Say Yes, 60th Anniversary Edition: Not by Milk Alone

How long is a second? One second: as long as a snap of the fingers or a heartbeat. And long enough for three babies to come into the world. All over the world, ‘round the clock, every second, three babies are born. More than ten thousand every hour — and over a hundred million every year. A hundred million new babies who need food and care, protection from disease and danger … and who must be educated and prepared for life.

This observation, accompanied by the sound of a single finger click, opened Professor Talat Halman’s script for a broadcast on UNICEF, Not by Milk Alone, which was aired on United Nations Radio in 1963. Professor Halman was writing about the broadening scope of the organisation’s more long term plans to help children. A former Minister of Culture in the Turkish Government, currently Dean of Humanities and Letters at Bilkent University in Ankara and President of the Turkish National Committee for UNICEF, Professor Halman recalls the origins of UNICEF — and looks forward to a bright future for both the organisation and children the world over.

I was aware of UNICEF from the earliest days it was established, which is how I came to write the radio programme, Not by Milk Alone. The idea was that UNICEF should and would do many constructive things for children the world over, which of course is what happened.

Over forty years later, Professor Halman’s device of a finger click was echoed by the successful Make Poverty History campaign in the still more disturbing context of child mortality: A child dies completely unnecessarily as a result of extreme poverty every three seconds … However Professor Halman remains convinced that the state of the world’s children has not only improved in that time but will continue to improve:

The expansion of UNICEF’s functions and the areas it now covers is marvellous. I think the organisation is doing great work for children as it did in the past, although it was perhaps more limited in terms of its remit. I like the way new functions such as children’s rights have been developed.

And of course with respect to Turkey, the national consciousness and also, far more importantly, the national conscience are very much higher now regarding the most serious and severe problems relating to children. That has been a very difficult thing to achieve but it has been achieved.

For instance, infant mortality has dropped to twenty–six out of a thousand where it used to be as much as seventy per thousand.

So I’m very optimistic about the near and the long term future for children — especially in this country. We’re hoping that UNICEF’s functions in Turkey will broaden as well. Because in some areas we’re still limited and there are problems regarding Turkish children and their families where UNICEF’s priority programmes are very relevant.

If I were asked to choose a single ingredient that would improve the lot of children, I couldn’t answer because I want everything for children. I want a well–integrated programme of health care, education and psycho–social support that will provide them with all the opportunities they need to develop into happy, fulfiled adults. I want all of the ingredients together — they can’t be separated. Poverty is a problem, for instance, but communicable diseases is a major problem too and there are so many dangers for children, that we need to fight against: I wish it were possible but I don’t think any one factor can be isolated.

I have great faith in UNICEF’s future globally and in Turkey. As a national committee, it is our function to support the organisation both at home and abroad and Turkey’s response to the Tsunami disaster was a wonderful example of this international solidarity. Public sector institutions gave generously, factory workers pooled their cash, schoolchildren raised funds and it was truly heartening to witness the generosity of people, of a country that has enough problems of it’s own.

People are the key to UNICEF’s success: the people who work for the organisation and the general public who support us. And this is why UNICEF will succeed in helping to substantially reduce poverty and all its detrimental effects on children within the foreseeable future.

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