I’d like to introduce you to our newest partner—SES Equality and Solidarity Association. Founded five years ago as SES Equality, Justice, Women Platform, their mission is to bring a fresh feminist perspective to global developments as part of the women’s movement in Turkey and the world.
SES’s founder, Gülseren Onanç, says, “Our mission is to shed light on women’s struggles, amplify their achievements, and support the visibility of women’s leadership in various fields. Despite the polarized climate of our nation, we remain committed to using a constructive, unifying, embracing, and egalitarian language. We firmly advocate that gender equality and secularism are indispensable pillars of democracy.”
I met Gül last year in Florence, Italy, at the European Institute’s Florence School of Transnational Governance, where she is a fellow. Gül attended a Civity workshop I led there, and we began a conversation about the importance of relationships, trust-building and belonging.
She and her team reached out to us, and we discussed the possibility of Civity helping them with their work. Thanks to funding from HasNa, Palma and I are now supporting SES in integrating a Civity approach into their work and conducting virtual Civity Train-the-Trainer workshops for SES staff and members.
Civity’s focus on building relationships of respect and empathy is closely aligned with SES’s fundamental values of equality and solidarity. “We advocate for equality in all areas,” Gül explains, “with a particular focus on gender equality, and we promote solidarity. We believe that any social change can only be achieved through organized struggle based on solidarity.”
She continues,
In a world increasingly defined by conflict, the partnership between SES and Civity serves as a vital bridge of mutual understanding. I believe that fostering international trust is just as crucial as the trust we are striving to build within our own borders. By collaborating as two organizations that believe in peace, equality, and democracy across different cultures, we are not just sharing knowledge; we are helping to strengthen global communication and build a foundation of mutual trust.
We always get a lot from working with partners, but I have to say that working with the wonderful women from SES has been a truly joyful experience. Through the work that SES is doing I am seeing first-hand what’s possible in Turkey … and I am also learning a lot about what we all can do in America. I look forward to learning more.