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

Hours to go until midnight, and already over $100,000 has been donated in response to Clay Aiken's appeal for the children of Mexico! Thanks to everyone who's supported this campaign -- your generosity will help UNICEF save kids' lives.

Because of the generous response to Clay Aiken's appeal, we're closing in on $100,000 to support UNICEF's work for the children of Mexico! Thank you! We'll keep you posted during the day.

UNICEF Ambassador is visiting UNICEF projects in Mexico and blogging from the field.

"Les deseo un prosperó año nueva!"

Yesterday we spent a long, but rewarding, day visiting schools that were severely damaged by the floods. I had the opportunity to talk to many children who have been unable to attend school since the disaster struck. They are full of hope and excited to return to school soon.

We also had the unique opportunity to visit the largest shelter in Villahermosa, Tabasco. When we got there I began walking and immediately a little boy ran over to me with the biggest smile on his face. And of course I was confused that he was excited to see me since I am not well known in Mexico, but it all became clear when he pointed to my UNICEF t-shirt and gave me a hug.

Throughout my travels with UNICEF - to Indonesia, Uganda, Afghanistan and now Mexico - I have been greeted with this same warm welcome. Children everywhere know that UNICEF is there for them, to help them get the food, shelter and education they need to not only survive but to thrive.

I am so proud to be a UNICEF Ambassador and to do my part to help UNICEF as they take care of children in need around the world. And I thank you for joining me this holiday season to give to those in need.

C

P.S. Good news everyone! We have our bags - yes, even mine!

UNICEF Ambassador Clay Aiken is visiting UNICEF projects for children affected by the recent floods in Mexico. He sent the following post from the field.

Merry Christmas to all from Mexico!

The past couple of days have been crazy – from delayed flights to lost luggage (yes, the airline lost all our bags – mine, mom’s and Brett’s – and mine’s STILL missing, so if you see it, could you send it my way?), to missed flights - if it could go wrong it did! But despite everything I couldn’t be happier than to be with my family and UNICEF in Mexico sharing the Christmas holiday with the people of Chiapas and Tabasco who have suffered such tragedy.

They have lost so much (much more than a few suitcases) but they have an unbelievable spirit and contagious joy. This is the holiday season and the spirit of family and giving is alive and well here.

Yesterday we were privileged to travel with the First Lady of Chiapas to the mountain village of Ostuácan. People here were severely affected by the recent flooding and mudslides. In fact, more than 2,000 people, many of whom are children, have lost their homes and are celebrating Christmas in shelters this year. But, they rolled out the red carpet for us and we celebrated the holiday together singing Jingle Bells and other holiday songs and even taking a whack at a piñata (and, believe it or not, I didn’t hit anyone!).

As upbeat and positive as the people are they still need our help. There is much to do to reconstruct their village and get their lives back to normal. Thank you on behalf of myself, UNICEF and the people of Chiapas for your generous donations… and if you haven’t already, please consider opening your heart to these wonderful people who have opened their hearts and homes to me.

More tomorrow from Tabasco… in the meantime, from my family to yours we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

This winter, American Airlines and UNICEF want to reward YOU for helping save children’s lives. Until January 31, 2008, you can earn American Airlines miles when you donate to UNICEF. For every dollar you donate to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, you’ll receive two AAdvantage miles. Of course, you must be an AAdvantage member to get your miles; and you can only take advantage of this online offer by visiting our Donate and Earn Miles page. Go to our Gifts that Give page to find out more.

You can also donate your unused Delta or Northwest Airlines miles directly to UNICEF. If you’re a Delta SkyMiles member, you can donate your miles to any of the charities participating in Delta’s SkyWish program, including UNICEF. If you have a Northwest WorldPerks account, you can donate your miles to participating AirCares charity partners, including UNICEF. With UNICEF active in over 150 countries to save children’s lives, you know those miles will be put to good use.

If you want to find out more about giving a gift that helps save children's lives, visit our Gifts that Give page.

UNICEF Ambassador Clay Aiken will be visiting UNICEF projects for children affected by the recent floods in Mexico and blogging about his experience. Here's his first post in advance of the trip.

As I prepare for my trip to Mexico, I'd like to encourage everyone to help the children and families in need. I could receive no greater gift this holiday season than your support of UNICEF and the children of Mexico.

We've been so successful helping kids in the past—thank you.

Following several days of torrential rains, including the passage of Tropical Storm Noel, 80% of the state of Tabasco was left underwater. Approximately 70% of the schools were damaged and 100% of the state crops were destroyed.

