The backbone of PAWI has always been bringing like-minded women together in effort to empower and support each other through professional and personal growth. In the fall of 2006, a small group of women gathered to form Professional And Fabulous, which then in early 2008 went on to become PAWI as we know, founded by Christina Bache Fidan and Joanne Yildirim. Now in 2011, we are proud to say that PAWI is still going strong and has reached an all-time high of 240 tightly-knit American and Canadian professional women living in Istanbul... and we are only continuing to grow!
Looking back through the years, it is interesting to see just how many PAWI members there have been. Taking into account our current members as well as members who have moved out of Istanbul, there have been a total of 325 members coming through PAWI's "doors". In addition to today's current 240 members, the group also has 6 active sub-groups organizing events throughout any given month, plus separate teams managing our communication platforms, membership database, and Friends of PAWI for those who have moved away but still want to keep in touch. A special thanks goes out to those individuals and teams who help make PAWI "go".
At the potluck picnic there was a board posted where members and their families could share what PAWI means to them. It was encouraging to see some common themes among the comments and we thought they were worth sharing:
- good friends / friendship
- great resource
- support
- network
- inspiration
- empowerment
- synergy
- great energy
- laughter
- community
- sharing ideas
- a lifesaver
- full of energy
- initiatives
- women empowering each other!
PAWI is truly a dynamic group of wonderful women and we are proud to look back on the past 5 years and see how we've grown together. We hope that as a group we can keep this positive momentum going and continue to inspire each other to achieve and share success!
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