Much has been said in our society about the need for education and widespread support for children and youth. Representatives of the Communist regime missed no opportunity to point out the importance of children and youth to our future happiness. Nowadays, every influential political party has placed child and youth issues on its agenda. The more surprising then, that no organization, nongovernmental or otherwise, is aiming at the general betterment of this part of the population. Although a great many NGOs, as well as individuals, are deeply involved in particular problems of the youngest generation, no single umbrella organization exists; nor is there any proposal to establish one.

In previous decades initiatives focused on children and youth were rather formal, and people from every generation viewed them as an inevitable duty. However, the state offered bountiful financial support for such ideologically significant initiatives. Recreation and sports benefited first of all.

Social change after the breakdown of Communism abolished the pressure to participate. On the other hand, no formal structure existed to take up the slack. To build up a new, functioning structure takes a long time. The third sector—the sphere of NGOs—seems to be the most viable for the task. However, the problems weighing down on children and youth have increased; new problems have emerged much more rapidly than have projects and organizations designed to solve them.

New state structures do not appear able to accomplish much in dealing conceptually with child and youth issues. Indeed, the frequent change in government, in particular numerous shifts at the top of the Ministry of Education and Science, has been an obstacle to the appearance of any comprehensive approach in education or in other areas. The state administration is not motivated by any long-term intention; it solves mostly the problems of those groups which cry out the most loudly.

Striking problems in Slovak society seem to have their roots in an inability among older generations to rid themselves of old habits of thought. This is one reason why many of the best prospects of the country reside with children and youth. The ideas of humanism, tolerance and respect for education and for oneself should be allowed to spread. This is the conclusion prompted by the analysis in this paper and by recent sociological surveys (Sources: FOCUS, May 1994, December 1994).

These are the reasons why the mission and the intentions of IYF, as presented to people contacted by surveys, have met with enormous understanding irrespective of the type of organization the respondents were representing. The establishment of IYF in Slovakia is expected to take place at a time of extremely dynamic growth in the third sector and at a time when civil society is awakening. One sign of this is the availability of an unexpectedly large number of excellent projects targeting children and young persons and of excellent people selflessly working to implement these projects.

The benefits of the operation of IYF in Slovakia are therefore obvious. It would provide a chance to overcome the communication gap among NGOs and other bodies working to confront child and youth issues in Slovakia. Even more important is the fact that it would open up the country to the prospect of joining networks throughout the East Central European region, as well as worldwide networks, of examining the experiences of other countries and of contributing the Slovak experience.

Only a few grant-giving NGOs have settled in Slovakia, too few in relation to the large number of NGOs. The benefits of a presence of IYF is the most evident from this perspective.