I am a Turkish Cypriot woman who came to this country in 1980 at the age of 14 .  Due to personal experiences I have been  advising people not to immigrate to another country if they have children 13, 14, 15 years old. It is very wrong timing and it will disturb the Childs education as well as physiological state. My parents had to move to this country due to my mum’s medical treatment taking a long time. Because I did not have the right direction from my parents and language barriers I was not able to continue with my further education.  At the age of 19  I got my first full time job. Since that date I have been working within the voluntary sector. I have two young children one with special needs. As a working  mother with two young children and one with special needs, life has been one big struggle in order to meet the needs of my children and be successful in my career. I started working as an admin worker and then over the years I moved in to different positions until my present position at the Turkish Cypriot Women’s Project as an Advice Team Manager, at present I am working towards my NVQ in Management Qualification. Since the very young age I always wanted to be an accountant because I was very good at maths and I enjoyed dealing with figures. My future goal is to pursue my dream to become an accountant. I have enjoyed my work as a community worker for the past nineteen years.

Advice Team Manager

E-mail: S.Yusuf@tcwp.org.UK

Serife Yusuf