Fieldnotes: Blogging on UNICEF's child survival work in the field

After receiving many requests from high school students who wanted to be involved with UNICEF in their schools, the UNICEF High School Club program was launched last year.

UNICEF High School Clubs affirm the power of young people to make a difference and help UNICEF save children's lives. Clubs are a youth-led initiative that partners with the U.S. Fund for UNICEF to educate, advocate, and fundraise on behalf of UNICEF's lifesaving work.

Clubs set up booths at their school and festivals to promote children's issues and fundraise, write letters to elected officials, and participate in Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF and UNICEF Tap Project campaigns. They also produce benefit concerts, host international coffee hours, and write school newspaper editorials on UNICEF's work.

So, if you are a high school student, think about forming a club or check to see if there is already a club  in your school, and start this school year off right with volunteering for UNICEF!

Posted by Kristi Burnham, UNICEF USA on September 1, 2010 5:09 PM
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Hadassah Magazine has published a profile about U.S. Fund for UNICEF President and CEO Caryl Stern.

The article begins by sharing 2 family stories that shaped Caryl's outlook on life from an early age and ends with Caryl's advice to her peers: Everybody should change jobs at age 50!

© U.S. Fund for UNICEF/2010

We hope you enjoy the full article, which is online here.

Posted by UNICEF USA on August 31, 2010 5:21 PM
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Angita Emerentienne, age 9, lives in Marolondo, Madagascar. She has been studying in a tent since her classroom was destroyed by a cyclone in 2008. This week's Monday photo was taken on the first day of the new school year. This is what Angita had to say:

Some things change: I will be in third grade this year.

Some things stay the same: Last year I studied in a tent. This year I will again study in a tent. I used to study in a classroom. That was before the cyclone.

© UNICEF Madagascar/2010/Lynch

Nine-year-old Angita lives in Marolondo village, Madagascar. She is in third grade and wants to be a teacher when she grows up.

I remember the cyclone. I remember that our house was blown down. Nobody died though. We weren't in the house when the cyclone came. We heard it was coming so we went to stay in my grandfather's house. That house is stronger. I could still hear the wind outside. It made a noise like this: 'wooo wooo'!

When the wind stopped we went out and I saw that houses had been blown down and trees too. Mangoes had fallen off the trees. The first thing I did was run to collect all the mangoes and eat them!

When we got to our house I saw that there was nothing left at all. It was flat on the ground. The roof had blown away. Everything we had in the house was squashed in the middle of the rubble. My sister was crying. I wasn't happy with the cyclone for doing this to us, but I didn't cry. I was brave.

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Posted by UNICEF USA on August 30, 2010 5:27 PM
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Kate Weber leads the U.S. Fund for UNICEF's partnerships with NGOs.

On July 22, in the midst of a New York summer, we welcomed Al Brandel, Immediate Past Chairman of Lions Clubs International Foundation, and Bob Klein, Past International Director of Lions Clubs International and Lions' NGO Representative to the UN, to the U.S. Fund's office. They presented our president Caryl Stern with a check in the amount of $39,468.62 to fund UNICEF's innovative School-in-a-Box program.

© U.S. Fund for UNICEF/Dickerson

U.S. Fund for UNICEF President and CEO Caryl Stern with Al Brandel (l.) and Bob Klein (r.).

For more than 12 years, Lions Clubs International, the largest service club organization in the world, has been an important partner to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF in providing children in emergency situations with School-in-a-Box kits.

A School-in-a-Box kit makes it possible to maintain education in emergency situations where schools have been destroyed or made inaccessible. This is the case in Haiti especially, where schools and education have suffered a great blow due to one of history's most devastating earthquakes. Even 6 months after the earthquake, some schools have yet to reopen. However, I am happy to report that at the moment, there are hundreds of School-in-a-Box kits in Haiti, not to mention the thousands of kits that are supporting children's educational needs around the globe.

This kind of progress would not be possible without the help of Lions Clubs International and other organizations like them. We are pleased that our alliance with Lions Clubs International is not only longstanding but also continuing to grow.

