**** UN Staff address to the UN Secretary-General, 2 April 2010, UN Hall Dear Secretary-General! Dear Mrs. Ban! On behalf of the United Nations family in Turkmenistan, I would like to cordially welcome you at our UN House and express our sincere appreciation for your warm words and for your presence here. For each one of us standing here, it is a great pleasure and pride to serve the people of Turkmenistan in critical areas such as health, education, economy, governance, human rights, environment, emergency response and many others. With the limited resources and in the context of the financial crisis, we strive to offer the best the United Nations can to help improve the life of people in Turkmenistan. In doing so, we pay particular attention to assisting the government of Turkmenistan to fulfill its commitments on achieving the Millennium Development Goals through the implementation of the newly signed UNDAF for the years of 2010-2015. We, as UN Staff, strongly believe that delivering on these ambitious goals is possible, as the United Nations here deploys its values and resources: namely people working for and dedicated to the UN mandate and principles. Our work is rewarding and challenging, yet not without hazards and risks. With deep grief we have been following the developments after the earthquake in Haiti, which took thousands of people’s lives, including our UN colleagues. The matter of earthquakes is very close to the people of Turkmenistan, and this is why we welcomed the decision of Turkmenistan’s Government to contribute $500,000 to the Haiti fund. Preventing disasters is one of your priorities as stated in your Op-Ed “Don’t Wait for Disaster”, which was widely publicized in Turkmenistan. In that sense, we are proud of the UN’s achievement to raise $10bln and we appreciate your leadership and role in this process. We stand ready to give our fullest support in implementing these and other priorities set by you like climate change, disarmament, financial crisis and poverty, food security, health, peace and security, gender and UN reform. Here, before you stands the UN team in Turkmenistan - professionals representing the UN on the ground with dignity, integrity and high levels of competence and motivation. As the UN staff, we support your idea of changing the working culture of the Organization by building the staff which is truly mobile and multi-functional, through greater emphasis on career development, training, accountability, and recognition of work performed at all levels. The UN family in Turkmenistan is small, but we already have our achievements. As civil servants of the age ranging from 23 to 61 we make efforts to contribute to the development of a young nation. Dear Secretary-General, as a token of our gratitude, please accept our warm wishes and this gift prepared by one of the UN projects on promoting the rights of people with disabilities. Dear Mrs. Ban, we thank you for visiting our country and would like to present the Turkmen national scarf that symbolizes our hospitality and rich traditions. Dear Secretary-General and Mrs. Ban, we hope that these presents will remind you of your time in our country. Thank you! **** | 
