Two Tap Project Volunteers explain how to implement the Tap Project to the manager of a New York City restaurant.
Twenty two hundred and three volunteers signed up between January 1 and March 20 to help us recruit restaurants, promote the Tap Project locally, and most importantly, raise awareness about the lack of safe drinking water across the globe.
Our volunteers are the best: from conducting meetings to recruiting restaurants, from training staff to creating their own YouTube videos, from promoting the Tap Project in the media and online, to dining at a participating restaurant during World Water Week, 2,203 of our most loyal supporters helped us execute an incredibly successful Tap Project volunteer campaign.
From everyone on the volunteer team (Rachael, Kirsten, Danny and me), a heartfelt thanks goes to each and every one of our volunteers, and here’s to next year!
Children help set up a temporary tent classroom in Malawi’s southern Nsanje District. Their school was destroyed by recent flooding that left 1,000 children without classrooms.
We recently blogged about the Humanitarian Action Report that UNICEF just published. In the report, UNICEF identifies 39 countries that are undergoing man-made or natural emergencies, and whose children desperately need help. We wanted to talk about a few of the countries that are mentioned in the report to highlight the tremendous obstacles that children in these countries face.
Malawi has been suffering under the strains of severe poverty and an HIV/AIDS crisis for years. This small nation is also regularly besieged by flooding, when its largest river, the Shire, rises above its banks. Thousands of families get displaced during these floods, losing their homes, livestock, and fields.
Twelve-year-old Bina Amadu’s school was one of the buildings that was washed away during the most recent flooding. When Bina was treated 3 years ago for malaria, he was so inspired by his physician that he decided he wanted to become a doctor. Bina has been studying hard ever since, and was of course devastated that his school was destroyed.
When UNICEF came to his town to erect a temporary school, Bina watched with bated breath. “If I don’t go to school,” he said, “I cannot become a doctor. Now that we have a new school, I can work hard to become one.” The school will teach 400 children from up to 40 km away, so that the kids who have lost their schools can go back to living a normal life--and like Bina, can fulfill their dreams.
To read more about Bina’s story, you can go here. And if you’d like to donate to UNICEF’s emergency fund, please visit our donations page. Check back here for more stories from the Humanitarian Action Report, and let us know if there’s a region you’d like to hear more about!
Cyclone Ivan pummeled the island nation of Madagascar last month, leaving a vast trail of mangled roads and bridges, smashed homes and schools and ruined crops.
Several news agencies, including the AP, Reuters and Voice of America, reported on the storm, its initial aftermath and the response of UNICEF and others. Commendably, the BBC ran a fairly in-depth story several weeks after the storm. Stories appeared in American newspapers mostly as briefs.
News coverage has since dwindled, although the story is far from over. In fact, just last week, nearly a month after Cyclone Ivan touched down on Madagascar, UNICEF issued an appeal for $14.7 million in additional emergency aid for the country. The appeal doesn’t yet seem to have drawn much media attention.
Ivan was a Category 3 monster whose strength has been likened to Hurricane Katrina. It hit Madagascar on February 17, killing at least 93 people, making more than 330,000 homeless, and stripping thousands of people of basic health care services. Here's video showing the storm’s devastation:
Cyclone Ivan followed on the heels of Cyclone Fame, which lacerated the island on January 27.
Nearby Mozambique is still reeling from Cyclone Jokwe, which struck on March 8. UNICEF and its partners have been providing a range of essential interventions in both Madagascar and Mozambique.
Background note: At least six cyclones struck Madagascar in 2007. The regularity of these brutal storms, along with chronic droughts and floods, makes it extraordinarily difficult for this already struggling country (Madagascar ranks 143 out of 177 countries on the Human Development Index) to rise out of poverty.
The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development said in a press release earlier this month that cyclones have increased in frequency and intensity and named climate change as a culprit. Late last year, UNICEF released a report citing evidence that climate change can contribute to natural disasters and to the spread of lethal diseases like diarrhea and malaria—and that children in developing countries bear the brunt of these miseries.
Have you followed the humanitarian response in the wake of Cyclone Ivan? Do you feel the news coverage of this and other natural disasters in developing countries has been adequate? What do you think about the role of climate change in natural disasters and international development?
We forgive you if you don’t know that 2008 is officially the International Year of Sanitation. The truth is, good sanitation is not something we have to spend a lot of time worrying about here in the U.S. But in the rest of the world? Believe it or not, 2.6 billion people – about 40 percent of the world’s population – don’t have access to improved sanitation.
Can you imagine what life would be like if your house and your school had no bathroom? If, a number of times a day, you had to go outside and try to find a little privacy behind a bush or next to a fence?
But this isn’t just about how awful it would be not to have a toilet in your house. Lack of sanitation is a major child survival issue. Going to the bathroom in the open means human waste gets into the water supply and that makes a lot of people -- especially children -- very sick. Every year, more than 1.5 million children under age five die from the diarrhea that results from inadequate sanitation, poor hygiene, and unsafe drinking water.
