TİKA Reached Out the Helping Hand of Turkey to Around 1 Million People from 82 Countries with "Erenler Sofrası"

As part of the "Erenler Sofrası" Ramadan program, Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) provided food and hygiene supplies and hot meals to approximately 1 million people from 82 counties with various events held all over the world, including the Balkans, Central Asia, Africa and America.

Within the scope of the Erenler Sofrası programs, which were organized by TİKA in 5 continents, 137,000 food packages and 19,000 hygiene packages were distributed and 70,000 people were provided hot meals.

Ramadan solidarity programs have been carried out this year in coordination of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as a result of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey's mandate to declare this year as the "Year of Yunus Emre and Turkish Language" ve "Year of Haji Bektash Veli". In order to share Anatolia's spirit of solidarity with the world within this context, TİKA delivered Ramadan packages to approximately 1 million people in 82 countries as part of the Ramadan programs under the name "Erenler Sofrası".

Named after the Erens, who are considered as the heart of Anatolia and the cultural legacy of the geographical regions that go beyond the borders of Turkey, "Erenler Sofrası" program aimed to reach out the helping hand of Turkey to the needy people of the world without discrimination of any kind based on language, race or religion in accordance with the world view that we inherited from the Erens. TİKA shared the fruitfulness of the holy month of Ramadan with hundreds of thousands of families through these programs, while sharing the messages of unity and solidarity by Yunus Emre, Haji Bektash Veli and Ahi Evran.

"Erenler Sofrası" reached out to needy people in the Balkans

As part of the Erenler Sofrası program, Ramadan packages were distributed to a thousand needy families living in various areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Food packages were distributed to 2,000 families in Serbia, particularly in the capital Belgrade and the Sandžak region, whereas hot meals were delivered to a thousand old and disabled people who could not leave their home.

In North Macedonia, food packages were delivered to 3,000 families, including our agnates, particularly in Skopje, Tetovo, Gostivar, Kichevo, Bitola, and Ohrid.

Food aid was provided for 3,500 families in Albania, who have been facing difficulties due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) variant, whereas hot meals were shared with 2,800 people in Tirana, Elbasan, Kavajë and Krujë. 1,700 food and 600 hygiene packages were delivered to needy families in Kosovo. Ramadan packages were distributed to 2,000 families in 13 cities of Montenegro.

4,000 families were reached out to in Chișinău, the capital of Moldova, as well as Belts and the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia. Ramadan packages were distributed to 1,700 families in Croatia and 1,500 families in Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Lviv, Jitomir, Odessa, Herson, Novoalekseevka and Chaplynka.

Food packages were delivered to 2,000 families who have been facing difficulties due to the pandemic in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, and the Dobruja region, which is predominantly populated by Turks.

Food and hygiene packages were also handed over to the social care centers providing services for the homeless people in various cities of Hungary. The Ramadan packages prepared by TİKA were also distributed to the needy families in Andalusia, Spain, as well as the Karaite Turks and Tatars in Lithuania.

2,500 families were reached in Azerbaijan

The food packages, which have been prepared as part of the Erenler Sofrası Ramadan program, were shared with 2,500 families in Azerbaijan, particularly the Karabakh refugees and the families of martyrs and veterans.

68 tonnes of Ramadan packages were delivered to 4,000 needy families in Georgia.

In Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, a total of 4,630 families were provided food packages. In Kyrgyzstan, aid packages consisting of food and hygiene supplies were delivered to 2,500 families.

Throughout Ramadan, food packages were delivered to a thousand families in 5 different regions of Tajikistan, particularly the families of veterans. Food packages were delivered to low-income families through Mongolia and particularly 1,200 needy families in the provinces of Zavkhan and Bayan Ögliy. 1,200 families benefited from the distribution program that took place in Kazakhstan.

TİKA provided food aid for 3,300 families throughout Afghanistan through the offices in Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif and Herat, whereas 4,400 people benefited from the iftar meals. The orphaned children were given various gifts and stationery products.

Food and hygiene packages were distributed in the Middle East

During Ramadan, 14,500 families were provided food aid in Palestine. Food aid was provided for 9,000 families in the West Bank and 5,500 families in the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, daily iftar meals were delivered to 7,000 families in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The food packages procured by TİKA were shared with 4,000 needy families in Iraq, namely in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Mosul, Tuz Khurmatu, Tal Afar, Kifri and Diyala. Food packages were distributed to 3,000 orphaned students in the Operation Euphrates Shield area in Northern Syria.

