As a 17-year-old gender activist from Istanbul, my journey started two years ago when my 7-year-old brother once told me that I was lucky because I just simply could get married and I didn't have to work after. That was probably the moment when I apprehended I was going to be, I had to be the voice of change. That was the moment when I realized the risk of this mindset created by the society. Such a stereotype that even could, and would, affect little child's thought structure. Deeply in my heart, I knew I had to do something, something but didn't know where to start, nor what to do. Since...

Hate isn’t a good thing, right? I know that it's a stereotyped fact that everyone agrees with. But have you ever thought what you would be doing if there was no hate at all? Cause if there wasn’t, love wouldn’t make any sense. So does that mean that to hate is actually good? Well, I agree, it really doesn’t sound right. But it is, at least for me. My biggest dream was peace. I wanted peace, respect, love and positivity so much that they became the reason why I kept on living: I was going to make the world peaceful. It sounds great, right? Each and every person would respect each other, no wars...

“Education is a must” they always say. Education is the concept of teaching and learning. In other words: spreading knowledge. We know that education is a must. But what is knowledge? How do we know things? Everything today is being taught in a box. Therefore people don’t know how to think. It is obvious that two plus two is four but how? How did they find out that one is one or two is two? Knowledge is good to know. But if we don’t let people think about their own knowledge or maybe even oppose them, knowledge would stay the same forever. There won’t be inventions, theories, properties or...

*This article was originally written and published in July 2016 at UNICEF Voices of Youth’s former website. It has since been moved here. In my hometown we often talk about the unappreciated and underrated treasures of our country. I frequently find myself in such conversations, and the one that led me to write this post was about Göbeklitepe, a pre-historic site in Southeastern Turkey. Known to be “the oldest temple of the world”, Göbeklitepe is dated back to Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Period (c. 9600–7300 BC). The peculiarity of the Göbeklitepe site lies in that it contradicts what the studies...

*This article was originally written and published in August 2016 at UNICEF Voices of Youth’s former website. It has since been moved here. Since I figured out how to read and write at the age of 5, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I have been writing ever since, anything and everything. I write about what I feel, about the stories of the people I meet, about my own experiences, about the troubles of the world… It was only 3 months ago that I came across something called the “writing culture”, something that basically explores and questions the concept of objectivity. It had me...

There's a simple way to avoid the problems that are happening in our world - reducing the release of activated carbon. This pollution is damaging both human health and our planet. Any kind of poison thrown into nature seeps into human Biosystems in the same way. And human beings are desperate to use all modern medicine to remove this poison from the ecosystem. But if we had made this effort all along to stop the climate crisis, we wouldn't be so helpless against nature today. We must never forget: from the smallest micro to the largest macro system, we are all parts of a whole. The destruction...

There are a number of areas that Turkey should address in order to progress in terms of education, with the number one issue would be gender inequality, as its short- and long-term effects on education are quite prevalent. Unfortunately, gender inequality affects lives of women in many regions of the country, and the effects are seen starting at an early age. For example, in international standardized tests, we see a trend in which boys score higher than the girls. Although this might hold true for many nations, for Turkey, the difference between the scores of boys and girls is higher than the...

The social fabric of a society blossoms more when we tie the knots of friendships, tenderness, and awareness tight, care for those in our close eyesight, fighting emotional battles. We all know someone, or know someone who knows someone, facing the dilemma of depressions, fighting the lone battles, emitting the depression vibes. We can feel it or, rather see it in their social media sharing. We are occupied in lives and think what we go through is final we do not see carefully what our social circle is sharing. KEEP A CLOSE LOOK, are they sharing some posts, statuses which have sad reactions...

We should all help to make the world a better place, to make children in a better place. My drawing shows that we can have a healthier and happier world without discrimination as we help our planet to grow.

Do that three things to be respected, -Treat yourself like you deserved -Treat others gentle -Give all of your love to people you care Firstly, you might be hurted by world, by someone or by your parents. But isn't it enough? You are worth everything. This Earth is spinning just for you to live. We are nothing compares to universe. But it is still a miracle that you alive. This sunsets and sunrises meant for you. When you did deserve those beauties, why you allow people to treat you like they wanted? No one can hurt you like they want or they can't define you. Treat people as gentle as you can...

