Fri 22 May 2020:
Ambassador Alp says TIKA stepped up assistance for needy in Ethiopia at this difficult time of pandemic
Turkey’s state-run charity distributed food packets to underprivileged people in Ethiopia as part of their Ramadan aid.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) handed out 17 tons of food, bringing the total aid to 50 tons.
More than 2,062 people benefited from the latest food distribution drive in the capital Addis Ababa as well as camps for internally displaced persons in Sululta and Legetafo cities just outside the city in the Oromia regional state.
“Turkish and Ethiopian people are friends; and friends support each other more during hard times,” Ankara’s Ambassador to Ethiopia Yaprak Alp said.
She said Turkish organizations stepped up their assistance for the needy in Ethiopia at this difficult time of coronavirus pandemic.
TIKA Ethiopia office representative Mehmet Ali Yetis said his agency considers Ethiopia a special place as it hosts the first TIKA office in Sub-Sahara Africa and considering the brotherly relations between Ethiopia and Turkey.
Ne’ami Yusuf has been living at the Sululta camp for three years.
She fled the violence-hit city of Jijjiga.
Now, she has to fend for her six children all alone.
“We welcome this aid as it came in the holy month of Ramadan,” she said, adding the displaced community wants more cooperation from Turkey.
“We need jobs too.”Abreham Gedissa, deputy mayor of Sululta town, said the Turkish agency fulfilled its religious and moral duty by bringing this food aid to the camp.
“We should cooperate in the future in terms of generating a sustainable income to the displaced community,” he said.
Abdulhamid Abdulsemed, 15, who lives in the Yatim Children Care Center in downtown Addis Ababa, said: “TIKA always brings us food, clothes, and educational material. They bring joy to us.”
-AA
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