Turkish development agency supports women worldwide

ANKARA

Turkey’s international development aid agency is supporting shelter for women at risk of violence around the world as well as giving women vocational skills courses, according to a statement by the agency.

With its numerous aid and development projects around the globe, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) has not forgotten the needs of the world’s women, said the statement released Monday.

The agency, besides providing protection for women who suffered violence in countries like Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Somalia, and Iraq, also offers vocational courses for women to contribute to social and economic life.

TIKA has carried out many projects in various fields in Afghanistan, including one giving 90 women courses in the Quran, computers, sewing, furniture, and embroidery in the province, the statement said.

In , the capital of the African island nation of Madagascar, a women's vocational training center renovated by TIKA was reopened this January by Turkey’s first lady Emine Erdogan during President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s latest African tour. TIKA also provided 20 battery-powered wheelchairs, two incubators, and medical equipment for the center.

TIKA also provided the Sisters of the Good Shepherd Foundation in Yangon, Myanmar with sewing machines, various medical devices, and other equipment.

In Uzbekistan, the building housing the Women's Entrepreneur Council, the country’s first female non-governmental organization to provide entrepreneurship, vocational, and management training for nearly 17,000 women a year, was renovated by TIKA.

TIKA also built and provided furniture and equipment for a maternal and infant health center in Kenya's Ijara region.

Since it was founded 25 years ago, TIKA has carried out projects in areas such as education, health, infrastructure, and cultural heritage preservation in many regions of the world, from the Balkans to the Middle East, and Africa to Latin America.