BANJUL, Gambia

Turkey's state-run aid agency Friday distributed 1,500 food packages among the needy Gambian families as the small West African country struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) donated the food items including rice, sugar, and cooking oil to vulnerable people from eight councils — Banjul, Kanifing Municipality, Brikama, Kerewan, MansaKonko, Basse, Kuntuar, and Janjanbureh.

“We hope these food items handed over today will reach the vulnerable people in your regions,” Mehmet Akif Eyigun, TIKA's Banjul coordinator, said at a ceremony in the capital Banjul.

The Turkish aid agency has been a partner of the local government authorities in the Gambia and supporting the poor since the opening of its office in 2018.

Since last year, TIKA made several donations to the councils, including food aid, face masks, a locally made handwashing facility, and hand sanitizers during the pandemic.

Landing Sanneh, the chairman of the Gambia Association of the Local Government Authorities, said: “We are very grateful to the government and people of Turkey for the immense support TIKA Banjul office has been extending to the vulnerable people in the Gambia.”

Meanwhile, TIKA plans to make similar donations to orphanages and boarding schools across the country in the coming days, the aid agency official said.