45 tonnes of food supplies were delivered to needy people in Yemen, particularly orphanages, women's shelters, disadvantaged groups and domestic refugees. Throughout Ramadan, 500 people per day were handed out provisions and a total of 16,000 Yemenis were reached.

In Lebanon, 150 tonnes of food aid was provided for 10,000 families particularly in the capital Beirut and Tripoli. In Jordan, 21 tonnes of food packages were shared with 900 families.

Erenler Sofrası is in Africa

During Ramadan, 36 tonnes of aid packages consisting of food and hygiene supplies were delivered to 1,200 families and orphaned children living in the slums of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Food and hygiene packages were provided for the low-income families living in the villages of Tanzania.

Iftar meals were organized in Somalia, while 500 food packages were shared with the refugees in Mogadishu as well as the disabled and needy people in Somaliland and Hargeisa. 16.5 tonnes of food aid was provided for 330 families in Djibouti; whereas in Ethiopia, food packages provided by TİKA were shared with the needy people in the Ethiopia Cancer Center, Legetafo Refugee Camp and the orphanage.

1,500 families, including orphans, were provided food packages in Chad; whereas in Sudan, 2,000 food packages were distributed in the poor neighborhoods of Khartoum as well as the Eritrean refugee camp.

In Guinea, a West African country, food packages were shared with a thousand families who have been facing difficulties in accessing food due to COVID-19. Food aid was provided for 500 families in Senegal throughout Ramadan.

2,650 families were distributed food packages as part of the program that was carried out in the KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Western Cape provinces of South Africa. Food packages were delivered to 450 families in Namibia, whereas Ramadan packages were provided for 750 households in the distant villages of Lesotho. In Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, and its surrounding areas, food aid that would last for a whole month was provided for 2 elderly care centers and 2 orphanages.

Ramadan packages were delivered to 1,200 families in Cameroon and 1,350 families in Uganda. Iftar meals were provided to approximately 2,000 people during Ramadan in Niger, whereas food packages were delivered to 1,200 needy families in the capital Niamey and Agadez Ingal region. In Zimbabwe, food aid was provided for 2,000 families who have been living under difficult conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Food packages were delivered to 2,500 families in Gambia. A thousand families each benefited from the distribution programs that took place in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Ghana, South Sudan, Rwanda and Zambia. TİKA's Erenler Sofrası Ramadan packages were also delivered to needy people in Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Eritrea.

As for the North African countries, Ramadan packages were delivered to 1,300 families in Algeria and Tunisia, whereas 1,500 families were provided food aid and 1,500 families were given an iftar meal in Libya.

Muslims from Arakan got together at TİKA's "Erenler Sofrası"

Continuing to deliver Turkey's aid to the Muslims from Arakan who took refuge in Bangladesh, TİKA also provided daily hot meals to 5,000 Muslim families from Arakan, who live in refugee camps where the kitchens were set by our Agency as part of the Erenler Sofrası program. TİKA also provided aid packages consisting of basic food products to 5,300 families living in the camp number 16 in Cox Bazar.

We reached out to Pakistan, Northern Cyprus and South American countries

TİKA provided a total of 55 tonnes of food packages to 4,000 families in the economically underdeveloped regions of Pakistan, namely Dera Ismail Khan, Mardan, Charsadda, Muzaffarabad and the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA). Food packages were also delivered to 1,300 families in Karachi who earn their livelihood by collecting garbage.

Approximately 6,000 needy families benefited from the distribution programs which took place in the South American countries Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Suriname and Uruguay. Ramadan packages were delivered to needy people in Vietnam, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, as well as Fiji, which is an island in the Pacific Ocean.

In cooperation with the Turkish American National Steering Committee (TASC), Ramadan packages were delivered to 500 needy families in the USA. The goal was to distribute Erenler Sofrası packages to 3,000 families in the USA.

Furthermore, hygiene packages and 200,000 masks were distributed in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The distributions took place in Nicosia, Kyrenia, Famagusta, Iskele, Güzelyurt and Lefke.