UNICEF is working harder than ever lately to improve sanitation and hygiene practices around the world. We do everything from working with governments like Bangladesh on the big-scale issues (changing policy, implementing country-wide programs) to working in the tiniest villages in places like Nepal, supporting grassroots groups of villagers and schoolchildren that go door-to-door to talk to people about the importance of sanitation, and help them find the means to build latrines.
To help draw attention to water and sanitation issues, UNICEF worked with two of Ghana's most popular musicians, Rocky Dawuni and Samini, to record a song about sanitation and drinking water called (appropriately) “Clean Water.” You can listen to their incredibly catchy song (I know I can’t stop singing it) and see a video they did here.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Sanitation is more important than independence.”
Do you agree? Are you surprised to learn how many people don’t have access to sanitation? Have you ever visited a country where most people didn’t have toilets?
Tell us.
The Empire State Building went blue for the Tap Project last night! Just one of the many amazing things going on across the country as people join together to help children everywhere get access to clean, lifesaving water.
If you've got pictures of your Tap activities, send 'em our way -- we'll post them here.
March 21 is the deadline for U.S. Fund for UNICEF registered volunteers to nominate themselves for the President's Volunteer Service Award.
To apply for the President’s Volunteer Service Award through the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, you should be a registered UNICEF volunteer (you can register at unicefusa.org/volunteer), and then please send an e-mail to volunteer@unicefusa.org, stating:
A brief summary of your volunteer activities for UNICEF. If you've also volunteered for another organization, include that information as well. Your age eligibility category: Child (14 and younger), Young Adult (ages 15 to 25), Adult (25 and older), or Families and Groups (two or more people). The total number of hours you have volunteered in the last 12 months.
If you haven't already, please nominate yourself today!
Usually I spend my Monday nights at home. But to spice things up this week, my friends and I had dinner at The Smith, a Tap-participating restaurant in New York’s East Village neighborhood.
It was the perfect opportunity to catch-up, enjoy tasty food and drink, and help provide clean drinking water to kids around the world – pretty good accomplishments for a Monday night.
Remember, the Tap Project culminates this Saturday, which is also World Water Day. So go out, dine and lend a helping hand to children around the world.
And if you're in NYC tonight, look up! The Empire State Building is going blue for the Tap Project...
The Tap Project is in full swing this week, and newspapers like The New York Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal ran prominent ads in today’s editions highlighting the week-long event. Regional papers like the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Denver Post also advertised the campaign, which urges diners to pay one dollar for tap water they would normally get for free. Proceeds fund UNICEF’s lifesaving water programs.
So grab your friends and help children around the world by having dinner at any Tap participating restaurant across the country.
Somalia’s worsening conflict, and UNICEF’s efforts to help its youngest victims, drew several headlines over the past month. The BBC, Voice of America and NPR covered UNICEF’s emergency appeal to help thousands of under-nourished Somali children. UNICEF's efforts in the conflict-ridden country have been hampered by serious funding shortfalls.
Background note: These news organizations deserve credit for illuminating the increasingly dire outlook for Somalia’s children. But the fate of these children is not a regular part of the news cycle. In fact, the BBC quotes UNICEF's Christian Balslev-Olesen saying that Somalia is the “forgotten crisis.”
Background note: UNICEF is helping Somali girls complete their education by, among other things, addressing inadequate sanitation facilities in schools.
In other Africa news, United Press International cited UNICEF’s warning that children in Sudan’s West Darfur region had gone missing in the wake of violence.
Background note: The Darfur conflict has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people and driven at least 2.2 million from their homes. UNICEF is providing many interventions in Darfur, including immunizations, nutritional supplements and shelter.
Are you following the situation in Darfur or Somalia? What other crises should be getting more media attention? Do you believe there is a connection between news coverage and funding levels? What sorts of news stories do you think would be most effective in highlighting the plight of children in Somalia and Darfur?
Next week is World Water Week and the start of the Tap Project.
Start your dinner plans now and make a reservation online through OpenTable,
a great website that includes Tap Project participating restaurants across
the country. It’s fast and easy!
Adam Fifield is on staff at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. He'll be doing weekly round-ups of news coverage of interest. This is his first post.
Greetings news buffs! For those of you who want to keep track of UNICEF’s news footprint, I will be posting regular reviews of items from various sources. With an organization as vast and diverse as UNICEF, I obviously can’t list everything, but I will try to compile a mix of reports that is interesting and informative. I may also throw in a small dose of commentary or a ‘Background note’ that will offer added context, history or other info.
James Grant with an unaccompanied child in Rwanda in 1994.
