Turkey: Sirin Soyoz

Youthpost.org, a Turkish youth portal launched in 2007 by the joint partnership of the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) with the British Council?s Turkish branch and the GSM- Youth Service Centre. It has since become the official site for the National Human Development Report on Youth in Turkey as well as the hub for youth activities and information.

How was the YouthPost project born?
Originally the British Council in Ankara and GSM-Youth Services Centre launched a project called YIB-Youth Info Bridge (www.yib.gen.tr) in 2003 with the aim of facilitating flow of information and communication between the young people and the youth NGOs all over Turkey. In less than 2 years YIB demonstrated to be a huge success, receiving more than 4 million hits and becoming a point of reference for young people and youth NGOs across Turkey. Youthpost.org is the follow up project that has been set up to ensure that youth in Turkey continues to have access to information and resources specifically tailored to suit their needs.

What do you do at YouthPost?
I work as the editor of Youthpost. I provide ideas and possible solutions in information delivery and produce full design documentation in an appropriate format in cooperation with our voluntary researchers and translators. I am also responsible for ensuring that the web site is regularly updated.

Who is Youthpost meant for?
The portal was built for young people all around the world but specifically it aims to reach young people in Turkey and from the Balkans, Europe and the Caucasus. Our target audience are young people – university students, young professionals, youth volunteers and youth workers ? but also NGOs, decision-makers, bureaucrats, local authorities, researchers and academics.

What does Youthpost do, specifically, to help youth?
The aim was to develop a virtual network, unique in Turkey, that would enable young people to reach all sorts of information about youth policies, projects, programs, campaigns, both in Turkey and worldwide, in a compact and accessible format. Here youngsters have the chance to access all kinds of information on youth field and human development and follow the news and developments in the world of young people, current meetings, training and scholarships from all around the world. We believe that Youthpost has the potential to play a crucial role in youth development, especially in Turkey as it gives young people the autonomy to surf in the youth-related web-sites throughout the links and resources it provides. Therefore the portal, somehow, contributes to the capacity-enhancement in the area of human development.

How would you describe youth in Turkey today?
There is not one type of youth in Turkey. There are lots of categories: Students, employed youth, those who are looking for jobs, those who neither study nor look for jobs (especially girls), disabled youth, those who recently moved to the cities from rural areas, those who are well-off or poor ? Although youth is usually seen as the symbol of health and education in Turkey, in reality this is not the always the case.

What are the main challenges that Turkish youth face today?
Large numbers of youth are not visible, and there is not a comprehensive youth policy in Turkey. Besides these invisible youth, the ones who go to school have their own problems. There are quantity and quality issues in education. Not everybody can have higher education. Although primary education for 8 year olds is compulsory, the enrollment rate for secondary school drops radically to 60%. This rate drops to 20% in university education. All higher education schools require good points in the national exams and this puts relatively poor students in bad situation and usually the ones who attend private preparation courses are successful in these national exams. The quality of schools and universities is also a problem. International researches show that one can find the best and the worst schools in Turkey, and the number of the good ones is much less than the low quality ones.

In employment there are also problems. The word ?youth? is usually used instead of ?inexperienced, ignorant.? Since this is the perception, employers always prefer to employ more experienced people. When they employ inexperienced young people, they tend to exploit them with low wages and without social security. The level of social and political participation is also very low in Turkey. Although we know or sure that the ones who participate in NGO work get over their obstacles and advance in every way, the number of such young people are really low.

What do you think can be done to face these challenges?
Policy discussion at national level is more than necessary in Turkey. Adopting specific policies for young people; admitting youth representation in decision-making process are the highest priorities to be considered. Turkey should re-focus and revise educational priorities towards making good formal and non-formal education opportunities available for youth. Moreover exposure to new experiences is critical for having a worldview. There are economic reasons and visa problems in Turkey that hinder this mobility. Yet in order to see the world beyond the borders of your country and to broaden your perspectives, you just have to come around. In that respect, actions for the mobility of Turkish youth are factors that should be improved urgently.

Advancing the right of young people to suitable employment is also needed because it is unemployment that keeps young people in a condition of dependence. Hopefully private sector companies? awareness on youth empowerment and youth civil society is getting better. Alternative employment opportunities, giving ever more to young people might be a step, for example recognizing social and voluntary work as economic activities. Promoting the type of education that provides lifetime qualifications have started in recent years with a special focus on lifelong learning programs. Improving relations between institutions and companies with the aim of facilitating the adaptation process from education to labor market is another crucial need and solution.

How do young people contribute to Youthpost?
They are a vitial part of this initiative. They can post us their messages and announcements to be published on the web site and in our bulletin. They can send their articles to be published on Youth Corner section of the portal. They can also work as voluntary translators with our team in the translation the youth policy documents. This process contributes both to their personal development and the youth development. We believe that people are not educated through formal education systems but also through non-formal educational experiences. Youthpost serves such a vision by providing young people the useful links and documents so that they could become autonomous individuals taking the responsibility for their own learning process.

How important is this website to the youth? What does it mean to them?
The web-site has a crucial role in the dissemination of National Human Development Report on youth which is going to be launched in March, 2008. UNDP report is the first snapshot of the state of young people in Turkey. The report defines the profile of young population in Turkey. Therefore we believe that the World Wide Web is highly important in terms of drawing the attention of authorities on youth issues in Turkey. This outcome does not directly reflect on the lives of young people but we believe it will result in positive change on youth issues in the forthcoming years.

In that respect, Youthpost, as an accessible information portal, is a very valuable tool to focus on making youth an integral part of other major social policies and sectors and putting young people and their active participation at the centre of national policies.

Young people want to be listened attentively and to be involved in decisions that concern them. Here we aim at creating a space for dialogue and participation since we still see that apathy is a real problem among young generation. Although it is difficult to trigger their motivation we believe that we will be a wonderful example of real participation at home and on the regional and international basis.

How many youngsters make use of this website?
Youthpost was launched in March 2007. In 11 months time it has received more than 35,000 hits, mostly university students and youth NGOs. Approximately 3000 young people has visited the web-site this month from 54 countries/territories, mainly from Turkey and from the USA, Greece, Germany, France, Netherlands, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Indonesia, Spain and so on. We have 6500 newsletter members, 16 voluntary translators and 25 Youthpost volunteers who are motivated to work in the promotion of the web-site.

How do youngsters reach your website? Do you campaign for the website?
We have used various channels to campaign the web-site. At the very beginning, right after the launching we made an announcement in the national newspaper. Bulletins among Youth NGO mail groups was the most effective way of drawing the attention of authorities in youth sector. We aimed to create the multiplying effect to reach young people as the youth population is quite high in Turkey.

We try to use information technologies effectively in the campaigning process. Facebook, blogs, yahoo mail group are other means of communication between the portal and young people. We are hopeful about the future of Youthpost. It was not easy to construct from the very beginning and to improve the portal. Now we can see that process better. Now Youthpost is alive with its volunteers, young supporters, a specific target audience and future plans. It will definitely refresh itself and become one of the main, reliable online libraries & documentation portals on youth work.

More info:
www.youthpost.org