TİKA Supports Georgia’s Fight against COVID19

Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) started to distribute 15,000 masks and 30,000 loaves of bread to those who were displaced from Abkhazia, Georgia. 

In the town of Vaziani, which is close to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and is heavily populated by immigrants from Abkhazia, the shoe and sewing workshop and the bakery, both of which had been built by TİKA, started production.

Turkey’s Ambassador to Tbilisi Fatma Ceren Yazgan, Head of the Government of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia Ruslan Abashidze, TİKA’s Tbilisi Coordinator Necla Demirdağ, and other officials visited the sewing workshop and the bakery and examined the mask and bread production.

Speaking to an AA reporter, Abashidze said that Turkey has implemented various social projects to help immigrants in Georgia and that the masks and bread to be produced in Vaziani would be distributed free of charge to immigrants during the fight against COVID-19. Abashidze said, “It is extremely important that the Turkish government carries out such activities with the help of TİKA during the outbreak.” 

Ambassador Yazgan stressed that the sewing workshop and the bakery built by TİKA in Vaziani have become even more valuable during the fight against COVID-19. Yazgan said that 500 masks will be sewn a day, 15,000 in total, to help those who face difficulties due to the bans imposed across the country because of the outbreak. 

Demirdağ stated that as TİKA’s Tbilisi Program Coordination Office, they started to distribute bread and masks free of charge in Tbilisi and other regions on that day to combat COVID-19 and that they were also preparing to provide food aid to families in need.