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!
]]>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!
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| © U.S. Fund for UNICEF/2010 |
We hope you enjoy the full article, which is online here.
]]>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.
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| © 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.
]]> My school was just like my house--a pile of rubble on the ground. There was only one classroom left--the one made of bricks. The teachers decided to divide that classroom with bamboo walls. That way we could squeeze more classes in. It was confusing because all the different grades shared that classroom and we had classes at different hours on different days.When UNICEF put up the tent for us, I was glad. We could have regular classes again and we had more space. That tent was good, but after some time it got damaged by the wind. The plastic ripped and when it rained water would come in. They put up another tent like that one. It is still there. My cousin Sylvie will study in that tent this year. I will study again in the canvas one. It is not easy to study in there. It's hot so I can't concentrate very well. Sometimes I fall asleep in class.
I want to be a teacher when I grow up, so I have a lot to learn. I wish I had a school with lots of nice classrooms; and that they were all strong so that I would never have to miss school again because of a cyclone.
You can make a difference to children like Angita, with a donation to UNICEF's education fund.
]]>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.
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| © 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.
]]>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.
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! ]]>
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.
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| 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!
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"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.
]]>On or around this day in 1791, the slaves of Saint Domingue revolted, sparking a bloody uprising that would lead to the end of legalized slavery in the Western Hemisphere and the beginning of the world's first republic governed by former slaves--Haiti. If you've come across references to today's being the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, that's why.
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| © Elizabeth Kiem |
| The ruins of Sans Souci Palace, a monument of Haiti's turbulent history. |
This week's Monday photo is a view of Sans Souci, a monument to an era when Haitian independence was new, bold, and already beleaguered. The 19th century revolutionaries of Saint Domingue were not supported by their American peers, nor by the French colonists whose own country had recently embraced liberté and egalité. In more modern times, aid organizations responding to the January 2010 earthquake lament the decades of international neglect that have left Haiti vulnerable to disaster. UNICEF has been on the ground there for longer than most organizations and still will attest that support for the country has never been sufficient.
I travelled to Sans Souci, the ruined palace of a long-gone ruler who hoped to build a country worthy of his Versailles-like palace, last month. It was a visit meant to remind myself of two things: Firstly - that the country is a great deal more than a post-quake disaster zone. There are wide areas of the country that reflect a populace striving for a better life--burdened, yes, by poverty, lack of infrastructure and paltry government support ... but not in utter dependence on foreign aid. Here at Sans Souci and in the nearby coastal capital Cap Haitien, I saw busy market-places full of activity, crowds of church-goers in their Sunday best, a tailor shop busy with work orders and children at play in the school-yards. On the steep switchback road that leads from the palace ruins up to the extraordinary mountaintop fort, the Citadelle, I saw many groups of young people hiking the cobblestones--Haitian tourists visiting one of their country's handful of attractions.
The second message of Sans Souci was this: Haiti's troubles are not born of this century, nor the last. The land was settled in slavery, and liberated in agony. Haiti is a place where great visions have never been supported long enough to be realized. Just as grandeur has been left to crumble cinematically here at Sans Souci, so has the concept of "independence" been consigned to the history books, as Haiti struggles to provide for its people.
I was proud to see so much proof of UNICEF's presence in the earthquake zone. Outside of the earthquake zone, I was gladdened every time I encountered someone with an interest in Haiti's history prior to January 12, 2010 -- or, indeed, before the era when commemorating the abolition of slavery became a symbolic gesture.
As an aside -- Sans Souci, the extravagant palace meant to symbolize Haiti's potential and wealth, was destroyed in an earthquake in 1842. It was never rebuilt. Sans Souci means "without worries," in French.
]]>Day one: Full day of briefings in Islamabad. The floods span the country unlike anything in decades. Participated in United Nations Secretary-General debriefing. He was visibly shocked and said so - the scope of the destruction is massive.
Day two: Travelled to Peshawar, capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province - flooding along the expressway, crops are submerged, mud is everywhere, thousands of people are sleeping in makeshift tents on the median of the road - there is little food and water. UNICEF warehouse there was completely underwater - $1.2 million in emergency supplies lost! Spoke to a women who has lost everything except what she could carry. Few have been killed despite fast arriving water, but destruction is massive.
Day three: Back in Islamabad. Attended United Nations team meeting to discuss overall scope of the disaster. Initial appeal for help was based on an estimate of just over 3 million people in urgent need. Government of Pakistan now estimates that 20 million are affected, and that an area the size of Switzerland, Austria and Belgium combined is under water. Size of flooded area is growing daily, and more rains are due.
Day four: Sindh province. Took a helicopter flight over the area - there is water as far as we can see. Towns are flooded; electrical poles stand in deep, fast-flowing water. Almost 2 million acres are covered in water! Expert views of the situation were provided by staff of Sukkur Barrage office. The barrage, or dam, is one of largest in the world. It must hold or all irrigation works will be destroyed.
Visited a camp for displaced people and sweat streamed down my face, back and body. It is so hot, and many (most) people are fasting for Ramadan - they don't even take water. How do they manage?
