19-year old student creates jobs for 800 women across Turkey

Deniz Yılmaz, who is enrolled in Robert College in Istanbul, said she developed the project in line with integrative business models following a summer camp in the Koç University last summer. 

“For us, money does not matter, but causes [do]. I feel very happy to follow my cause,” said Yılmaz. 

Through the project, more than 800 women in the southeastern provinces of Gaziantep, Adıyaman, Mardin and Şanlıurfa, as well as the Aegean district of Soma, which was hit by the worst mining accident of the county ever in 2014, have received an opportunity to work. 

Koton’s management contacted multi-purpose community centers, dubbed ÇATOMs, to develop the project further, Yılmaz noted. 

In line with the project, Koton’s designers created sample models for these women to embroider on natural linens at home or at the ÇATOM units. Then, they embroidered more than 12,000 units and were paid for their work.

“We are now working on a new collection for the winter…Female participants of the project want to work and earn their own money,” said Deniz Yılmaz’s mother and Koton co-founder Gülden Yılmaz.