Based in Diyarbakır, the Women’s State of Solidarity Association (Dayanışmanın Kadın Hali Derneği – DAKAHDER) works to combat gender inequality and empower women.
Supported through the Institutional Fund, jointly implemented by the Support Foundation for Civil Society and the Dalyan Foundation in its 2024-2025 cycle, DAKAHDER is developing a resource generation strategy to strengthen its financial sustainability. The association focuses on three key areas: enhancing organisational sustainability, producing data, and building its advocacy capacity.
Read our interview below to learn more about DAKAHDER and their work.
Can you tell us about DAKAHDER’s mission and activities for our readers to get to know you better?
We are a local association established in Diyarbakır during a period when many civil society organisations were shut down by appointed trustees for political reasons. Our main motivation was to work on gender equality, strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations, and create a space where young women and LGBTI+ university students could organise.
Our work focuses on fighting gender inequality and researching the social, cultural, psychological, and socio-economic conditions of women to empower them. We aim to raise public awareness and support individuals and institutions working towards a democratic society grounded in human rights, freedoms, social justice, and peace.
At DAKAHDER, we strive to eliminate all forms of gender-based discrimination and restriction. We develop policies on gender equality, run campaigns and research, and fight against hate speech targeting LGBTI+s while advocating for inclusive spaces.
In Diyarbakır, the challenges faced by women, children, and LGBTI+s are deeply layered and intersectional.
Considering Diyarbakır’s demographic and socio-political structure, what are the main issues faced by women, children, and LGBTI+s? What kind of measures are needed?
DAKAHDER works to defend the rights of women, children, and LGBTI+s and to ensure that they can live equally and free from violence. In Diyarbakır, the challenges they face are complex and intersectional.
For women, male violence — including physical, psychological, sexual, economic, and digital forms — remains widespread. Inequality in access to public services, particularly for women in rural areas, limits their access to healthcare, education, and justice.
The legacy of conflict and displacement has deepened social trauma, often making women’s struggles for rights invisible. Traditional gender roles continue to restrict women’s autonomy and decision-making over their own lives.
For children, child labour and early and forced marriages remain major issues. The lack of recognition of mother-tongue education rights prevents many children from accessing quality education. Exposure to trauma and insecurity, particularly among displaced children or those who have witnessed conflict, has long-term effects.
LGBTI+s in Diyarbakır face discrimination, exclusion, and hate speech, making it difficult for them to exist freely both in society and within public institutions. Family pressure and forced marriage, particularly affecting young trans and lesbian women, are also serious issues.
To address these challenges, rights-based local policies must be developed, and services should be designed with the participation of those directly affected. Recognising the right to services and education in the mother tongue is key—it ensures children’s continued education and helps women access justice.
We also advocate for comprehensive anti-violence mechanisms, the widespread integration of gender equality education, the creation of safe spaces and support lines for LGBTI+s, and collaborative monitoring and advocacy with women’s organisations.
At DAKAHDER, we not only raise visibility around these issues but also aim to build solidarity and collective action, from the local to the national level, for policy change. We will continue to fight for a future rooted in gender equality, justice, and restorative transformation.
Economic challenges have hit women’s organisations in fragile regions like Diyarbakır even harder.
How have financial challenges and the current economic crisis affected women’s organisations in Diyarbakır? What strategies have you developed to overcome these issues?
In recent years, the economic crisis has deeply affected civil society. For women’s organisations in socio-politically fragile regions like Diyarbakır, the impact has been particularly severe. We have faced difficulties both in accessing financial resources and ensuring sustainability. The main challenges include:
- Shrinking grant opportunities and shifting funding priorities due to political conditions, which have directly affected organisations working on gender equality and women’s rights. Many funders now prefer to support less politically sensitive areas, and organisations in Kurdish regions often face stricter scrutiny during grant applications.
- A lack of flexible, core funding to cover essential expenses such as rent, communication, and staffing, which threatens the continuity of activities.
- Heavy reliance on volunteer labour, which has become emotionally and physically exhausting over time, leading to burnout.
- A limited culture of local philanthropy, restricting the potential for alternative fundraising.
This grant will help DAKAHDER become a collective, resilient organisation with long-term goals.
Which capacity development areas will you prioritise with this grant support?
We are focusing on three main areas: organisational sustainability, data generation, and strengthening regional advocacy.
First, we aim to update our medium-term strategic plan to set clearer and more measurable organisational goals. We will develop internal monitoring and evaluation tools and establish effective data collection and analysis mechanisms to increase our long-term impact.
Second, we will organise capacity-building workshops on gender-based data literacy, project design, digital security, and psychosocial support for our core team and volunteer network—especially those active in the field.
Third, we plan to develop a joint regional advocacy strategy with other organisations in Diyarbakır, or strengthen existing networks. We will also engage with local authorities, public institutions, and professional chambers, publish rights-based monitoring reports, and run joint advocacy campaigns.
All these activities will help DAKAHDER move beyond project-based work and become a collective, resilient organisation with long-term goals.
We believe solidarity must be built not only between individuals, but also between institutions.
Finally, how would you describe your organisation to potential supporters and donors?
After one of our gender equality trainings, a participant from a local institution told us:
“After this training, I was able to view my own organisation from a different perspective for the first time. We identified our weaknesses and started talking about them openly.”
For us, this is a powerful reminder of why we do what we do. At DAKAHDER, we believe that not only individuals but also local institutions and CSOs must strengthen their gender perspective to create real change.
In Diyarbakır, where socio-political fragility and limited communication between institutions persist, we promote gender-sensitive policies, encourage inclusive language, and support structural transformation through our training programmes.
We know that solidarity must be built not just between individuals but also between institutions. Those who support us are not simply helping a single organisation—they are contributing to a collective effort to plant the seeds of sustainable change across local governments, CSOs, and communities.
