Say Yes, Spring 2003: Editorial

War hits children first and it hits them hardest, tearing them from their homes, their schools and their communities, denying them education, health care and clean water: the safety and protection that is their right. The terrible injustice of this is reflected in the explicit assertion of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) that it is the right of every child to be protected from war, both directly and indirectly.

As neighbouring Iraq attempts to recover from the turbulence of war, UNICEF Turkey and our colleagues both in Iraq itself and neighbouring Middle Eastern Country offices are working fast to ease the plight of women and children there. In this issue, we take a look at the dire circumstances which plagued the country even before this war began, anticipating how the needs of Iraqi children are liable to escalate in coming months and the steps UNICEF is taking to meet those needs.

The UNICEF national staff in Iraq deserve special credit for remaining on the ground during the conflict, working hard under adverse circumstances to monitor population movements and liasing with the local authorities to ensure that clean water supplies and primary health care and basic education services were maintained.

We also take a look at how the war has affected life closer to home. In our media-saturated world where television channels vie for the most astounding visual reports of the conflict ’live’ from the front, our children need to be protected from passive absorption of these images. It is difficult to explain that war is wrong to a child without subjecting him or her to the horrific reality of armed conflict -- even if only in secondhand terms -- but it isn’t right to simply allow the child to confuse the issue of armed conflict with the movie screen’s violent sideshows. War is not a game -- it is the enemy of children everywhere.

On a lighter note, it is our pleasure to introduce a valued partner of UNICEF Turkey, Dr Mehmet Rifat Köse, speaking about issues of public health close to his heart. We also feature a new mother’s story of her determination to breastfeed her daughter exclusively despite pressures to the contrary. There is much to be learned from this woman’s account of the trials and tribulations of her first week of motherhood.

Edmond McLoughney
UNICEF Representative, Turkey

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

Previous page  |  Next page

ARCHIVE

Search UNICEF Turkey
   

• Advanced Search

Download this issue in pdf format. [PDF 1MB]

 * How to use RSS …