Lavender both fascinates and provides assistance to students
In the Silifke district of Mersin, a group of villagers established a lavender garden with the support of the Mersin Metropolitan Municipality. They sell their products through a cooperative, using the proceeds to provide scholarships to students and contribute to local schools.
The story of this cooperative began in 2018 when retired teacher Mehmet Asım Özçalık, who embraced the motto "There is no retirement in teaching," returned to his village and founded the Çaltıbozkır Association. The cooperative story started with the establishment of a lavender garden in the approximately 2,000-population Çaltıbozkır neighborhood.
Decisions made in meetings with other members, including journalists and homemakers, led Özçalık and his friends, who attended a lavender cultivation course, to apply to the Mersin Metropolitan Municipality for lavender seedlings.
The municipality donated 5,000 lavender seedlings to the residents of Çaltıbozkır. With these seedlings, they achieved significant production success. Hatice Gülcan Yüksel, President of the Çaltıbozkır Production and Marketing Cooperative, noted that they produce 11 types of oils and that the support and contributions from the village's residents have increased day by day.
Yüksel highlighted that, following the support of the Mersin Metropolitan Municipality's distillation unit, their sales and marketing opportunities have improved, saying:
"We produce 11 types of oils in our facility. From the lavender oil we obtain here, we make soap, scrubs, cologne, candles, Turkish delight, and room spray. With part of our income, we provide scholarships to university students. We are renovating our old schools, transforming one into a museum and another into a library. We have six more schools. We want the entire village population to be involved in production. Especially women help us with production and labeling. We initially thought of this as alternative agriculture. It is very clean farming, requiring little water and maintenance. It has a beautiful appearance and is very good for tourism. We host many local and foreign tourists who want to see the lavender gardens. Particularly, Russians are promoting our region."
Visitor Ayşegül Şengi, who came to visit the lavender garden, said, "We had always been curious about lavender gardens. We didn't have a chance to go to Isparta. We are happy to have such a beautiful place in Silifke. We experienced the lovely scent here and learned about the benefits of lavender, and we bought some products. It's wonderful to have such a place in a small town like Silifke."
Mücahit Özel, who visited the lavender garden with his wife and child, added, "We felt like we were in Isparta. Having such a place in Silifke creates a beautiful environment. As soon as we entered the garden, a lovely scent filled the air. We came here to visit with my wife and child. We invite everyone to come."
