A Sustainable Success Story from Local to Global: Iskenderun Demeter Skilled Hands Women's Initiative

"As the Iskenderun Chamber of Commerce and Industry, we believe that one of the cornerstones of regional development is women's employment and entrepreneurship. With this vision, the collaboration we started in 2017 has today turned into a corporate success story.

Our process started with the 'Assistant Chef' courses within the scope of the SODES project that we carried out with Mr. Yüksel Köse and the Iskenderun Branch of the Turkish Women's Union in 2017. This first education-focused project, which our Chamber co-financed and provided consultancy support to, This step prepared the ground for the blossoming of the entrepreneurial spirit and bore fruit in 2021, leading to the establishment of the 'İskenderun Demeter Skilled Hands Women's Entrepreneurship Production and Business Cooperative'. Our Chamber has provided strategic mentoring support to the cooperative from its establishment phase and has played an active role in its access to grant and funding resources from the Ministry of Trade. Following the strengthening of the production infrastructure, our support continued in the branding and marketing processes; visibility efforts were carried out by ensuring the cooperative's participation in national and international fairs. Today, this cooperative, born from an education project, continues its activities as the most concrete indicator of the added value that our Chamber offers to the entrepreneurship ecosystem. is doing.