Last month, Seija Toro, the UNICEF Representative in Costa Rica, visited the U.S. Fund in New York to share with us what UNICEF is doing to narrow these incredible disparities so that all children have a fair shot at a healthy and productive life. One particular program—“Growing with Music”— literally has everyone listening. Growing with Music is a music education program supported by UNICEF that seeks to promote early childhood development and improve school readiness and life skills for children.

We, the UNICEF Campus Initiative National Council and Alumni Council, had the privilege of attending U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s Annual Meeting on May 3-4. On Thursday, we dined with the U.S. Fund for UNICEF community including major donors, staff, board members, and partners. Caryl Stern and Fareed Zakaria welcomed everyone and reviewed the importance of UNICEF in reaching zero preventable deaths amongst children. Nuttin’ But Strings, the musical performance for the evening, left us breathless; it was a powerful and entertaining way to commence a very productive meeting.

I recently traveled to Kosovo for the inaugural Kosovo Innovation Camp, a UNICEF sponsored, 48-hour intensive retreat that brought together 80 young people to develop six projects, from idea to business plan. The goal of UNICEF’s Innovations Lab Kosovo is threefold: to develop new solutions for some of Kosovo’s problems, empower young people to be a part of the solution, and connect them with community leaders. By these measures, the event was a huge success. Watching these young people in the room, it was easy to imagine the next Mark Zuckerberg or Sergey Brin coming from Kosovo. The participants’ ideas, ability to connect different technological solutions, and energy were contagious, and I found myself wondering how many great ideas we may have missed out on just because there was no access to a mentoring, support, and peer network such as this one.

At UNICEF, it’s about measuring what works — innovating to find the simplest and most affordable solutions, partnering with governments, leveraging free market forces to the children’s advantage, doing whatever is most effective. It’s about working harder and smarter — for a day when zero children die from a preventable cause.

UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake recently shared his thoughts with the Financial Times about the “evidence-based revolution” in humanitarian aid, what makes aid effective, and what makes UNICEF unique in its ability to help children.

Congratulations to UNICEF Ambassador and LA Laker Pau Gasol for the 2011-2012 J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. Named after the second commissioner of the NBA and presented annually by the Professional Basketball Writers Association, the award is given annually to the NBA player, coach or trainer who shows outstanding service and dedication to the community. Pau has been a UNICEF Ambassador for seven years, personally funded critical UNICEF programs and traveled the globe promoting initiatives aimed at nutrition and education for children. Thanks to Pau and all our friends at the NBA for their commitment to UNICEF and the millions of children whose survival and development we fight for.

The U.S. Fund for UNICEF had the pleasure of hosting more than 300 board members, volunteers, and donors, along with corporate, foundation and NGO partners, celebrities, and media and U.S. government agency representatives at the 2012 Annual Meeting. Together, we heard from UNICEF experts on the latest trends and technology helping to reduce the gaps in services for millions of children. More than 16 partners from the development community, finance, media, technology, our volunteer corps, and civil society gave snapshot style presentations about their support of UNICEF’s work. Some of the most poignant elements of our annual meeting related to the remembrance of two beloved UNICEF Ambassadors who are no longer with us: Danny Kaye and Audrey Hepburn. Private citizens, CEOs, and college students alike were on hand to immerse themselves in our mission and our goals for the coming year. All of us believe in zero and will do whatever it takes to make the way for that possibility to become a reality within the next generation.