Let's aim high and raise $100,000 before the end of the year to support UNICEF's work in Mexico. Join me in our campaign to make a difference this holiday season—for the kids in Mexico.

If you donate $50 before the end of the year UNICEF will email you my holiday photo album of my trip to Mexico.

Donate $1,000 or more and I will sign my holiday photo album of my trip to Mexico and mail it directly to you!

UNICEF doesn't take a vacation. No matter what time of year it is, there are UNICEF staff in the field working hard to save children's lives. That's why I called my friends at UNICEF to tell them that this year I wasn't going to take a vacation either.

Thank you for your continued support of UNICEF.

Things are getting festive! If you give one of our Gifts that Give to deck your halls, part of the sales price goes back to UNICEF. Here are some gifts that celebrate the holiday spirit.

Every year, Baccarat designs a limited edition holiday ornament commemorating the UNICEF Snowflake that hangs above Fifth Avenue in New York and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. This year’s stainless steel ornament features a dye cut of the UNICEF Snowflake, and retails for $95. For every ornament sold, Baccarat donates 20 percent of the purchase price to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

Twenty million children are currently displaced through conflict or human rights violations. Hallmark has designed a special commemorative bouquet to support UNICEF’s program for children caught in such emergencies. For every UNICEF bouquet sold (purchase price $59.95), Hallmark will donate 5 percent of the purchase price to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF to help children in emergencies.

This season, your holiday gifts can help save children’s lives. Go to our Gifts that Give page for more information.

	Martin Rendón Vice President, Public Policy and Advocacy

Although the legislation actually sets the contribution at $129 million, an across-the-board cut that was made to all funding for State Department and Foreign Operations brings the amount to $128 million. Nevertheless, the $128 million represents a real increase of $2.3 million above the current contribution to UNICEF.

The $129 million recommended in the bill raises the bar for our request for the next fiscal year, FY 2009. We in the OPPA will be getting back to you about that in the New Year when the new budget is submitted. In the meantime, all of us in Washington want to thank you for supporting the advocacy efforts through your e-mails to legislators and other communications. Your concern and action make these advances possible.

I forgot to mention in my last post: Clay will be blogging from the field, so be sure to check back soon. And if you want to donate in his honor to help kids in Mexico, click here. Thanks to everyone who's given already -- children in Mexico will have the best chance of survival because of your generosity!

It's official: UNICEF Ambassador Clay Aiken will be visiting UNICEF projects in Mexico over the holidays with his family. Check out his interview in the Kansas City Star. He told us that since UNICEF doesn't take a vacation when it comes to saving the world's children, he isn't going to either.

We'll keep you posted on the trip here. In the meantime, feel free to leave your best wishes and questions via the Comments section below.

Water: It’s the most basic necessity. Yet one billion--that’s right, one billion--people do not have access to safe water. 425 million children under 18 face water shortages. And 1.5 million children under five die every year from diseases where lack of adequate sanitation and clean water is a contributing factor. You can help UNICEF reduce these needless deaths by buying an Inspired Gift that gives children access to safe, clean drinking water.

By giving a water pump ($408), you are providing clean water for an entire community. UNICEF designed this sturdy deep-well hand pump, which has already been installed in over a million communities.

A basic family water kit ($130) contains buckets, collapsible water containers, soap, and water purification tablets and is especially useful in emergencies. Your gift will help 10 families.

When you give water, you really do give life.

This holiday season, you can add a little sparkle to someone's life and help save a child at the same time. If you give one of our Gifts that Give this holiday season, part of the purchase price will be donated to UNICEF. Who said all that glitters isn't gold?

To celebrate its partnership with UNICEF, Tiffany and Co. created a silver snowflake charm inspired by the UNICEF Snowflake that shines outside Tiffany's Fifth Avenue store. The sterling silver charm comes in two sizes and retails for $85 and $100. When you purchase a charm at any New York area Tiffany store through December 31, Tiffany's will donate 25 percent from the sale to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

Cartier donated $1.2 million dollars from the sales of its LOVE Charity bracelets to charities last year, and is continuing that tradition this year. UNICEF Ambassador Sarah Jessica Parker is supporting the blue silk cord UNICEF LOVE Charity bracelet, and Cartier will donate $100 from the sale of each bracelet (retail price $475) to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Available in 35 boutiques. For more information and boutique locations, visit www.love.cartier.com

Nearly 10 million children under five die each year. Malnutrition plays a role in over half of these deaths. 20 million babies a year are born with low birth weight and need nourishment to grow healthy and strong. If you would like to help feed these vulnerable children, give an Inspired Gift this holiday season.

