A child’s fifth birthday is a joyful moment for most parents, a milestone marking the passage out of early childhood into the world of pre-K and grade school and upward and onward. Of course, in much of the world, the fifth birthday marks a different kind of milestone — one sometimes greeted with an entirely different sentiment: “my child survived.” That’s because in so many places, for so many beautiful children, just reaching age five alive is a battle, a battle that many don’t win — 21,000 every day, more than 7 million every year. Raising awareness about these children is a key to reaching the day when zero children die from preventable causes. That’s why we’ve partnered with USAID for a new social media campaign: “Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday.” The idea: post a photo of yourself or your kids at age five. Share it. Friends can do the same and find out about the millions of children who never get a chance to celebrate being five.

Extreme hunger is a horrific feeling. Millions are facing this predicament due to the current food crisis and severe droughts in the Sahel. As a current member of the UNICEF Campus Initiative Alumni Association, I am excited to support UNICEF and the children of Sahel through the Live Below the Line campaign. I invite you to join me on this campaign to live on a $1.50/day for food from May 7-11 and raise funds for UNICEF’s lifesaving work in the Sahel.

This week is the first ever World Immunization Week—an international event created to raise awareness about the importance of immunization. Besides the protection that immunization gives against childhood and maternal illnesses, it is also important to vaccinate during an emergency: like a war, a natural disaster, or a refugee crisis.
UNICEF is the world’s largest buyer of vaccines for the world’s poorest countries. In 2010, UNICEF supplied 2.5 billion doses of vaccines to 99 countries, and reached 58% of the world’s children. But still, an estimated 1.7 million children died from vaccine-preventable diseases in 2008 before reaching their fifth birthday.

Any mother should have the choice to immunize her child whether she lives in Manhattan or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. UNICEF is the world’s largest buyer of vaccines, distributing more than 3 billion doses annually and reaching 56 percent of the world’s children, but it’s not enough. UNICEF in partnership with the WHO, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and others aim to make full immunization a part of every child’s life.

There is much talk these days of reaching the unreached. But as I drive with UNICEF colleagues through the remote Hodh Gharbi scrubland in Mauritania, in north-west Africa’s Sahel region, there is little sign of any outside effort making its way here where the whimpers and restlessness – the signs of hunger – haunt the mothers in one scattered home after another. UNICEF estimates that across the eight countries of the Sahel, more than a million children are at risk of severe malnutrition, which can quickly lead to death if left untreated. The hope of the government here and humanitarian agencies is to respond now and thus avoid the horrific pictures of mass starvation, worsening poverty and social dislocation that could come if nothing is done.

The U.S. Government’s contribution to UNICEF helps the United States – and the American people – to save children who would die without our assistance. Please take a stand for children by signing our online petition asking your Senators and Representative to maintain the funding for UNICEF at $132 million for Fiscal 2013. With your action, you can help UNICEF help more children!