The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) reached out to some 1,000 Pakistani families internally displaced by terrorism.
Turkey's leading development aid agency delivered food aid in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Tuesday.
The families, forced to leave their residences in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on the border with Afghanistan, benefited from the aid.
Ali Amin Khan Gandapur, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan attended a ceremony for the delivery of the aid.
Gandapur said Turkey has always supported the people of Pakistan with its aid. He added that Dera Ismail Khan was severely affected by restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and TIKA was the only official agency reaching out to the region amid the pandemic.
He highlighted that the aid was especially useful for day laborers, who are suffering economically due to the pandemic.
Gökhan Umut, TIKA's coordinator in Islamabad, said at the ceremony that the agency pursued both long-term projects for Pakistan's development and humanitarian aid deliveries, adding that the food was an important contribution for families at the time of the outbreak.
In May, the agency delivered food aid to some 600 day laborers severely affected by the economic hardships brought on by the outbreak, in Pakistan's Lahore and Mardan where the economy came to a standstill due to pandemic-related restrictions.
