Sevinc Esen

Sevinc Esen – Rahmiye, Turkey
My name is Sevinç Esen and I am 44 years old. I am married with two 17 and 14 year old daughters, so we make a family of four. My relatives live nearby too, and we are happy to live close. I have lived in the village of Rahmiye for seven years, but before that I lived in Istanbul and Izmit. We moved to the village of Rahmiye from Izmit after the earthquake in 1999. We lost our home and our work space. For a few months, we had no home, but now we live in a small house my husband built on several acres of land. We enjoy living here. My country, Turkey, is very beautiful. There are many natural and historical places, and we are warm people with a sense of unity culturally.

In 2000, five months after we moved, we opened the storefront and atelier that I run. Generally, I sew and tailor casual-wear clothing for women. I make patterns and sew various sizes and patterns for each woman that comes into my shop using many types of fabric. I sew clothing for special occasions, too, and add details like embroidery and lace. In my spare time, I embroider for myself; I make lace, doilies, hand-stitched tablecloths, and other things for my home and my daughters. When I was a child, I learned so much from my mother about sewing and needlework. Later I went to a technical high school for sewing and I earned a certificate as a dressmaker.

I would use the loan from Nest to continue the work I do at the atelier, but also to increase the volume of orders so I am doing less tailoring. I would like to make investments into things that might help make my work easier, like an embroidery machine. I prefer to work on larger projects because often the work I do is unpredictable and unreliable. As a loan recipient for Nest, I would like to make items for the home as well as clothing and use my talent in embroidery and needlework to add details. A loan from Nest would be very important to my life and work. (June/2007)