Photo © RET International

Article by Ali Selim KARA, Communications Specialist for RET in Türkiye

Mardin, TÜRKIYE – At 58, Maha found both a livelihood and a renewed sense of purpose when she joined the Leap Natural workshops in Mardin, Türkiye. “A person who produces feels strong. I am no longer just someone carrying her past — I am a woman who produces and stands on her own feet,” she says. Today, Maha works alongside other women producers in soap-making and woodblock-printed textile workshops.

Maha first arrived in Türkiye in 2015 after leaving her home country. Unable to stay without her family, she returned. Over time, living conditions in her homeland deteriorated; production stopped, daily life became harder, and the weight of uncertainty grew. Her children eventually moved to different countries, each heading in a separate direction. “For a mother, distance is not just about kilometers — it leaves an emptiness inside,” Maha says.

When she came to Türkiye, a second time, everything felt different. Her surroundings seemed more familiar, more recognizable than before. Feeling a greater sense of ease, Maha decided to stay for good.

Photo © RET International

A Door Opens: The Leap Natural Workshops

When Maha first heard about the Leap Natural workshops in Mardin, she did not yet know they would mark a turning point in her life. “It was a door for me. I wanted to try,” she says. She enrolled in the soap-making and woodblock-printed textile workshops. In the first days she focused solely on the work, but it did not take long before she formed strong bonds with the other women at the workshop.

“We were producing together, laughing together,” Maha recounts. For her, the workshop was far more than a workplace. “There were women, there was laughter, there was music. It felt as though we were not just working — we were healing,” she says.

Beyond acquiring new skills, Maha discovered something more fundamental: the meaning of getting ready each morning and belonging somewhere. “Getting ready and leaving the house in the morning, belonging somewhere, and knowing: I am going to work. That sentence may seem small, but there is freedom inside it,” she says. Today, regardless of the weather, Maha wakes up early every morning and heads to the workshop. She no longer defines herself only by her past — she sees herself as a woman who produces and stands on her own.

A Women’s Cooperative Growing Through Solidarity

Leap Natural is a social enterprise founded by the women entrepreneurs of the Leap Women’s Initiative, Production and Business Cooperative based in Mardin. The cooperative and its brand emerged from the Women’s Socio-Economic Empowerment Program implemented by RET International in southeastern and central Türkiye in partnership with LEAP Türkiye.

The cooperative’s producers, comprising both local and refugee women, create hundreds of natural, handmade, and eco-friendly products, including personal care items, local food products, woodblock-printed and naturally dyed textiles, and handcrafted dolls. Maha’s story is a concrete reflection of how Leap Natural reaches beyond production, building solidarity among women and creating meaningful change in their lives.

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