Derya Mansuroğlu: Derya continues to sew curtains

Derya started working in a cotton gin factory at the age of 15. Her family was not in favor of her working because it was a tiring job, but she was going to work. She wanted to earn her own money and meet her own needs. “I realized then that idleness was not for me.”

At the age of 17, she started working as a middleman in a textile workshop. On the first day, as she was cleaning up, she thought, “What am I doing?” Looking back now, she says how important it was to start from the very basics. When the people in the workshop took a break, she immediately found a machine and sat at it, and that’s how she spent the first four months. Then she worked at the same place as a machinist until the machinist got married. When she got married, she quit her job, but when her children reached primary school age, Derya didn’t want to stay at home anymore and went back to work. She would leave one child at school and the other with her sister and go to work. She worked in different places to learn every part of the job.

“I used to think that if I am going to do a job, I need to know every detail. I still try to learn everything new in the same way.”

She wanted to open her own workshop. Together with her partner, she found a place, chose the machines and all the products to buy. One week later, she was going to make the payment, buy the products and open the workshop. A week later, the earthquake hit. 

After the earthquake, she had neither a job nor a house. She went to Eskişehir with her children. She worked there for a while. Her husband was building their new house in Hatay. Derya went back to Hatay when the house was nearing completion. She started staying with her family.

“When I applied, I believed in my heart that it would happen. The first item to enter the house we built was the sewing machine provided to me!” 

She saw mavikalem’s announcement on the “Buradayız Hatay” page (we can call it “social media”) and applied.  Her house was not yet finished, the electrical installation was not completed. In order to start the work, she said, “just close the doors and windows, and the rest will happen gradually”! And so it was, the first item to enter her house was a sewing machine! She started her business again by making curtains for her neighbors and friends. In Hatay, where a new life was established, those who wanted to have curtains made for their homes started to reach Derya. 

Derya continues to sew curtains in Antakya.

She has no social media accounts.