Ezgi Sarımeşe has knit pullovers in order to cover the veterinary expenses of the street animals. “People cannot work due to the pandemic but this doesn’t mean that animals get less injured or ill. Being a vegan pushes me to stand against problems animals have faced,” said Ezgi Sarımeşe.

ÖZGÜR KAYA

İzmir- Ezgi Sarımeşe is a philosophy student at Ege University. She wants to improve herself in the academic area. She loves taking care of animals and being able to do something for them. We interviewed with Ezgi about how she decided to knit pullovers to cover the veterinary expenses of the street animals and how being a vegan change her life.

She has knit since she was seven years old

Ezgi lived with her grandmother in her village for six months when she was seven years old. She got bored because she didn’t have any friends in the village. Her grandmother taught her how to knit. She slowly began to knit by creating chains. Then, she knit hand towels for villagers. She then didn’t knit anything for a while. She knit something when she liked a knit yarn. Ezgi has also affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. When she went into depression during the pandemic, she decided to knit again to help street animals. “You know, it is impossible for us to buy what we see in a store. Everything is very expensive. I began to knit instead of buying. I knit several pullovers for myself. Then, the pandemic broke out and I couldn’t go to school or anywhere. There is no space to become socialized. My sister told me, ‘What happens if we sell these? Our debts for veterinarians already turned into mountains. We can pay our debts.’ I thought it was a good idea and started knitting and selling pullovers.”

Streets animals have faced many problems during the pandemic

Many workplaces have been closed down due to the pandemic and many friends of Ezgi lost their jobs and for this reason, Ezgi cannot raise donations for street animals anymore. “People cannot work due to the pandemic but this doesn’t mean that animals get less injured or ill. Being a vegan pushes me to stand against problems animals have faced,” Ezgi said, “Before people gave us their old clothes and we sold them by holding a fair. But we cannot hold any fair due to the pandemic. So I began to sell the pullovers that I knit. Knitting pullovers is like meditation for me. People like my pullovers. Some yarn manufacturers have donated knit yarns. For example, if a manufacturer gives us eight knit yarns, I knit pullovers from two of eight knit yarns for street children. We always see children collecting papers. I knit pullovers for them when I have extra knit yarns. People seeing my pullovers on social media say, ‘I also want to make bracelets, cardboard ships… I have also a talent but never thought to do something for street animals or children.’”

Ezgi became a vegan three years ago. She researched and read many books after being a vegan, “Being a vegan has changed my vision on many issues,” Ezgi said that if you are an ethnic vegan, your awareness increases more. “When I see an animal needs help, I immediately try to help it. But you need money to cover the expenses of fuel for cars, shelters, veterinary expenses, and many more. After being a vegan, I began to interest in such issues more. Being a vegan pushes me to stand against problems animals have faced. I started to sell our belongings with my sister. We sold our old but not used many clothes to earn money for the street animals.” Ezgi thinks everyone can do such things to help street animals.