We are mostly at home this year because of the pandemic, When we are very bored or distraught, we rarely go out or at least go to a window and breathe deeply. This breath reminds us how important it is. That breath saves us when we furious and feel like can't find a way to out. Understanding the importance of breathing and still being in life and living with this knowledge is actually a great source of motivation.You will know when you take off the mask after a long break or when you are traveling in the car when you open the car window and feel the wind in your face. Don't you feel happy in a...

“Get your summer body in quarantine”, “Learn a new language during quarantine”, “Quarantine is a great time to write a book or start a business.”, “Be more productive during quarantine.” Aren’t we bored of always hearing and reading those kinds of things on social media? And are we really not being productive? I started thinking that I wasn’t being productive when all of the social media started talking about ways to be productive during the quarantine. Seeing girls eating avocado toasts or people learning new languages made me nervous about productivity. But soon I realized that I was all...

Nowadays, the possibility of helping ourselves by helping others intrigues me. In fact, that question has been on my mind for so long that I even forgot when I started to wonder. These days, I decided to take some action and began to do some digging. Anyway, the answer to the question is a big YES! Helping others has effects on human physiology and psychology that have been proven by various researchers. Some researchers indicated that assisting others is highly associated with happiness and overall psychological wellbeing (Filkowski, Cochran and Haas, 2016), whereas some researchers drew...

"More than 300 women were killed in 2021 in Turkey" This is the kind of news that I see everywhere: from Twitter to Instagram and other social media platforms. But is it really fair to kill women for no reason? Absolutely not! Is it worth killing young women and taking their dreams from their hands? Absolutely not! But why are we doing so? Is it because women are seen as inferior to men? But who did impose this mentality that men have more privileges than women do? Do you think about what is the role of a woman in society? Maybe to take care of her children, to cook, and to be a good housewife...

"Volleyball isn't just for girls" When you first think of volleyball, many people think of girls serving and hitting a ball over the net. How about breaking this gender role by making girls and boys play together? During a boardgame session on gender disparity that I attended, coaches and sports trainers discussed actions and solutions to break this stereotype. Gender should play no role in what sports boys and girls want to play. This should be the same as in all areas of their lives. Adolescence is a key transition period for boys and girls; when attitudes and social norms are shaped. It may...

Last month the photographic exhibition “Youth Lens – Dreams of the Future” opened in New York. And while exhibitions open in NYC all the time, this one is special: all the photographers are between the ages of 11 and 18. The photos in this exhibition are a selection from a wider body of photographs taken by 60 Turkish and Syrian young people living in Turkey who are part of the Youth Lens project. Launched in 2018, it aims to train 60 young Syrian refugees and Turks from Gaziantep, Istanbul, and Izmir in the language of images.

"The word power can be interpreted with both positive and negative meanings. I started creating my works by exploring the exact definition, which means to be able, and whether or not I agreed with it. Living in a reality that presents both aspects to this term, the interpretation of this word is limitless, which is also the reason behind many current conflicts. The term attracted me because of my personal interests with the problems present in the status quo, and how they essentially lead back to the same place: a race for power. But I believe that in order to really understand the term, one...

Hello everyone, I'm İdil and I live in Turkey. In my country I believe education is the most needed thing and there are a lot of campaigns to improve education. There are more than 3 three organizations which help girls’ education, there are organizations for the children who have lost their parents, there are also community centres which educate the public. A lot of people dedicate themselves to teach people and change the society in to a better way. I am really proud of these people; but there is a thing that I am not proud of (which is a shame for such a country with great citizens): the...

For the past 6 weeks, I have been a communications intern at the UNICEF Turkey country office. I have taken part in meetings, done research and reported on media influencers, on engagement strategies, on the news, and I have even gone to the field in Gaziantep to conduct an interview and learn about the lives of Syrian refugees in Turkey. I am including some pictures taken during this field visit here. My experience has been enriching and I have learnt a lot, so here I am, sharing with you, 5 tips to have a successful UNICEF internship: