Say Yes, Summer 2005: In This Issue

MORE ABOUT MEASLES

This Spring, a five-week long campaign to ‘catch-up’ on immunising children under five years old and those who are out of school was launched in Turkey by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and UNICEF.

In Turkey, the drive to eliminate measles has been under way since December 2002 when 9.7 million school children were vaccinated in a massive nationwide mobilisation by the Ministry of Health and the MOH with UNICEF support.

At the time, the measles elimination campaigns in Turkey and neighbouring Iran were heralded by UNICEF as the largest and most ambitious measles campaigns in the world, reaching a combined total of 53 million people.

According to WHO and UNICEF, measles is still the leading cause of vaccine-preventable child mortality in the world. It follows that immunisation is essential if children are to attain their right to the highest attainable standard of health.

Following the World Health Assembly in 1989 and the World Summit for Children (WSC) in 1990, specific goals were set for the worldwide reduction of measles morbidity and mortality.

The goal for 2001-2005 has been to reduce global measles-related mortality by half from the total of 873,000 in 1999. To this end, UNICEF’s Supply Division shipped over 637 million doses of the measles vaccine between 1999 and 2003.

According to UNICEF, deaths from the disease in 2004 have dropped by 40% globally to an estimated 530,000. The largest reduction was in Africa where mass vaccination campaigns have been carried out for some time.

The target date for elimination of measles in the European Region is 2010.

The WHO/UNICEF strategy for sustainable measles mortality reduction has proven to be so successful that similar strategies for potentially fatal childhood illnesses such as malaria are being developed.

Read Catching Up On Measles.

A NATIONAL FOCUS

Haydi Kızlar Okula! the Ministry of National Education (MONE) and UNICEF campaign to close the gender gap in primary education expanded to another twenty provinces earlier this year.

The campaign was originally launched in 2003 by the Minister of National Education, Dr Hüseyin Çelik, and former UNICEF Executive Director, Carol Bellamy.

Haydi Kızlar Okula! initially targeted the ten provinces with the lowest enrolment rates for girls and a further twenty-three provinces were added last year. The addition of the new provinces this Spring means that the campaign is now active in a total of fifty-three of Turkey’s eighty-one provinces and girls’ education is firmly on the nation’s agenda.

Referring to the fact that for the first time Turkey spent more on education last year than it did on defence, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said publicly that education is the best form of defence.

As the issue of girls’ education becomes more and more of a national focus in Turkey, the signs are good that by the close of this year, the country will be on track to achieve gender parity in primary education within the next few years.

Read Building Upon Success.

SPREADING THE WORD

In order to mobilise the Haydi Kızlar Okula! field workers who go from door-to-door, persuading parents to enroll their daughters in school and keep them there, a cascade training model had to be put in place. This involves the training of provincial counsellors who work with stakeholders, volunteers and local NGOs to ensure that the campaign’s message reaches families.

In late April, provincial counsellors from active Haydi Kızlar Okula! provinces shared their experiences with their new colleagues at this years training session for the latest stage of the campaign.

Read Voices of Experience.