| “AS a family,
we have a strong, heartfelt bond to Kizilay,” says Memnune
Andicen who volunteers for the Turkish Red Crescent Society
(TRCS, also called Kizilay) to boost its blood donations,
just as her father Ahmet Andicen did some 50 years ago. Following
in her father’s footsteps, she became a regular Kizilay
blood donor, helped elderly and poor people and raised funds
for the National Society.
Andicen’s father, who established the first Kizilay
blood centre with other members in 1957, was a record-breaking
blood donor in Turkey with well over 175 donations.
In her early 60s, Andicen now attends Kizilay training in
order to pass on her father’s knowledge and techniques
on how to motivate people to donate blood as the Red Crescent
prepares to become the sole blood collector and supplier in
Turkey. Her nephew, a third-generation volunteer, is also
a regular blood donor for the National Society.
The Andicen family is not the only one whose bonds with Kizilay
are rooted in the history of the Turkish Red Crescent Society.
Bayram Selvi, a specialist in Kizilay’s international
department, tells how his great-grandfather and his sisters
received Kizilay assistance while fleeing to Turkey from the
Balkans due to war in early the 1900s.
“There was not a single migrant family who did not
receive Kizilay assistance, which varied from shelter to hot
meals and clothing in the camps. In return, Kizilay won the
affection of those they helped,” he says. Once settled
in Turkey, Selvi’s family became regular donors to support
the National Society.
While explaining what makes him so motivated about Kizilay,
in addition to his family history, he says, “By myself,
I can help only another person or a couple of others at most.
But as part of Kizilay, I can bring help to thousands and
sometimes hundreds of thousands who are in need.”
Andicen and Selvi are only two among the tens of thousands
of Kizilay workers, volunteers and donors who help people
in need at home and abroad. In addition to blood services,
health and care, management of man-made and natural disasters
and assistance for elderly, orphans, the poor and youth are
among the traditional services of the National Society.
Kizilay has 250 active, service-providing branches all around
the country and aims to increase the number of its blood centres
from 54 to 81 by the end of 2007.
“What makes Kizilay a distinguished National Society,”
says Director General Omer Tasli, “is the fact that
the values, culture and beliefs of a Kizilay worker, volunteer
and donor comply with the principles of our work, of our Movement.”
Deft at handling challenges
Recalling its history which goes back to the 19th century,
President Tekin Kucukali says, “Kizilay has always emerged
stronger from the difficulties it faced.” The most recent
crisis that rocked the National Society was in 1999 when two
major earthquakes hit north-west Turkey, killing thousands
of people and leaving tens of thousands of others in desperate
conditions.
In the face of sharp criticism from the national media and
general public that it could not cope with the impact of the
disaster, Kizilay launched a restructuring and capacity-building
process, with the help of the International Federation and
participating National Societies, which assisted Kizilay to
help the victims of 1999 earthquakes.
Today, officials assure that the National Society is capable
of reaching a disaster zone within the first two hours —
thanks to seven regional disaster response and logistics centres.
It no longer experiences communication problems with its field
teams during operations in and out of Turkey, thanks to its
new satellite-linked communications system.
And finally, Kizilay reorganized and standardized its stocks
around the country to meet needs properly. It replenishes
them regularly. It began responding to floods, village fires
and avalanches in addition to small-scale tremors that take
place on a more or less daily basis in this quake-prone country.
The National Society now runs its own tent production unit
and can meet the emergency shelter and nutrition needs of
250,000 people in a major disaster.
With an increased disaster management capacity and a restored
public image —which enabled it to attract a large number
of public donations — Kizilay turned towards international
operations. Starting with relief operations in Iran after
the 2003 Bam earthquake, Kizilay responded to the Indian Ocean
tsunami in Sri Lanka and Indonesia in 2004, the earthquake
in Pakistan in 2005 and the war in Lebanon in 2006. It also
has had ongoing operations in the Palestinian territories
since 2003, in the Balkans since the late 1990s and in Sudan
since 2006; it is presently strengthening its cooperation
with the Iraqi Red Crescent Society.
Kizilay’s President Kucukali tells how they integrated
psychosocial approaches into their disaster-response mechanisms
at home and abroad. “We try to involve people affected
by disasters in our activities as much as possible,”
he says. “Helping others helps them to start standing
on their own feet.” The National Society also makes
all its purchases in the areas affected by disasters in a
bid to stimulate economic recovery.
Kizilay’s increasing focus on international operations,
which received a lot of attention from the Turkish media,
triggered criticism of whether the National Society is able
to provide sufficient services at home. Kizilay workers reject
such criticism. Some say donations would not flow to the National
Society for Kizilay operations abroad if there were no public
backing. Others argue that letting Kizilay’s existing
capacity remain idle would not comply with the principles
of humanitarian work.
The Turkish Red Crescent Society is aware of the increasing
competition in the humanitarian field and the need for well-trained,
highly qualified staff. Completing its restructuring and branch
development process, as well as building a response capacity
for newly emerging threats, such as environmental problems
and global warming, will enable it to meet future challenges.
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These students are part of an extensive network
blood donors across the country.
©AHMET ORS / TURKISH RED CRESCENT SOCIETY
Turkish Red Crescent field hospital in Darfur.
©AHMET ORS / TURKISH RED CRESCENT SOCIETY
Tekin Kucukali, president of the Turkish Red
Crescent Society.
©AHMET ORS / TURKISH RED CRESCENT SOCIETY
Pioneer of Red Crescents
The Turkish Red Crescent Society is widely known as
the National Society which initiated the use of the
red crescent in the late 19th century, paving the way
for the other Red Crescent Societies to emerge.
In 1868, the International Committee of the Red Cross
was informed that an Ottoman member society had been
formed, which was then registered as a Red Cross. However,
its existence remained on paper only until the 1876-1878
Russian-Ottoman War, when the society became active.
The Ottoman society started to use a “red crescent”
as its indicative and protective emblem. In 1929, this
emblem was adopted in the Geneva Conventions by a diplomatic
conference.
“What is interesting is that the Ottoman Red
Crescent branches in what was then called the Ottoman
Empire territory — those in Lebanon, in Palestine,
in the Saudi Arabian peninsula, in the Balkans and other
places — were the seeds of what later became the
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in those regions,”
says Kizilay international department’s Bayram
Selvi who is completing a masters degree on the history
of the Turkish Red Crescent.
Volunteers of what was to vecome the
Turkish Red Crescent in Thessaloniki during the Greek–Turkish
war in 1897.
©ICRC
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