Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), over the last decade, has reached out to women on all continents as it worked to improve their employment and social status through aid and social support projects.
The state-run development agency has carried out employment projects for women all around the world, from the Balkans to the Middle East and Latin America to Africa. Its projects have mainly focused on vocational training and improving women's health.
In 2017, the agency rolled out new projects for women entrepreneurs and disadvantaged women. In Guinea Bissau, for instance, the agency delivered equipment to 100 female poultry farmers. It also donated sewing machines and tools to women in Kenya and Iraq.
In the Colombian town of Cucuta, which recently saw an influx of Venezuelan refugees, TİKA provided vocational training and textile production equipment to the refugee women.
In Sudan, the agency launched a textile workshop in Khartoum for disadvantaged local women. To encourage more girls to join the school, the agency handed bicycles to 200 female students, who otherwise had to walk hours to reach schools in remote areas of Kenya. In Cameroon, TİKA renovated and refurbished a shelter for the victims of domestic violence and offered vocational training. The agency also renovated a similar center in Madagascar.
In a bid to curb maternal mortality, TİKA renovated the maternal health unit at the largest hospital in Serbia's Novi Bazar and furnished it with modern medical equipment.
It also donated medical equipment to a maternal health clinic in Ethiopia.
