UNESCO celebrates its 60th anniversary

Anniversaries are often unique opportunities to reflect on bygone years and thus to better prepare for the future. In witness of this, in the last sixty years our planet has been the scene of a wide variety of developments.

Let us recall the:

• End of a world-wide conflict and the beginning of the atomic era - in the same year of 1945;
• "Voice of the People", emerging during the fifties and culminating at the Bandoeng Conference (1955) where, for the first time, the "Third World" appeared on the international scene;
  
• Armed stand-off, from 1947 to 1991, between two superpowers, each dreaming of world domination, on behalf of opposing ideologies - until the collapse of the Berlin wall;
• Tremendous growth of the film industry and wide development of the new means of communication - television followed by Internet.

Also the :

• Birth of the United Nations Organization and its specialized Agencies, bringing fantastic hopes for millions of world citizens, illiterate, untrained, without access to healthcare, standing by the wayside in search of a world of greater solidarity ;
• Birth of a great humanitarian, cultural and social adventure through the unprecedented emergence of non-governmental organizations.

However, the main aim of the Quiz, called "60 questions for UNESCO's 60th anniversary", is not to establish an encyclopedia of the joys and misfortunes of the world. Through the amusement of answering these 60 questions (or posing them to the members of your Club, family, school, university etc.), WFUCA hopes that you will thus spread the word about the diversity of UNESCO's actions, and of the answers that the Organization has helped find, through the years, to the never-ending challenges of our changing world.

At the same time, WFUCA wishes to show that UNESCO never acted alone, rather in cooperation with numerous partners, among them WFUCA, always working in society towards the promotion of UNESCO's ideals.

In this respect, the second volume of WFUCA's History "Twenty years and beyond - serving UNESCO's Utopia", to be distributed during our Extraordinary Congress from 18 to 20 July, will provide a brilliant demonstration of the interaction among UNESCO Clubs, Centres and Associations and UNESCO itself. This will constitute a useful achievement of the Quiz.

Does everybody understand?
Our Quiz is more than just a quiz;
our game is more than just a game.

In fact, in answering the questions, everyone will understand that our actions, projects and programmes draw their whole meaning from their link with UNESCO's international action.

Everybody will understand that all our actions, carried out over 5, 10, 40 or 60 years, were in reality an adventure in the service of UNESCO's ideals.

Finally, all those who, thanks to the diffusion of this Quiz outside the Movement, will discover UNESCO and the role that UNESCO Clubs can play for the benefit of the Organization, may wish to join us.

By choosing to join the UNESCO Clubs network, they can be instrumental in opening up new paths and experience new adventures.

And what exciting adventures !