As a former journalist, I've been to a lot of meetings. School boards, planning commissions, city councils, all manner of community gatherings. Some were contentious, some productive, but the majority fell into one or all of these three categories: tedious, forgettable, and decidedly unremarkable.
Which is why I'm so delighted to report that the U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s annual meeting earlier this month at New York's Desmond Tutu Center didn't really feel like a meeting at all. The extraordinary event—which featured moving testimonials from our partners and fascinating firsthand reports from UNICEF staff—packed the emotional power of a stirring ceremony or rally.
The meeting's theme—"Believe in Zero"— couldn't have been timelier. Though UNICEF has helped cut the worldwide child mortality rate by more than half over the last fifty years, 25,000 children still die every day from avoidable causes. Because of the economic crisis, deadly threats to children are actually increasing. It was galvanizing to stand in a room surrounded by so many people who believe that there is nothing more important than saving a child’s life. I'm convinced that, with more people like this, we can come closer and closer to the day when the number of children dying from preventable causes is not 25,000—it's zero.
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| © U.S. Fund for UNICEF/2009 |
| U.S. Fund for UNICEF President and C.E.O Caryl Stern at the 2009 Annual Meeting. |
A series of speakers, including U.S. Fund President and CEO Caryl M. Stern, Board Chair Anthony Pantaleoni, and Nightline co-anchor Cynthia McFadden, told the packed general session crowd about notable accomplishments, remaining challenges, and the need—now more than ever—to remain focused on our mission.
One of the day's indisputable highlights was the presentation by UNICEF's Zimbabwe Representative Roeland Monasch, who described UNICEF's efforts to stanch multiple crises in the deeply impoverished country. In Zimbabwe, where 16 percent of the population is living with HIV/AIDS and 25 percent of children have lost one or both parents, the challenges are already daunting. Add political violence, hyperinflation, a collapsing health system, crumbling infrastructure, widespread school closures, food insecurity affecting seven million people, and one of the world's largest cholera outbreaks ever recorded—and you have a massive calamity.
The audience listened raptly as Monasch chronicled the sweeping response of UNICEF and its partners. UNICEF has supplied 80 cholera centers with needed provisions; provided 1,400 health clinics with essential medicines; distributed 200,000 gallons of clean water daily; drilled 200 wells; paid stipends that allowed doctors and nurses to return to work; supported 70 therapeutic feeding centers treating malnourished children; helped immunize two million children against polio, measles and other diseases; and supplied 2,500 schools with pens, pencils, books and other learning implements.
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| © U.S. Fund for UNICEF/2009 |
| UNICEF's Zimbabwe Representative Roeland Monasch. |
Monasch noted that UNICEF's U.S. supporters were the first to respond to Zimbabwe's emergency appeal. "With your money, we basically started to set up the cholera tents," he told the crowd.
He received a standing ovation when he ticked off the results of this hard work: cholera epidemic under control, all children immunized, hospitals re-opened and staffed again, 90 percent of children back in school. "So the children have a future," he said.
UNICEF's Regional Director for Geneva Philip O'Brien noted that the stories recounted by Monasch and two other colleagues represented "compelling examples of how the lives of young children are made better by what we do, and what you do."
Attendees also visited a "Believe in Zero" photo both and a UNICEF tent set up in the lobby. The tent contained more than 20 examples of Inspired Gifts—items that UNICEF uses to save and improve children's lives every day.
Are you inspired? If so, go here.
