from a place which respects all the areas we touch - the artisan, the art, the customer, the families, the community. We are also much more aware of our impact on the environment and our responsibility as global citizens not just to operate in the world, but to improve it.

It is with great thanks and appreciation that I acknowledge the Global Women's Leadership Network and the impact it has had on my own work.