Posted by UNICEF USA on August 27, 2010 12:34 PM
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The toll of Pakistan's flooding is mounting. The situation for hundreds of thousands of families is only getting worse. UNICEF is working around the clock to provide clean water, medicine, vaccinations and therapeutic foods for the children most in need.

We're getting clean water to nearly 2 million people. But another 6 million women and children are not being reached. We need your help. Send this message from UNICEF Ambassadors Alyssa Milano and Clay Aiken to your friends and family today. Embed them in your blog, post them to Facebook. And check out our youtube channel to see messages from other UNICEF supporters including actress Rebecca Mader; musician Pete Wentz; actors Aaon Yoo and Faran Tahir; actress Maria Menounos; actress Maria Canals-Barrera; and singers Shontelle and Gabe Saporta.

Posted by UNICEF USA on August 27, 2010 12:07 PM
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Kristi Burnham is Vice President, Program & Strategic Partnerships, at the U.S. Fund.

Want to help with the relief efforts in Pakistan or any of the other 150 countries where UNICEF works? Join or start a UNICEF Campus Initiative Club on your college or university campus.

Check out our newest video, which demonstrates the power of students working for the day when no child dies from a preventable disease. Most of the footage was taken at our Campus Initiative Summit this past June in New York City at Columbia University. In it, you'll see students from all across the country talking about why they Believe in Zero, and why UNICEF is the organization they choose.

You can get involved by registering as a volunteer, or if you are interested in forming a club, the first step is to check if there is a club on your campus, and if not, read the prospective campus toolkit!

Posted by Kristi Burnham, UNICEF USA on August 26, 2010 2:39 PM
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Jennifer Chernaik is on the Interactive Marketing team of the U.S. Fund.

While our work at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF is focused on helping children around the world, we also support child-friendly projects in our own back yard--helping make the city we call home a better place for children.

Last Friday, the U.S. Fund partnered with New York Cares, an group bringing vital volunteer support to thousands of non-profit agencies, public schools and other deserving organizations.

The U.S. Fund's Elizabeth Kiem, Jennifer Chernaik and Lauren Savage in front of a fresh TOT tag.

Our mission for the day was to spruce up the hallways and classrooms at the School for Global Leaders, a new middle school on Manhattan's lower east side. The school has a global focus--students are required to take French, Spanish or Chinese--and the school partners with many community groups to highlight global issues in the classroom. Clearly this was our kind of school!

While some folks in our group got their paint rollers out and went to town, my team was asked to help create an inspiring learning environment by decorating the hallways with logos of the organizations that the school has partnered with. We stenciled and painted logos for organizations such as Teach for America, City Harvest and PETA, to name a few.

Arts and Crafts is definitely not my forte, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well my work turned out--and very impressed with my coworkers' artistic skills. Special kudos to my colleague Elizabeth who was brave enough to paint our Trick or Treat for UNICEF logo. It turned out great!

All in all, it was a fun day and a great reminder of how good it feels to roll up your sleeves and make a difference. Not a bad way to spend a Friday!

Posted by UNICEF USA on August 25, 2010 4:12 PM
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Three weeks after this photo was taken, the humanitarian situation in Pakistan remains dire. This photo of a submerged city in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in the north-western provinces--where the massive flooding began--is being replicated throughout the flood zone. Punjab, Balochistan, and now Sindh province, have since been innundated. In all, 1/5 of the country is under water.

"It's hard to understand the scale of this emergency," said Dan Toole, the UNICEF Regional Director of South Asia, after touring the region.

The area under water, as of last week, was the combined size of Switzerland, Austria and Belgium. And on the perimeters of the water are hundreds of thousands of families clinging to dry ground. They need water, food, shelter, and medicines. UNICEF is supplying 1 million people with clean water daily and supporting vaccination and mobile medical teams.

UNICEF requires $141 million to deal with the immediate needs of the displaced. About a quarter of that has been pledged to date.

Posted by UNICEF USA on August 24, 2010 2:19 PM
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