MOKID Kitchen: From an EU-Funded Women’s Project to a Restaurant
At just 17, Hilal Burç entered an arranged marriage, ending her dreams of pursuing a degree. Instead, she actively engaged with civil society organisations dedicated to promoting gender equality and combating violence against women. Her journey intersected with the MOKİD during the EU-funded Refugee Women of Artuklu project.
“The project MOKİD implemented for both refugees and host communities sprouted so many seeds that entirely new initiatives blossomed from them,” says Burç.
EUROPEAN UNION, 2025
Hilal Burç, President of the KADIM Cooperative
The Cooperative Was the Starting Point
One of the Artuklu project’s key outcomes was establishing a cooperative. To empower women, MOKİD united participants of the project’s vocational training courses and organised them under the Women’s Solidarity and Employment Centre (KADIM) Cooperative. Led by Hilal Burç, the cooperative launched catering services, providing a platform for sustainable employment and collaboration.
Providing Meals for Earthquake Survivors
Following the February 2023 earthquakes, KADIM, with financial support from Welthungerhilfe (WHH) and the RTL Foundation, prepared hot meals for 1,000 earthquake survivors every day for a month. These meals were delivered directly to the survivors’ homes. Volunteer Deniz Beşenk notes that they continue to support and monitor the needs of those affected by the disaster.
EUROPEAN UNION, 2025
KADIM Cooperative prepared and delivered hot meals for 1,000 earthquake survivors
The Birth of MOKİD Kitchen
Building on the success of the meal project for earthquake survivors, a restaurant named MOKİD Kitchen was established with financial support from WHH and the RTL Foundation.
MOKİD Chairperson Hülya Çelebioğlu shares, “The restaurant is doing very well, and we are receiving positive feedback. While the project has concluded this year, we are confident in sustaining MOKİD Kitchen independently. Currently, 11 women work at the restaurant, including three earthquake survivors and one Syrian refugee.”
EUROPEAN UNION, 2025
Hülya Çelebioğlu, MOKİD Chairperson
First formal job
Atiye Taş from Mardin was one of the participants in gender equality training and cooking courses under the Refugee Women of Artuklu project. “I am both a member of the cooperative and an employee at the restaurant. I was a homemaker; this represents my first formal, insured job. I’m very happy here,” she states.
EUROPEAN UNION, 2025
MOKİD Kitchen is more than just a restaurant; it is a model of women’s solidarity
Sakine Yücesoy, an earthquake survivor working at MOKİD Kitchen, reflects on her experience: “We lived in Hatay, but after the earthquake destroyed our home, we returned to Mardin and moved in with my in-laws. During that difficult time, I felt completely trapped, but MOKİD Kitchen became a turning point for me. It has helped me not only financially but also psychologically.”
A shining example
The Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Türkiye, Ambassador Thomas Ossowski, says: “I am proud that MOKID Kitchen has grown from the foundations established by an EU-funded project. It stands as a shining example of the EU’s dedication to fostering equality, inclusion and resilience in Türkiye.”
EUROPEAN UNION, 2025
Ambassador Thomas Ossowski, Head of the Delegation of the EU to Türkiye
A Model for Women’s Solidarity
MOKİD Kitchen is more than just a restaurant; it is a model of women’s solidarity. It features a “pay-it-forward” meal initiative and sells products made by women’s cooperatives and home-based producers. The restaurant also provides food assistance to families in need.
MOKİD: Empowering 72,000 Women
Since its establishment in 2007, MOKİD has engaged 72,000 women in Mardin through its mission of ending violence and discrimination against women and fostering a society based on justice, equality, and freedom for all. Projects like ’Youth Creating Change,’ funded by the EU’s ’Elele Support Grant Program,’ and ’My Body, My Rights,’ supported by the ‘Children’s Digital Participation Program’s micro-funds, are among its notable initiatives.
Artuklu Project
The ‘Artuklu’s Women Refugees: Empowerment and Social Inclusion of Women Refugees from a Gender Equality Perspective’ project was implemented in two phases (2017–2018 and 2020–2022) and reached 20,000 individuals, including 18,000 women and children. Financed under the EU’s European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), the project provided essential training and support for gender equality and social integration.
