The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) – which has completed many social, infrastructure and development projects all over the world in the past three decades – continues to organize projects to support women around the globe.
Women are one of the main beneficiary groups of TİKA’s projects devised by 62 program coordination offices in different regions of the world. The agency mainly focuses on ameliorating poverty, meeting basic needs and strengthening the social status of women. TİKA also supports women's employment and their integration into society with its vocational training programs.
With these aims, 280 projects have been carried out by TİKA in the last 10 years. The agency has supported 90 vocational courses for women and built 15 schools for women. The agency also recovered 12 women schools and provided equipment to another 40. In 2018, 30 projects were organized to provide women with employment opportunities. These projects were carried out in Afghanistan, Iraq, Djibouti, Philippines, Pakistan, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Palestine, Georgia, Montenegro, Kyrgyzstan, North Macedonia, Sudan and Vietnam.
One of the exemplary projects organized by TİKA includes a maternity clinic and rehabilitation center for women in Niamey, the capital city of Niger. The 51-bed center aims to help patients with obstetric fistulas, a condition related to a childbirth injury caused by delayed delivery. The delayed deliveries occur due to limited access to health services. Because of superstitions stigmatizing the women who suffer from the condition, women in Niger struggle to reintegrate into society after recovery. The center also provides continued assistance to these women.
TİKA also delivered equipment to a sewing workshop in Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Visoko city, which provides employment for 20 women.
Around 200 women in the Mazar-e Sharif province of Afghanistan and 150 women in Samangan province were given literacy and vocational courses as part of another project by the agency.
Since its founding in 1992, TİKA has been responsible for facilitating Turkey's official development assistance by providing aid to developing countries. Operating in 50 countries, the agency has helped as many as 140 countries worldwide.
