About ÇATOM

Multi-Purpose Community Centers (ÇATOM) are local centers running under a community-based and participatory approach and established at the neighbourhoods of cities mostly inhabited by rural migrants, district centres and centrally located villages mainly targeting disadvantaged women. ÇATOMs operate since 1995 by the GAP Regional Development Administration and they act as an agent of creating an enabling environment for women to participate more in public and benefit more from public services; supporting women’s employment and women’s entrepreneurship; contributing to the provision of equal opportunities, initiating and further developing the gender-balanced development process through developing replicable models based on participatory community development in accordance with local conditions. The number of ÇATOMs operating in the Southeastern Anatolia Region is 48 and the number of women reached through the centers exceeded one million.