One moment of hope - school has started in one camp and about 180 children are sitting and learning on the first day. The class includes many small girls who are in school for the first time!
]]> Day five: Muzaffargarh district, in southern Punjab. Road was completely flooded on the way here, but we got through. Trucks are backed up waiting. Our driver says the water level has gone down in recent days. The road is eroding - we hope it holds until the water recedes.Spoke to a woman with five children who has lost everything. She fled the floods with her children, carrying no food, and only the clothes she was wearing. She and all her children are ill despite now being at a safe camp where cooked food is provided. Water supply is good in the camp and there seems to be enough food, but conditions in all camps aren't like this. These families are lucky.
Also visited a UNICEF 'child-friendly space' with games, toys and several caring adults to give children a welcome break from the grim reality and trauma of fleeing their homes.
UNICEF is responding quickly - nearly all staff from the Lahore office are here, plus many others. All are working to ensure clean water and sanitation and good nutrition. We are working with [the World Health Organization] and others to provide health services like immunizations, oral rehydration solutions for diarrhoea and basic drugs, and to ensure - as much as possible - protection for children.
Day six: Still in Muzaffargarh district, in southern Punjab. We're driving along a high embankment -- water on both sides of the embankment in some areas --other people still safe on one side. The thermostat on the car dashboard says its 40 degrees Celsius outside (over 100 degrees Fahrenheit). Can't imagine how people are surviving in this heat.
Some people have their livestock - precious assets they can sell later, if they can keep them alive. The mango trees are 3 feet under water and will probably die as will acres and acres of millet and cotton. So many livelihoods lost. How will this affect families, communities? People on the left of the embankment have lost everything. Those on the right of this embankment may actually benefit in the short-term as prices for agriculture goods soar. But, for how long will this income last?
I stopped to talk to a large family on the embankment. There are at 12-15 children of various ages huddled together. Their father has gone to their home this morning as he has done every day since the waters hit. He says his home is still partly standing and his livestock and some of his possessions are still o.k. He's afraid that someone may steal what little he has left so he stays on the embankment nearby. He has some water from a nearby well and has some wheat to eat (a lucky man). But the family's rice and cotton crop are under water - completely destroyed. All the seeds for the next planting are gone. The family has been helped by various philanthropic groups and his neighbors.
It's amazing to see how the Pakistani people are reaching out to each other across this flooded land. The government has rightly extended the school holidays as there are over 5,000 schools now providing shelter to the displaced. Across Pakistan more than 5,500 schools damaged or destroyed. This morning we passed three schools standing in 3 to 5 feet of water. There is a huge job ahead - massive reconstruction efforts are needed.
More than 20 % of health centers are damaged or flooded in an area as large as England or the state of Florida. The scale of this disaster and the geographic scope is hard to comprehend. From Swat to Karachi is 1,500 km --- and there is massive flooding the whole length.
We need to rapidly deploy a very strong disease surveillance system at the local level. With the scale and scope of this disaster, we will have to rely on the information from this surveillance system to quickly target disease outbreaks. Even with all UNICEF's partners and the government, there are just too few people and not enough capacity to respond without such a system in place.
Our staff are working day and night. They are far from their families during the holy month of Ramadan. And yet, they are doing this with excitement and commitment and without question. We must keep that spirit and spread it to thousands of others -- to reach those cut off and those most in need.
I can do all possible to raise funds, remove bureaucratic obstacles and get all the support urgently needed in the weeks and months ahead. The tasks are herculean and our support must be as well.
]]>The 2010 UNICEF Greeting Cards and Gift Collection is here! Every August the U.S. Fund for UNICEF unveils its exciting collection of greeting cards and gifts. Whether you choose a classic favorite or a new addition, a timeless image or a fun, modern design--every purchase helps save a life.
The collection includes birthday cards, thank you cards and boxed greeting cards assortments to celebrate every occasion. Special this year is an expanded offering of exclusive designs especially created by William Arthur for UNICEF.
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If you are looking for a gift with impact--we have you covered. The gifts collection has educational toys, baby toys and children's books for kids of all ages, bags, wraps and scarves and handcrafted jewelry for gifts for adults and gifts to decorate any home. Many gifts are fair trade products handcrafted by artisans in India, Tanzania, Kenya, Peru and Haiti. These gifts represent the arts and crafts of countries where UNICEF is at work, and they bring another culture into our homes.
When you purchase UNICEF greeting cards and gifts you are making a real difference in the lives of children everywhere. Visit our website to order UNICEF greeting cards and gifts and show others you care about the world's children.
This month kicks off the International Year of Youth, and the United Nations is definitely looking to hide some worry-lines in celebration. Take the renovation of the iconic UN Headquarters on the East River--the first in 60 years! Now that's a long-overdue facelift.
And now watch this! Who is this young, unplugged telegenic spokesperson cruising the half-century-old studios of old-school UN? None other than Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, that's who!
