By Gokhan Kavak
ABUJA, Nigeria (AA) – Turkish students are volunteering in the African nations of Chad and Mozambique as part of a program run by the Turkish state aid agency.
In the central African nation of Chad, the students volunteers visited the Furkan Orphanage in the capital N'Djamena and gave it a fresh coat of paint under the Experience Sharing Program of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA).
Omer Faruk Agan, a student volunteer, told Anadolu Agency that his experience volunteering at the orphanage was invaluable.
“We came here as TIKA volunteers, to spend time with the children and help them, ” he said.
Bugra Duman of TIKA said they had seen the entire orphanage, including “the classrooms, living rooms, and the kitchens. ”
The young volunteers concluded their task by paying a visit to a local radio show to speak on Turkish-Chadean relations.
Under the same TIKA program Turkish students visited the southern African nation of Mozambique.
The student volunteers visited the Reserva Especial de Maputo conservation area and learned about nature photography.
The project enabled students of both countries to share their experiences and outlook on taking photos of living things. The project will continue to give the volunteers practical training.
TIKA, Turkish Airlines, Anadolu Agency, and Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) co-organized the 2018 Experience Sharing Program.
Under the program, TIKA is sending some 500 Turkish students from 117 universities to 30 countries between July 29 and Sept. 8 to take part in nearly 100 projects and activities in their host countries.
The program covers such countries as Niger, Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Djibouti, Chad, Morocco, Ghana, Georgia, Cameroon, Montenegro, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Colombia, Lebanon, Macedonia, Mozambique, Namibia, Uzbekistan, Romania, Senegal, Serbia, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Jordan, Moldova and South Africa.
