Munira Abdelmenan Awel
15 August 2018•Update: 15 August 2018
DAKAR, Senegal / ABUJA, Nigeria
Turkish students are volunteering in Senegal and Chad as part of a program run by the Turkish state aid agency.
In Kolda province of the West African nation of Senegal, the volunteers trained local students on how to use solar energy and a simple electronic circuit, setup flashlights, and shared virtual reality experiences.
The students also watched a football match schools in Kolda and played a friendly match with one of the teams.
In the village of Medina Sharif, where the lepers of the Kolda city live, volunteers participated in the painting of houses and mosques.
Musab Abdullah Adalan, a student at the physiotherapy and rehabilitation department of Karabuk University, told Anadolu Agency that their one-week stay in Senegal was fruitful.
"Some days we were really tired, we sweated a lot, but the love of the villagers towards us and the fact that they adore our forefathers took all the tiredness away, we are very happy. The excitement we saw in the eyes of our brothers and sisters, their smile and humbleness restored our energy," he said.
Under the same TIKA program, Turkish students visited the West African nation of Ghana.
The volunteers visited Darul Ekram compound which consists of an orphanage, school a children's clinic.
They cleaned the orphanage with Ghanian students and donated two washing machines, 120 bunk beds, pillows and bed linen, and cleaning and food packs.
TIKA, Turkish Airlines, Anadolu Agency, and Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) have 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 countries such 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.
