Turkish Rotary member honored for advancing women’s leadership
ISTANBUL, Türkiye (22 Feb 2025) — Rotary International has recognized Ayda Özeren for her outstanding contributions to women’s leadership, education, and economic empowerment.
Özeren was presented with the Sylvia Whitlock Leadership Award, which honors Rotary members who have made a lasting impact in advancing gender equity and empowering women in their communities.
A member of the Rotary Club of Izmir-Gündogdu, Özeren is an author, mediator, and professional speaker whose work has impacted as many as 11,000 women and girls. A longtime advocate for women’s economic empowerment, she began teaching financial literacy at a bank, supporting female entrepreneurs before expanding her efforts through Rotary. She has visited more than 100 factories and small businesses, educating 8,000 women in rural areas, factories, and schools on finance and economic independence.
"We need to reshape the leadership landscape by creating more opportunities for women to lead," said Özeren. "I’ve seen how equipping women with the right skills and opportunities creates lasting change. True peace is only possible when women have a seat at the decision-making table—when they are included, societies become more just, resilient, and sustainable.”
Özeren has also led earthquake recovery efforts in Türkiye, launching mobile health services and economic relief projects for women. She helped women secure jobs in the ready-made clothing industry through the Golden Needle Project and supported farmers by providing olive and sumac saplings, an initiative expected to create 2,000 jobs. A strong advocate for girls’ education, she donated all proceeds from her 2021 book, Aziz Coguz Biziz (We Are More When We Are Together), to fund 1,000 scholarships for young women.
“Peace is built through actions that create a safe, prosperous, and equitable society, and one of the most powerful ways to achieve this is by unlocking the potential of women and girls,” said Rotary International President Stephanie Urchick. “This award recognizes a leader whose dedication goes beyond empowerment; it creates tangible opportunities that allow women to shape their own futures and drive meaningful change.”
The Sylvia Whitlock Leadership Award, named for Rotary’s first female club president, honors one Rotary member each year who has actively worked to advance women. The award was presented during the 2025 Rotary Presidential Peace Conference in Istanbul, Türkiye, where 1,000 Rotary members and peace experts from 88 countries convened to discuss solutions for fostering peace and sustainable development. The event also celebrated the launch of Rotary’s first peace center dedicated to peacebuilding in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul.
Rotary members throughout the world develop and implement sustainable, community-driven projects that fight disease, promote peace, provide clean water, support education, help mothers and children, grow local economies and protect the environment. Over the last 100 years, US $5.5 billion has been awarded through The Rotary Foundation – Rotary’s charitable arm that helps clubs work together to perform meaningful, impactful service.
About Rotary: Rotary brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing humanitarian challenges and creating lasting change. Rotary connects 1.2 million people of action from more than 45,000 Rotary clubs in almost every country in the world, including 6,277 members across 249 clubs in Türkiye. Their service improves lives both locally and internationally, from helping those in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world. For more information, visit rotary.org.
Contact: Claudia Brunner, +41-44-387-7116, claudia.brunner@rotary.org
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