Councillor Saray Karakus Received EPRA, Leadership and Entrepreneurial Award 2019 Most Inspirational Community Ambassador of the Year presented by the Fmr. Mayor of Lambeth, Cllr Ade. Aminu.
Councillor Saray Karakus was born in Turkey and moved to London with her family when she was a child, attending Princess May Primary School in Hackney. At the age of 11, she moved to Enfield where she attended Lea Valley High School and Enfield College, attaining an ITEC beauty diploma.
In 1997 Cllr Karakus married Ismet and had two children, Destiny and Efran. She was an active member of the Labour Party since 1997, becoming chair and treasurer for the Constituency Labour Party (Edmonton) in 2014. In 2005, she worked as a Sales Manager at a jewellery store in Dalston. By 2007 she had graduated from Enfield College, she successfully attained a ITEC Specialist qualification allowing her to open and run her own health and beauty clinic in Edmonton.
She was always interested the theatre and she became involved in 2008. She enjoyed the concept so much that she gave up her profession and created her own theatre group, writing scripts for plays and directing groups for performances at Millfield Theatre. Her plays deliver messages of love, humanity and inclusion, irrelevant of religion, language, gender or borders.
Her involvement in the theatre and helping those in need opened another avenue in her busy life and she became an active member of the Labour Party in 2014, leading to her passing the selection process in 2018 to run as Councillor in the Enfield Borough where she lives. She won her seat as a Member of the Haselbury Ward – not expecting to be voted directly in as a serving Mayor for the 2018-19 Mayoral year.
She is currently volunteering her time to the Local Citizen’s Advice Bureau and the Blind Club. She is active with the Safer Neighbourhoods activities that are taking place in the Borough to help with the safety of the community.
She took on the role of Mayor of Enfield with pride and still continues to spread the message of togetherness to make a positive difference to the community around her.
