Say Yes, February 2002: Editorial

It gives me great pleasure to introduce this first issue of ‘Say Yes’, the new UNICEF Turkey Newsletter which will be issued four times a year. The aim of the Newsletter is to keep our partners informed of what UNICEF is doing in Turkey. It will also endeavour to examine issues facing children and families in this fast-changing world, with the idea of raising awareness and provoking action where necessary. It will also try to publicise special events and milestones for children.

For example, this issue focuses on Say Yes for Children and the United Nations Special Session on Children (UNSSC) which has been rescheduled to take place in New York this coming May. Indeed, the Newsletter takes it’s name from Say Yes for Children which has really taken off in Turkey. The Campaign provides an opportunity for children and adults alike to express their commitment to a better world for children through signing the Pledge form either manually or electronically.

With three months to go before the UNSSC, Turkey has proven it’s commitment to children by gathering almost six million pledges for Say Yes for Children. By May, it is hoped that the number will have grown beyond a massive ten million putting Turkey close to the top position worldwide, if not at the very top. This popular expression of commitment to children should make everyone sit up and take notice: political leaders, government authorities and people in all walks of society will surely feel the need to respond to this call to action for a world fit for children.

There has been tremendous progress on child welfare in Turkey in the past decade. Mortality rates have tumbled, compulsory education has been extended and legal reforms have seen progress in implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). However, there is still much work to be done and right now the danger is that the economic crisis will impede progress and hit the most vulnerable.

Turkey now has the highest annual number of births in Europe - east, west, north or south - at 1.4 million. This imposes a heavy responsibility on the State, families, communities and society as a whole to ensure that basic health, welfare and education services are maintained. After all, the future prosperity of the country ultimately rests on the well-being of it’s children and youth.

It is a universal truth that the World is not ours to keep, we merely hold it in trust for future generations.

Edmond McLoughney
UNICEF Representative, Turkey

PS: We’d very much like to hear readers reactions to this first issue, so please feel free to contact us with your comments and suggestions.

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The Third Youth Festival was held in Ankara in November under the theme: ‘I take part -- to make my dreams a reality’. A song written around the ten points of Say Yes for Children was performed during the intervals and at the closing ceremony.