Under the main sponsorship of TÜRGEV, TEDxVefaWomen, which set out with the theme of "Make Your Courage Shine" with the wish to share the inspiring stories of the productive lives of academics, artists and entrepreneur women from all walks of life and to increase their labor and courage, was held on December 15, 2019 at the Bağlarbaşı Congress and Culture Center.
Under the main sponsorship of TÜRGEV, TEDxVefaWomen, which set out with the theme of "Make Your Courage Shine" with the wish to share the inspiring stories of the productive lives of academics, artists and entrepreneur women from all walks of life and to increase their labor and courage, was held on December 15, 2019 at the Bağlarbaşı Congress and Culture Center.
One of the First "TEDxWomen" Events in Turkey
Aiming to contribute to the visibility of women and girls in social life and trying to support every step taken in this regard, TÜRGEV sponsored TEDxVefaWomen, one of the first events in Turkey titled "Women" of TEDx, an experience-sharing platform held in many countries of the world and open to everyone with "ideas worth sharing".
The event, which was hosted by the Bağlarbaşı Congress and Culture Center, women from different places of Turkey who have accomplished valuable works in their fields attended as speakers.
Among the speakers, there were writer-screenwriter-narrator Beyza Akyüz, brand founder of Hevsel Bahcesi Şehadet Çitil, village teacher Derya Çok, mental health consultant Pınar Kobaş Sıçrar, President of Afşar Bala'm Women's Cooperative Figen Ar, SchoolX Founding Partner Ayşe Seyyide Kaptaner, academician Yaylagül Ceran Karataş, composer, pianist, interior architect Büşra Kayıkçı, Co-Founder of Assalam Foundation Nazan Yalçınkaya, art historian Başak Burcu Eke, opera singer Funda Güllü, General Manager of Usturlab Sümeyye Ceylan, CEO of Biolive Company and President of Turkey Youth Clubs Confederation Duygu Yılmaz, Play Studies – OÇA Solidarity Network Volunteer Efruze Esra Alptekin.
What each of the speeches had in common was to reveal the existing courage of the women in connection with the main theme of the event and to multiply the beautiful work they did with the words they said.
"Women Can Be Heroes to Inspiring Stories"
“We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.” Ursula K. Le Guin
Our Chairwoman of the Board of Management Dr. Fatmanur Altun shared her opinions inspired by the quote from Le Guin’s:
"Girls make up an important part of our field of work. Since we are a foundation that deals with girls' education, we wanted to take part in such an event."
Stating that listening to each other instilled courage in all of us, Altun also said:
“We are the children of the world who are experiencing serious problems. We are facing incredible crises, including massacres and wars, migrations, refugee crises. We see that women's experiences, perspectives, solution proposals and stories are not listened to much, and they are not given a share for the solution of problems. On the other hand, we witness that interesting approaches are exhibited such as 'women should stay at home and women should not interfere in these affairs with the dough of their hands'. We say, let women come with the dough of their hands and share their stories. Let them tell us about the solution proposals they have found and share their inspiring stories with us. Women are able to come up with very different solutions to problems; they can be heroes to different inspiring stories. On the other hand, they are able to do this without taking their hands out of the dough in harmony with the texture of life and nature. There are different women and inspiring success stories at this event today."
