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

Award winning drawings by children aged 7 through 15, from the International Environmental Children's Drawing Contest, will be shown in a free exhibition in the United Nations General Assembly Visitors' Lobby from August 8th through August 28th, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week. The entrance is at 1st Avenue and 45th Street. UNICEF volunteers will be on hand at all times to answer visitors' questions about the show and UNICEF issues.

The contest was established by the International Certification Network and the Japan Quality Assurance Organization, to encourage the world's children to think about the environment which surrounds their everyday life and how to protect it. The winning drawings are selected from over 14,000 submissions from children in over 60 countries. Besides covering all expenses, Japan Quality Assurance is making a generous contribution to UNICEF.

This exhibition is under the aegis of the United States Fund for UNICEF. For more information, phone Herb Frank at (212) 880 9130, or e-mail hfrank@unicefusa.org.

In Liberia, children continue to suffer the consequences of a 14-year civil war that displaced more than 800,000 people and decimated infrastructure and services. UNICEF and its partners continue to provide health care, education, protection, clean water and sanitation for thousands of children living in camps for internally displaced populations.

© UNICEF/HQ07-0642/Giacomo Pirozzi Children play outside Honduni Public School, a combined primary and secondary school in the village of Honduni in the north-western Lofa County. UNICEF supports the school’s Accelerated Learning Program (ALP), which condenses six years of primary schooling into three to enable children to make up for years lost to armed conflict. UNICEF also provides learning materials, teacher training, and water and sanitation services.

© UNICEF/HQ07-0628/Giacomo Pirozzi (Left-right) Moses, 12, and Patrick, 10, study together at Kobelema Public School, a combined primary and secondary school in the village of Kobelema in north-western Lofa County.

© UNICEF/HQ07-0644/Giacomo Pirozzi A girl points to the blackboard during science class at Honduni Public School, a combined primary and secondary school in the village of Honduni in the north-western Lofa County.

© UNICEF/HQ07-0572/Giacomo Pirozzi A health worker vaccinates an infant against polio at Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town, a neighbourhood of Monrovia, the capital. UNICEF supports the hospital’s breastfeeding, growth monitoring and immunization programs, and provides staff training, medical equipment and essential drugs and supplies.

© UNICEF/HQ07-0580/Giacomo Pirozzi An infant is weighed in a sling scale, as part of a UNICEF-assisted growth monitoring program, at Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town.

© UNICEF/HQ07-0589/Giacomo Pirozzi A mural shows two families in bed, one being attacked by mosquitoes, the other beneath an insecticide-treated bednet, with the words ‘Use Mosquitoes [sic] Bed Net to Avoid Malaria’, at Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town.

UNICEF helps families harness the power of the sun to improve the quality of their drinking water. Sunlight inactivates diarrhea-causing pathogens in two ways: radiation with UVA rays and increased water temperature. Like roof water harvesting, solar water disinfection is a cost effective way to get clean water for kids.

Here’s how it works:

• Contaminated water is filled into transparent plastic bottles.
• Bottles, many times, are conveniently placed on corrugated iron sheet roofs.
• Exposing the water to sunlight for as little as 6 hours can render it clean.

An elementary school master in Indonesia is thrilled with this innovation:

"Great, no more problem with safe drinking water for teachers and students. Everyone can drink as much as they want during a break!" Some even drink half a bottle after class, but there will be no longer a problem with drinking water in the school "thanks to UNICEF who gives to us this technology!"

With your support we can bring clean sustainable water solutions -- like solar water disinfection -- to kids around the world.

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ABC's 20/20 will present an hour-long broadcast in which Ishmael Beah, author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, will discuss his experience as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. UNICEF played a key role in the Beah's rehabilitation, lifting him from the front lines and reintegrating him into civilian life in Sierra Leone as a teenager.

Portions of the broadcast are featured online at http://abcnews.go.com/2020. Click on the link for "Hell on Earth" in the In Touch video player on the right side of the screen for a preview of Ishmael's segment.

20/20 airs at 9:00 pm EST on ABC. Please check your local listings for accurate air times.

	© UNICEF Sri Lanka/2006/Saltori

A simple, affordable, and innovative solution to clean water can be found - right above our head.

After the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, saltwater contaminated the wells of many areas in Southern Sri Lanka. Rainwater harvesting systems became one of the most reliable solutions in meeting the safe drinking water needs of this rural population. Rainwater is collected on the roof of a house and stored in a tank after passing through a gravel-charcoal filter.

In the above picture you can see Janaka who is 14 and lives in Godagama Village, near Galle in southern Sri Lanka.
Janaka says,

“After the tsunami we always boiled water. The rainwater saves a lot of the time and makes life easier. Now I always wash my hands before meals because water is so close by.”

With your support we can bring clean sustainable water solutions -- like rooftop harvesting -- to kids around the world.

	© U.S. Fund for UNICEF/2007/Quesinberry

1.1 billion people lack access to safe, clean drinking water. UNICEF is continually challenged and charged with discovering innovative ways to deliver clean water to remote villages and regions across the globe. Solar pumps are an effective, sustainable, and efficient way to deliver clean water to villages and kids.

Solar Pumps have many advantages compared to diesel powered pumps:

• Unattended operation


• Low maintenance – cleaning of the solar panel surfaces


• Long life; panels can produce for up to 40 years


• Environmentally friendly

Currently solar pumps are used in communities and schools as a part of the integrated WASH program.

With your support we can bring clean sustainable water solutions to kids around the world.

