By Ayda Özeren, Rotary Club of Izmir-Gundogdu, Izmir, Turkey
Many years ago, in a forgotten Anatolian village, a place so remote its name was unknown even to maps, I was sent by the bank I worked for to meet with village farmers. My task was to talk to them about money and awaken in them an understanding of financial matters as part of a program the bank had launched to promote retail banking. Perhaps a few hundred people called this small community home.
Stepping into the village’s sole coffee shop, I was met with an unexpected sight: a room filled not with farmers, but with their wives and daughters. I hadn’t anticipated such a gathering of women in this isolated corner of the world. I soon learned the farmers, disinclined to attend a session led by a woman, had sent their female relatives in their stead. A wave of surprise, disappointment, and nervousness washed over me. I longed for a more familiar, more polished setting. But after a two-to-three-hour drive, I simply wished to finish my task and return home.
Then, I truly saw them. Their eyes, wide with curiosity and impatience, were fixed on me. As I began to introduce myself and explain my purpose, an elder woman gently interrupted, revealing a poignant truth: only ten women in the room could read or write. Teaching financial literacy, she warned, would be a profound challenge.
Nevertheless, I began, speaking of wise spending and saving for needs and wants. When I finished packing my belongings, a young woman approached me, her shyness palpable, her gaze averted. I offered a warm smile, hoping to grant her courage. Without looking up, she quietly asked for my number, and I handed her my business card.
“I wish I become like you,” she whispered, her voice barely audible. I encouraged her, my heart softening, “Call me if you need anything.”
Months later, back in my office, a gentle knock graced my door. Standing there was a young woman, her arms laden with the most exquisite flowers. It took me a moment to place her, but then, the memory of that distant village, that humble coffee shop, and her shy gaze flooded my mind.
She introduced herself, and then, with a radiant smile, she told me her story. My lecture, that day in the village, had planted a seed. She had become a flower cultivator, transforming her life by selling the very blossoms she now held.
Her success, born from such a small offering, reminded me of the boy throwing starfish into the ocean from Loren C. Eiseley’s “The Star Thrower” (which has been adapted and retold in many different ways). In a place where I felt my efforts might be lost, where the challenges seemed impossible to overcome, a single seed of hope had been sown. And in that moment, I understood that even in the most overlooked corners of the world, a single act of kindness, a single shared lesson, can spark a transformation, one beautiful life at a time. I had made a difference to her, and that, in itself, was everything.
Ayda Özeren, is an author, mediator, and a professional speaker, working with leaders and organizations to create peace, resolve conflict, and transform visions into results. Her work in uplifting women and girls in Rotary and beyond, earned her the Sylvia Whitlock Leadership Award in 2024-25. Nominate someone you know who is advancing women in Rotary during the month of August.
https://blog.rotary.org/2025/08/14/a-single-act-of-kindness-can-spark-a-transformation/