Istanbul (Turkey) -- Description and travel; Istanbul (Turkey) -- Social life and customs
My wife participated in several of these tag days but on such occasions
she had to don the “charshaf” so as not to be conspicuously the
only foreigner among the Turkish ladies. On these days the streets
of Stamboul are full of groups of Turkish ladies, young girls and
children, a red ribbon pinned on their breasts with the name of the
Association they are collecting for written on it, smilingly offering
their tags to the public. They bother the foreigners very little and
solicit charity only from the Turks. The ladies who have shouldered
the responsibility of distributing the charity thus collected canvass
thoroughly their respective district, to find the refugees or the
needy who deserve the most urgent attention, determine systematically
their needs and supply them with the help they require. Any funds that
remain available to the Committee after such distribution are then
turned over to the sub-committee in charge of organizing and conducting
productive work. Here all needy women and girls who can earn their
living are brought together and given work in dressmaking or embroidery
establishments which are under the direct management of the ladies
of this sub-committee. The men are similarly given work in furniture
making or carpentry establishments. Men, women and children thus
employed are of course paid for their work, their products are sold and
the profits realized on them are again placed at the disposal of the
Committee.
Turkish ladies also run orphan asylums where little boys and little
girls who have lost both father and mother in the turmoil of the
different wars or in the forced evacuation of their homesteads before
the Greek or Armenian irredentists, are taken care of and educated.
When the little girls have reached the age of fifteen they are given
into families where they work--under the continuous supervision of the
Committee for orphans. The ladies of this committee keep a vigilant and
motherly watch over the welfare of these girls. Once a month the girls
are subjected to a medical examination to determine if their health is
properly taken care of. Once a month some lady of the Committee makes
an unexpected call in every house where any of these orphan girls are
working to ascertain how they are treated, what work they are doing,
and if they are satisfied with their employers. She has also the
privilege--which she often takes advantage of--using her savings as a
dowry to start married life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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