Youth! Be International this Year! Monday is the deadline to post your response to the SG's invitation. Use your voice ... use your youth. This is your chance to roam the newly renovated halls of the UN as a Citizen Ambassador to the Millennium Development Goals Summit.
OK to be honest, I'm not sure that the newly renovated halls will be open in time for the September summit. But as the SG said, the goal is to make the WORLD a safer and better place ... not just the UN headquarters.
So get busy! You have the weekend to tell world leaders why the Millennium Development Goals matter to you. Do it well and you can tell them in person come September.
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| Volunteer Fellow, Laura Restrepo |
Laura has volunteered her time for one year as a Volunteer Fellow (the first of its kind) and will be returning to her home country of Colombia to continue her work for children. Laura began her commitment to UNICEF in Colombia where she formed a high school club. She then founded the Campus Initiative Club at her university, Green Mountain College in Vermont, and was an inspiring member of the first Campus Initiative National Council.
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| Campus Initiative 2010-2011 National Council |
We have had the pleasure of working with Laura over the course of the last four years and she has been an instrumental member of our team during her tenure at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. One of her last duties was to help orient and goal set with the 2010-2011 Campus Initiative National Council, pictured here (from left to right starting at the top row): Daniel Mettman, Wichita State University; Shikhank Sharma, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Kelli Beyer, Loyola University Chicago; Stephanie Sun, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Ariana Hoet, Ohio State University; and Shristi Pandey, Brown University.
Laura, we will miss you! Safe travels.
For anyone interested in semester-long internships with the Volunteer Community Parnterships Team, please send a resume and cover letter to volunteer@unicefusa.org or click here to learn more about our UNICEF High School Clubs and the UNICEF Campus Initiative, and visit our Online Volunteer Center to learn of other ways to volunteer.
]]>When you think of major global causes for humanitarian aid over the past few years, you probably think of well-publicized emergencies like the earthquake in Haiti, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and the very present and real flooding in Pakistan today. We know that there are people in the world who suffer from famine, poverty and disease, but naming specific instances of their suffering can sometimes prove to be a challenge.
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| © UNICEF/NYHQ2009-1250/Giacomo Pirozzi |
| A toddler in Madagascar stands near debris. People in that country are suffering from the impact of frequent cyclones, draught, displacement, and widespread malnutrition. |
As I finish my internship here at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, I think the most important thing that I've been made aware of is the alarming number of ongoing silent emergencies--crises such as malnutrition and preventable diseases that devastate countries every day. Though most people could only name few of them, UNICEF responds to more than 200 emergencies throughout the world every year.
Before working at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF I was pretty oblivious to the existence of silent emergencies--I might hear about a humanitarian crisis once or twice and then never again, and I'd make no subsequent effort to find out more. But one of the most interesting parts about working here has been learning about the need for UNICEF's help in places to which few people are paying attention.
The emergencies that UNICEF responds to can be difficult to keep track of because, oftentimes, several emergencies are taking place in a country at once. In Madagascar, for instance, UNICEF is helping the population's struggle with displacement due to multiple cyclones, while also combating severe malnutrition, and limited access to clean water, among other things.
]]> Unless you're making a specific effort, there are parts of the world that you might easily not hear about at all. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had a hard time differentiating all of the central Asian countries ending in "stan," but have now come to learn that each one faces a different variety of struggles--from natural disasters to inadequate child protection measures. The same is true for the state of armed violence in the world; beyond wars that receive a lot of news coverage, it's easy to forget that there are numerous armed conflicts affecting millions of children each day. Currently, armed violence is responsible for child endangerment ranging from displacement to abduction and child enlistment in countries including Columbia, Chad, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.There are so many people in the world in need of aid that it's very difficult to be aware of every single emergency. But just as donating to a cause is important, learning about what that money could be going toward puts the contribution in critical perspective. UNICEF's Humanitarian Action Reports are a great resource for up-to-date information about the direst situations in the world, and what UNICEF is doing to address them.
As I leave UNICEF, I hope to continue learning about silent emergencies in the world. Certainly, I will avoid assuming that, if it's no longer in the papers, it's no longer an issue. Having learned that 24,000 children die every day of preventable causes, I feel that the very least I can do is know what's going on in the places where children's lives are most at risk, and keep that information on my radar.
]]>But it's worse than that. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who visited the disaster zone over the weekend, is calling it the worst disaster he has ever seen. Period.
How so? Because while the immediate casualties are still in the 4-digit range, the total number of people affected is massive. It's more than the earthquake in Haiti; more than the Pakistan earthquake of 2005; more than the Tsunami. It's more than all of those combined!
| © UNICEF/NYHQ2010-1562/Zaidi | |
| 8-year-old Amreen washes dishes in rainwater in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, where an estimated 2.5 million of the province's 3.5 million residents have been affected by the disaster. |
This is a photo of Amreen. She's just one of the 6 million children in desperate need of clean water to stave off certain outbreaks of disease. UNICEF is now reaching 1 million with clean water.
We need your help to provide for the 5 million others in critical need ... and the tens of millions more who have seen their lives disappear with the floodwaters.
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