Founded in Ankara in 1993, the Foundation for Women’s Solidarity is dedicated to combating gender inequality and all forms of gender-based violence through feminist principles, while building and expanding networks of solidarity for women.
The Foundation received grant support from our Gender Equality Fund to strengthen the capacities of two local women’s organisations to establish and run Women’s Counselling Centres in line with feminist principles.
In this interview, the Foundation shares how peer mentorship, safe data collection, and feminist solidarity are transforming local support systems for survivors of gender-based violence.
What are the main challenges local women’s organisations face in establishing and sustaining feminist counselling centres, and how do these affect women’s access to their rights?
Our work shows that securing sustainable financial and human resources is the primary hurdle for local women’s organisations. Most operate on tight budgets, relying on short-term project funding and volunteers. This makes it difficult to maintain safe, accessible spaces, retain qualified staff, build technical infrastructure, and offer consistent services.
A lack of permanent personnel also hinders an organisation’s ability to adapt to women’s evolving needs, which are constantly reshaped by gender-based violence, poverty, migration, disasters, and economic crises. Without adequate staffing, responding swiftly and effectively becomes a major struggle. This can damage trust with applicants and ultimately alienate women from support networks.
Beyond funding, these organisations face critical gaps in institutional governance, volunteer management, data protection systems, local cross-sector collaboration, and regular capacity-building.
These deficiencies directly undermine women’s access to rights. Women need more than just information; they need safe, confidential, rights-based, and holistic support mechanisms. Strengthening and funding local women’s organisations over the long term is essential if survivors of violence are to access quality support in their own cities.
Women need more than just information; they need safe, confidential, rights-based, and holistic support mechanisms.
Can you tell us about the project you’re running with support from our Gender Equality Fund?
The project aims to empower local women’s organisations seeking to enhance their counselling services while fostering feminist solidarity between groups.
Drawing on our 33 years of experience running a women’s counselling centre, we view this project not as a one-way transfer of knowledge, but as a space for mutual learning. Through needs assessments and mentorship, we evaluate challenges, coping strategies, and locally tailored solutions alongside our partner organisations.
While sharing our expertise on case management, intake processes, safe data collection, and advocacy, we keep the unique realities of local organisations at the heart of our work. This approach ensures women’s organisations can sustain their counselling activities without feeling isolated, drawing strength from shared experience and feminist networks. Crucially, the insight gained through this collective process enriches our national and international advocacy against gender-based violence.
As resources shrink and demand grows, the most vital need is building solidarity across organisations.
The project also aims to improve safe data production and advocacy capacity. Why is safe data critical for local women’s organisations?
Feminist data is vital because it makes women’s lived experiences of violence and inequality visible. In Türkiye, official data on violence against women remains limited, irregular, and insufficiently detailed. Feminist data literacy helps bridge this gap.
Collecting, analysing, and using data in an ethical, safe, and confidential manner enables organisations to design better support services and advocate more effectively for policy change at local, national, and international levels.
Safe data collection protects women’s privacy while illuminating emerging needs and barriers to support. The data produced by local organisations serves as an indispensable, evidence-based resource for improving anti-violence mechanisms and social policies.
Looking ahead, what are the most critical needs for strengthening local capacity and expanding the counselling centre model?
As resources shrink and demand grows, the most vital need is building solidarity across organisations. We must create frameworks that enhance mutual support alongside technical capacity.
Peer supervision is an essential tool here. Creating spaces where practitioners can exchange experiences, discuss shared difficulties, and learn together builds organisational resilience and prevents isolation.
Furthermore, secondary trauma and burnout are significant risks in this line of work. Bearing witness to violence while managing heavy caseloads with limited resources and volunteer labor takes a toll. Strengthening volunteer networks, facilitating peer support, and integrating tools to combat secondary trauma must become core components of counselling operations. Long-term sustainability depends on safeguarding the well-being and resilience of the activists themselves.
Feminist solidarity goes beyond transferring information; it empowers local organisations to trust their own capacity.
Can you share a concrete experience from the field that illustrates your impact?
We don’t measure our impact solely by the number of women reached or services provided, but by whether women can access the help they need and whether sustainable networks of solidarity are being built.
One of the most meaningful outcomes has been helping local organisations realise they are not alone. As one participating group shared:
“We were terrified because we didn’t consider ourselves experts. But hearing directly from experts at the Foundation for Women’s Solidarity; learning how they navigate consultations and set boundaries; gave us tremendous strength.”
This feedback highlights that feminist solidarity goes beyond transferring information; it empowers local organisations to trust their own capacity.
The project has also streamlined referral pathways between groups. For example, when a woman approached our counselling centre seeking advice on menopause awareness, we were able to connect her directly with Lotus Women’s Solidarity and Life Association, whose specialised work in this area we had learned about during the mentorship program. Case referrals have become faster and more frequent, demonstrating the practical power of connected, responsive solidarity networks.
