Nearly 6,000 people attended the event. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu's daughters, Meymune Nur and Sefine Davutoğlu, were also among the participants. Macedonian, Ethiopian, Lebanese, Iraqi and Palestinian orphans shared their experiences and sorrow with participants during the annual meeting. Speaking at the program, Lebanese orphan Maya expressed her sorrow, asking, “Where are my Palestinian orphan brothers?” hinting at the closed Rafah border gate preventing them from arriving in Turkey.
The opening ceremony started with a presentation explaining projects concerning orphans around the world. While delivering the opening speech, İHH's General Director Bülent Yıldırım said the number of orphans has increased corresponding to the increasing amount of wars. He said they organized this meeting to bring together orphans from different parts of the world and to ask people to lend a helping hand. Reminded of an orphan's comments while leaving Turkey last year, “Turkey is my mother,” Yıldırım said there are 143 million orphans and 60 million children who go to bed hungry. “More than 2.5 million children are kidnapped and sold, most of them girls,” said Yıldırım, warning that the numbers will increase unless urgent aid is given to deal with the problem. Noting that they have established an institution for orphans who lost their families as a result of wars, occupation, natural disasters or poverty, Yıldırım said 15,000 Turkish families send TL 70 a month to 15,000 orphans all around the world.
The orphans from different countries put on various activities, sending messages to the world about their life and their problems. At the end of the meeting, orphans from different parts of the world unfurled banners saying thank you in different languages.