When "American Idol," the FOX television network and the Charity Projects Entertainment Fund (CPEF) selected UNICEF to be one of the beneficiaries of the special "Idol Gives Back" broadcast and fundraiser this past April — the incredible potential to raise money and awareness for children living in poverty was obvious. But, nobody could have predicted that the American public would be quite so generous, and UNICEF couldn't be more pleased with the results.

Just last week, CPEF announced that they have been able to award the nominated beneficiaries, including the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, a total of $62 million in grants. In addition, $7 million in matched funds was allocated at the end of April immediately after the “Idol Gives Back” broadcast, and another $6 million remains to be allocated. To date, the grand total raised, including corporate and matched funding, comes to $75.1 million.

CPEF's grant to UNICEF will allow us to provide over 800,000 children with health care services through an initiative we call "Accelerated Child Survival and Development." Additionally, nearly 500,000 students will receive an education along with school supplies.

UNICEF ' s accelerated child survival approach addresses the ongoing issues that affect why kids are dying, and provides lifesaving interventions. The result is a single initiative that aims to save an estimated 3.2 million children’s lives in sub-Saharan Africa over the next 4 years, and permanently improve the futures of countless others.

For more than 60 years, UNICEF has been the world’s leading children’s organization, saving more young lives than any other humanitarian organization. Each year, nearly 5 million children in sub-Saharan Africa fall victim to the cycle of poverty, which threatens their chances of survival. The key to breaking this cycle is to reach every child with high-impact, low-cost solutions that tackle the multiple causes of poverty in children’s lives, such as inadequate healthcare and education.

Thanks to the two-night star-studded "Idol Gives Back" event — masterminded by Simon Fuller, creator and executive producer of "American Idol" — millions more vulnerable African children living in extreme poverty will lead healthier lives with better education.

Attention American Express card holders! Here's a quick, free way you can help UNICEF bring safe drinking water to thousands of kids.

UNICEF's clean water program is one of 50 finalists in The Members Project. American Express will donate $1 for every card holder who registers here - with up to $5 million going to the organization with the most votes.

Here's where you come in: the voting starts this week and, if you have an American Express card, we need your vote. Help UNICEF secure these funds by registering and casting your vote for "Children's Safe Drinking Water" (Project ID #1250). Help us get clean water to the world's most vulnerable children.

If your co-workers and family members are American Express card holders, please ask them to take a few minutes to register and vote for UNICEF. If you have an idea about how we can work together to spread the word to more American Express card holders and ask them to cast their vote on the American Express site, please comment here and let us know.

We got good news today about Congressional action on the annual appropriations for UNICEF. The following update comes from our Vice President of Public Policy and Advocacy in Washington, D.C., Martin Rendon.

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Last week, the full House of Representatives passed the bill to fund appropriations in Fiscal Year 2008 for foreign operations. As passed by the House, the measure provides a contribution of $128 million from the U.S. Government to UNICEF's regular resources. This is $5 million above the amount the President requested and $2.3 million above the level UNICEF last received ($125.7 million each for Fiscal Years 2006 and 2007). During House Floor debate, several amendments to make across-the-board cuts in foreign assistance funding were all defeated, thereby preserving the $128 million level.

And yesterday the Senate Appropriations Committee reported its version of the legislation for full Senate consideration. The Senate bill provides $129 million for UNICEF, $1 million above the House-passed level. The Senate hopes to take up the legislation in mid-July.

After the Senate passes its bill, we will be posting a new advocacy action alert to urge the House-Senate conference committee that meets to resolve differences between the two bills to adopt the higher Senate number for UNICEF.

We will keep you posted as developments unfold. Thanks to all who have clicked on the "UNICEF Funding" advocacy action item on our website. As you can see, your efforts make a difference!

Martin Rendon
Vice President, Public Policy and Advocacy
U.S. Fund for UNICEF

In Côte d’Ivoire, UNICEF supports children who continue to suffer the consequences of a civil conflict that broke out in 2002.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2763/Bruno Brioni Ilias, 2, a malnourished child, drinks a cup of fortified milk, while his smiling mother watches, in a health center the central city of Bouaké. UNICEF provides supplementary feeding and works with the World Food Program to provide monthly food rations, consisting of oil, soy and maize flour, rice, salt and beans, to area families. UNICEF also provides the center with voluntary HIV/AIDS testing and counselling, and essential medicines and supplies.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2800/Bruno Brioni An infant is weighed at a hospital in Yopougon, a neighbourhood of Abidjan, the country’s commercial capital. UNICEF supports the hospital’s primary care and antenatal programs, including an initiative to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2748/Bruno Brioni Maryam, 8 (left), and Aminata, 8 (right), stand outside their primary school in the north-eastern town of Bouna in the rebel-controlled zone. They are holding backpacks that bear the logos of UNICEF and the EU. Above their heads, the entrance to the school is decorated with the logos of the Ministry of Education, UNGEI, the EU and UNICEF, as well as with a campaign poster that shows a girl who wants to go to school. UNICEF helped rehabilitate the damaged school and now provides learning materials and teacher training.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2758/Bruno Brioni Students poke their heads into their classroom, through the decorative holes of a concrete wall, at a UNICEF-assisted primary school in the village of Douakankro, near the central city of Bouaké in the rebel-controlled zone.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2801/Bruno Brioni Boys watch their teacher write on the blackboard during a tutoring session at a primary school in the village of Béoué, near the western town of Man in the rebel-controlled zone. They are former child soldiers participating in a UNICEF-supported demobilization and reintegration program. The program, which has helped demobilize over 4,000 child soldiers, offers education, vocational training, psychosocial support and health care within an integrated community setting. One boy (foreground) wears a T-shirt showing a pink ‘X’ through the word ‘violence’ and bearing the program's slogan ‘Protect our Children’ (in French).