ISTANBUL
Turkish TV celebrity Tuba Buyukustun joined the national goodwill ambassadors of United Nations Children's Rights and Emergency Relief Organization (UNICEF) on Wednesday.
The actress, renowned both in Turkey and in the Arab world through numerous Turkish TV series, said it is an honor to be assigned for this mission by UNICEF and pledged to give of her best to actively cooperate with the organization.
Ayman Abulaban, UNICEF's Turkey representative, explained that part of Buyukustun's mission is to support Syrian child refugees that fled to Turkey.
She also said she would participate in UNICEF's relief plans for the relatives and children of the 301 workers killed in a mine explosion in Soma town in western Turkey last week.
"People can find themselves in disastrous situations or in a war zone anytime as in the Soma incident, the flooding in the Balkans and the Syrian civil war," said the actress. "But under these situations, the children are the most affected ones."
United Nations nominates leading and well-known figures from various areas as "goodwill ambassadors" in a bid to raise awareness over humanitarian issues and its activities. Argentine football star Lionel Messi and world's number 1 in women's tennis Serena Williams are only two among the UNICEF's goodwill ambassadors.
Turkish model-turned-actor Kivanc Tatlitug, who is also famous among the Arab audience and a co-star of Buyukustun in a Turkish TV series, has been a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF since 2011.
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