Plumpy Nut Therapeutic Nutrition is a new, high-protein food paste. Three packs a day can save the life of a malnourished child. First used in Darfur, Sudan, Plumpy Nut reduced malnutrition there by over 50 percent. For $68, you can feed ten children for one whole month.

Other gifts that nourish include High Energy/Protein Biscuits, which are used in emergency situations to quickly provide nourishment to young children. And when breastfeeding is not an option, therapeutic milk helps a baby grow . Finally, an infant scale can help monitor a child's growth and keep illness at bay.

For more information on these and other gifts, go to our Inspired Gifts page.

	A boy in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

First the good news: UNICEF announced that the annual back-to-school campaign it runs with the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has helped 1.5 million kids return to school! UNICEF and its partners provided 40,000 teachers with instructional materials and 1.5 million kids with school supplies.

Unfortunately, due to armed fighting in the Masisi and Rutshuru territories, many children are not able to return to school. As many as 81,000 primary school kids have been displaced by the violence, along with 600 teachers. UNICEF is currently helping enroll these displaced children in new, nearby schools, and is also running two mobile teacher support teams. These traveling teams train new teachers in areas where displaced children have settled. We are working to get as many kids as possible in this troubled region to go back to school.

Get the whole scoop in our news release.

Who doesn't like getting a new book to curl up with? And this holiday season, Tommy Hilfiger has partnered with UNICEF to offer some unique gifts that keep on giving.

When you purchase his new book, Iconic America: A Roller-Coaster Ride Through the Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture (retail price $60), Tommy Hilfiger will donate $5 to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. The coffe-table book, created with George Lois, features a mosaic of iconic images that describe the American experience.

But that's not all! The designer has also launched a new clothing line, the Capsule Collection, to support UNICEF this holiday season. T-shirts sell for $52, while sweatshirts go for $75-$100. For each item from the collection sold, Tommy Hilfiger will donate $5 to the U.S. fund for UNICEF.

To see more books to give, go to our online store, where all your purchases help UNICEF save children's lives. For all of our partners' gifts that support UNICEF this holiday season, go to our Gifts that Give page.

Give someone a gift that works twice as hard! Every time you buy one of our special Gifts that Give this holiday season, our partners donate part of the purchase price directly to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Here are some more of our partners’ gifts, or go to our Gifts that Give page to see all the goods.

Gucci is celebrating its longstanding partnership with UNICEF in two ways. First, the company has designed an entire line of accessories to support UNICEF. Until December 31, Gucci will donate 25 percent of its sales from this line to UNICEF programs that provide lifesaving health care, protection, clean water, and education to children in Malawi and Mozambique. The iconic piece in this collection is an exclusive version of Gucci’s much-loved Indy Bag. Gucci will donate 25 percent of the sales of its "Gucci for UNICEF" Indy bag to support UNICEF’s critical treatment and prevention programs for children in Mozambique and Malawi through November 2008.

While the pen may be mightier than the sword, millions of children around the world cannot read or write. This holiday season, Montblanc is supporting UNICEF's efforts to educate children and reduce illiteracy. When you purchase the special edition Meisterstück 149 "Power to Write" pen (retail price $695), Montblanc will donate $149 to support UNICEF education programs around the world. So your gift will keep on giving long after the holidays are over.

	Martin Rendón Vice President, Public Policy and Advocacy

UNICEF supporters were part of that important group of callers. If you’re reading this and you haven’t contacted your Senators – we still need to keep pushing for co-sponsors of S.594 and H.R. 1755, the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act, in order to convince Congress to pass this important legislation. See our advocacy page http://www.unicefusa.org/clustermunitions for more information.

Your voice can make a difference in changing policies to help children. Stay tuned for further advocacy opportunities.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child--a guiding principle for UNICEF--is the most ratified human rights treaty in history. One right of a child is the right to education and recreation. Schools are often destroyed in emergencies, and recreation--vital for children's psycho-social well-being--is easily neglected. With our Inspired Gifts program, you can help protect these rights.

A School-in-a-Box kit contains pencils, notebooks, multiplication tables, and even a chalkboard. This portable school has been used in emergencies all over the world, so that children can go to school even during a crisis.

Here’s a video of the journey that a UNICEF School-in-a-Box takes.

Playing sports can give children hope and confidence. Our recreation kit, containing sports equipment like balls and team vests, lets children get healthy, socialize with other kids, and simply have fun--even in dire circumstances.

You can also give a gift that fulfills basic needs in an emergency. A tent protects a child from the elements and gives a family a much-needed home. A manually powered radio can warn remote communities of impending natural disasters.

To see all our gifts that can help save a child, go to the Inspired Gifts page.