In a column last week urging American presidential candidates to embrace humanitarian issues, The New York Times’ Nicholas D. Kristof mentioned UNICEF and the recent news that the number of young children dying each year from preventable diseases has dropped below 10 million for the first time on record. Kristof lauded the powerful legacy of the late James P. Grant, UNICEF’s executive director from 1980 to 1995.
Background note: To fight what he called a “silent global emergency”—millions of children perishing from preventable diseases—Jim Grant launched the “child survival and development revolution” in 1983. This campaign, which coordinated local, national and international initiatives to provide cost-effective interventions such as immunizations and oral rehydration therapy, was estimated to have saved the lives of 12 million children by the late 1980s.
Are you familiar with James P. Grant? What other humanitarian heroes do you admire?
Jen Banbury is on staff at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and will be blogging regularly about issues affecting child survival around the world. This is her first post.
CHILD SURVIVAL. That’s a phrase we use a lot around here. And it means much more than you might think. You see, when we say “child survival” we’re actually talking about a pretty specific approach to saving children’s lives.
To understand this approach, you have to understand that we know most children die of ridiculously, heartbreakingly avoidable causes. They die from diseases that we already have vaccines for. Or they die from diseases that come from drinking bad water, or not having access to good sanitation, or to enough food. In other words, they die from problems you or I would never have to worry about.
A long time ago, UNICEF realized that the best way to keep kids from dying unnecessarily was to try to change some of these simple problems. We realized that, no, we can’t make every child’s life perfect. But by focusing on practical and inexpensive solutions to basic health hurdles, we could keep children alive.
So that’s child survival. If you take a look at the Inspired Gifts section of our website, you’ll see some of the low-cost lifesaving solutions I’m talking about.
And we know this approach works. Here’s a good example: Each year, measles kills around 800,000 children worldwide. But the measles vaccine costs less than 50 cents per child. There’s just no reason in this day and age that anyone should die from measles. So UNICEF does whatever it takes to vaccinate children against measles. And, since 1999, the number of measles deaths worldwide has fallen over 60 percent.
Starting this week here on Fieldnotes, I’m going be keeping you informed about child survival issues around the world, and what UNICEF is doing to address them.
What about you? What do you think are the hardest problems children face? What would you do to fix them? We’d love to hear from you.
Over 800 students and attendees gathered this weekend at the IMPACT Conference in Boston, and UNICEF was there.
The IMPACT conference website states, “The IMPACT Conference is historically the largest convening in the country of campus community members involved in service, activism, politics, advocacy, and other socially responsible work across philosophical and ideological lines. This event builds on the legacy set forth by the COOL Conference and the Idealist Campus Conference, spanning an incredible 20+ year history.”
The U.S. Fund for UNICEF has been a sponsor of previous conferences and was again a proud sponsor of this year’s conference. Our team reports that they met many enthusiastic and committed people, and they had a great time interacting with so many of our most active supporters (or they will be our most active supporters after meeting us)!
The UNICEF Campus Initiative has been supporting student led and run UNICEF Clubs since 1998, and now has nearly 70 campuses around the country actively fundraising, raising awareness about UNICEF’s work, and taking action. For more info on our Campus Initiative, visit unicefusa.org/campusinitiative.
[Tap Project] City pages go live on tapproject.org
From Los Angeles to Boston, Tap Project is sweeping the nation. And now you can find out what’s going on in your region by clicking on city pages, which feature 14 major cities taking part in Tap.
There you can look up local participating restaurants and see the imaginative artwork and PSAs conceived by some of the best-known advertising agencies across the country. The artwork includes original Tap logos that blend city culture and history with the mission of Tap. The result is a creative, fundraising mosaic that gives millions of people across the country a chance to provide clean drinking water to developing communities.
In addition, city pages have important information for diners, volunteers, and just about anyone interested in learning more about World Water Week. And remember, if your community is not on the list of featured cities, you can still register your hometown restaurants for Tap.
Any thoughts on the featured logos? How would you have represented your town or city? Check out your local Tap Project page and let us know what you think!
The U.S. Fund for UNICEF is now accepting nominations for the President's Volunteer Service Award.
We're pleased to again announce our participation in the President's Volunteer Service Award program. This award is a Presidential honor that recognizes the valuable contributions of volunteers nationwide who are answering President George W. Bush's call to serve others through their volunteer activities.
To apply for the President’s Volunteer Service Award through the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, you should be a registered UNICEF volunteer (you can register at our volunteer website), and then please send an e-mail to volunteer@unicefusa.org, stating:
A brief summary of your volunteer activities for UNICEF. If you've also volunteered for another organization, include that information as well. Your age eligibility category: Child (14 and younger), Young Adult (Ages 15 to 25), Adult (25 and older), or Families and Groups (two or more people) The total number of hours you have volunteered in the last 12 months.
The Empire State Building went blue for the Tap Project last night! Just one of the many amazing things going on across the country as people join together to help children everywhere get access to clean, lifesaving water.
