TİKA Supports Employment Of Women All Around The World

Through the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), Turkey implements significant projects to boost female employment in many regions across the world.

From the Balkans to the Middle East, from Africa to Latin America, carrying out many projects across the world on education, health, social and infrastructure services and protection of cultural heritage, TİKA also supports female employment with its activities.  Having completed many projects aimed at boosting female participation in social and economic life through its vocational trainings, TİKA plays a major role in increasing the employment of women in the countries it operates in.

Some projects implemented by TİKA in 2017

The largest hospital in Serbia’s Novi Pazar region, Novi Pazar Hospital’s Obstetrics and Gynecology Department was inaugurated with a ceremony attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and First Lady Emine Erdoğan. The department, which was renovated by TİKA, helped decrease neonatal mortality rate significantly. Thanks to the medical equipment provided by the Agency, the hospital has become the only center in the region and for the neighboring countries when it comes to difficult births. TİKA provided medical equipment for the Women and Children Health Center in Ethiopia’s Somali Region and granted 15 different pieces of medical equipment to the center including an ultrasound device, birthing and patient beds and examination couches. TİKA also provided technical equipment for Ethiopian Ministry of Women and Children Affairs. Sixty two pieces of materials consisting of various electronic equipment were delivered to the authorities in a ceremony held at the ministry building. Similarly, Ivory Coast Ministry of Solidarity, Family, Women and Children’s Institute of Women's Education and Vocational Training (IFEF) had its center in Port Bouet renovated by the Agency and opened for service.

TİKA supports victims of domestic violence in Cameroon

TİKA provided the repairs and equipment for a center in Cameroon, where domestic violence victim young women seek shelter and receive training. The shelter, which was established in 2008 under Cameroonian Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Family, offers vocational trainings in many areas such as hotel management and cooking, fabric decoration, computer sciences, needlework, aesthetics, and hairdressing, in addition to the counseling services it provides. Enjoying new equipment and a new kitchen thanks to the assistance provided by TİKA, the center serves approximately 180 young women. Furthermore, with training certificates awarded after 9 months of vocational training and 3 months of internship, the goal is to improve economic and social opportunities for young women.

First Lady Emine Erdoğan, who accompanied President Erdoğan’s visit to Madagascar as part of his African trip, attended the opening ceremony of the Tsimbazaza Women’s Vocational Training Center, which was renovated by the Agency, in the capital city Antananarivo. 20 battery-operated vehicles for people with disabilities, 2 neonatal intensive care units, and medical equipment were delivered with a ceremony.

TİKA is a beacon of hope for homeless women in Montenegro

TİKA repaired and equipped the Vocational Training Center of Montenegrin Women's Lobby in Montenegro’s capital Podgorica. The center also serves as a shelter and aims to reintegrate the women in the center back into the society and to improve their living standards by helping them acquire professions. TİKA also develops projects focusing on the social lives of women, and in Algeria, it renovated an unused hall belonging to Bentalha Psychological Assistance Center and provided equipment support allowing the location to serve as a gym for women.

TİKA supports women to take part in production

TİKA, which carries out many projects on agriculture and livestock in the regions it is active in, provided poultry equipment to Gine Bissau’s Mansaba Sector, which will be used by 100 producer women. TİKA granted sewing machines and textile equipment to many countries ranging from Kenya to Myanmar and Iraq to Tanzania. With the support it provides, the Agency aims to help develop the sewing skills of refugee women; furthermore, it plans to distribute the clothes that were manufactured at the workshops to refugee women, who are especially in need, free of charge. After the vocational training that was provided to refugee women, who arrived at Colombian border town Cucuta from Venezuela, TİKA also granted textile equipment support.

Textile equipment provided by TİKA were delivered to 15 women, who were in charge of providing for their families, which had returned to Colombia due to difficult conditions in Venezuela or which had been displaced. The Agency also opened a textile workshop in Sudan’s capital Khartoum within Sudan Turkish Vocational and Technical Trainers Education Center. With the project it implements in Khartoum, TİKA aims to support women to participate in the economic life. Offering assistance to girls as well, TİKA gifted 200 bicycles to girls in Kenya, who had to walk kilometers to attend school.

The goal is to help women contribute to the family economy

TİKA, which contributes to the growth and development of the countries through the projects it implements in the Balkans, continues to offer different production and employment projects and supports human-oriented development by helping young people and women to take part in production. In this context, TİKA sets up workshops for women, who are negatively affected by unemployment in Kosovo, in order to help them contribute to the family economies through non-household businesses and job-creating projects; and therefore, it supports the manufacturing of products and the development of markets.

Equipment support to shelter by TİKA

In cooperation with Republic of Tunisia Jendouba Governorate, TİKA completed an agricultural assistance project to ensure social welfare and economic independence of women and young people in the rural areas of Tunisia. As part of the project, in rural Ghardimaou in Jendouba Governorate, necessary poultry and beekeeping equipment and materials were provided to the women and the participants of the program were also offered a training course. In cooperation with the Protection of Women’s Rights in Urban and Rural Areas Foundation, TİKA, which implements important projects in Albania, provided equipment support to a shelter that serves women, who are victims of domestic violence.

The women’s shelter, which will be hosting 20 domestic violence victim women and their children, meets an important need as one of the few shelters in Albania. TİKA provided equipment to approximately 5000 people as part of the “Support for Female Entrepreneurs Project” in Linares and San Javier provinces of Chile’s Maule region.

Assistance from TİKA to the first female non-governmental organization of Uzbekistan

The headquarters of Uzbekistan’s first female non-governmental organization, “Association of Female Entrepreneurs” was renovated by TİKA and the inauguration ceremony was attended by TİKA President Serdar Çam and the accompanying delegation. Founded in 1991 in the capital city Tashkent, the association carries out many projects to increase female participation in the business life and to improve the socio-economic status of the women in the country; it offers basic entrepreneurship, vocational and management trainings to approximately 17000 women every year.