TİKA Supports Women’s Employment in the TRNC

Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) provided 15 sewing and embroidery machines and other necessary equipment to the sewing workshop of the Olive Tree Education and Solidarity Association (ZAYDER), which provides training for disadvantaged groups and carries out activities to contribute to women’s labor force participation.

The delivery ceremony held at the ZAYDER Sewing Workshop, which was built with the support of TİKA, was attended by Turkey’s Ambassador to Nicosia Ali Murat Başçeri, TİKA’s Nicosia Program Coordinator Havva Pınar Özcan Küçükçavuş, President of ZAYDER Rabia Özcömert, and volunteers of the association.

In his speech, Ambassador Başçeri reminded that TİKA’s Nicosia Program Coordination Office has mostly worked with the authorities of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) so far, and stated that the project implemented to support ZAYDER was a meaningful project carried out with a non-governmental organization. Başçeri congratulated those who contributed to the preparation of the ZAYDER workshop and thanked the TRNC Foundation Administration for renting the place to ZAYDER, and TİKA’s Nicosia Office for its support for the creation of such an environment where women can participate in production.

Başçeri said, “In the ZAYDER workshop, women produce masks to be used in schools and the TRNC’s Ministry of National Education and Culture. I would like to thank them for their contribution. I hope TİKA will use all available means and resources to support the projects brought to TİKA’s Nicosia Office by non-governmental organizations operating as a charity and for the public benefit.” 

In the ZAYDER Sewing Workshop, 27 women attend training courses and engage in production activities. ZAYDER aims to train a total of 120 women this year and to produce 10,000 masks at the first stage to meet the order of the TRNC’s Ministry of National Education and Culture.