Fieldnotes: Blogging on UNICEF's child survival work in the field

UNICEF Ambassador Clay Aiken recently visited the East African countries of Somalia and Kenya, where UNICEF provides children with health care, education, nutrition, clean water and sanitation. This is the last in a series of blog posts he has written about his experience in the field.

In early July, after visiting Somalia, I traveled to Eldoret, in Kenya’s Rift Valley, to visit camps for internally displaced people. This is where some of the worst violence took place following the Kenya elections in early 2008. Thousands of children were made homeless by the unrest.

Everywhere we went, there were the charcoaled remains of homes, schools and shops. We drove for hours and everywhere we went, we saw people trying to get their lives restored.

© US Fund for UNICEF / 2008 / Nick Ysenburg

Although many schools were re-opened, far fewer children are turning up for class than before. And classes are taking place in schools that have been completely destroyed. I saw children sitting on rocks and bricks—which used to make up the foundations and roofs of their schools—using them now as desks and chairs.

	© Elizabeth de Velasco, 2008

U.S. Fund for UNICEF staff member Elizabeth de Velasco recently traveled to UNICEF's main supply division warehouse in Copenhagen, Denmark, and filed this report.

Sure, there’s a warehouse the size of three football fields. But more than that, the UNICEF staff at the supply division in Copenhagen have an expertise in the procurement, shipment and use of international development supplies.

	© Elizabeth de Velasco, 2008

For example, the government of Sudan requested that UNICEF manage the supplies needed for its census. UNICEF dispatched Omar, a warehouse employee. He spent five weeks there making sure that there were enough pencils, paper, boxes and trucks for the census to function throughout Sudan—which is roughly the size of western Europe, but insecure and with weak infrastructure.

Another warehouse staff member, John, develops innovative ways to pack and distribute supplies in conflict and post-conflict situations. In a Back-to-School campaign in Afghanistan a few years ago, John figured out how to get the education supplies to all of the new schoolchildren from an Aghanistan supply center. But women and men could not work side-by-side, so John just rigged up a bedsheet to partition the room, and work was able to commence.

	© Elizabeth de Velasco, 2008

While the Copenhagen warehouse stores less than ten percent of UNICEF’s supplies—the rest get shipped directly from producers to the UNICEF country offices—it does have the items that are most essential to have on hand for emergencies: buckets, blankets, protein biscuits, School-in-a-Box kits, recreation kits, health kits and more. And then UNICEF gets them anywhere in the world in fewer than 48 hours.

UNICEF Ambassador Clay Aiken recently returned from Somalia, where UNICEF provides children in the war-torn nation with health care, education, nutrition, clean water and sanitation. This is the second in a series of blog posts he will write about his experience in the field.

For children in Somalia, the situation is dire. But, it's just amazing to me that UNICEF is still able to make a difference in children’s lives in one of the most dangerous places on earth.

© US Fund for UNICEF / 2008 / Nick Ysenburg

For instance, while I was in northwest Somalia—where 45 percent of the population are children and women—I observed how UNICEF improves water, sanitation and hygiene conditions for everyone in the region. One of the ways they do this is by drilling "borewells" so that clean drinking water is easily accessible and readily available. Without these borewells, children would have to walk hours to fetch water instead of going to school and getting an education.

UNICEF Ambassador Clay Aiken recently returned from Somalia, where UNICEF provides children in the war-torn nation with health care, education, nutrition, clean water and sanitation. This is the first in a series of blog posts he will write about his experience in the field.

I recently returned from a UNICEF field visit that took me to northwest Somalia. What I saw there was both amazing and heartbreaking. In many ways, the children I was able to meet are doing better than their counterparts in the rest of Somalia. But in other respects, the situation there is still quite serious.

© US Fund for UNICEF / 2008 / Nick Ysenburg

UNICEF Ambassador Clay Aiken with children he met on his recent visit to Somalia.

For starters, the lack of a permanent central government has contributed to Somalia's status as one of the poorest and most volatile countries in the world. Decades of civil conflict have shattered social structures and exacerbated poverty.

In such conditions—combined with an extremely arid environment and difficult terrain with settlements scattered over vast distances—a Somali child's chances of surviving to adulthood are among the lowest of children anywhere in the world.

Fortunately, UNICEF is there. It has been on the ground since 1972 and is the humanitarian organization with the largest presence in Somalia.

Martial arts legend and UNICEF Ambassador Jackie Chan just returned from a visit to the island nation of East Timor, where he promoted peace—and martial arts. The martial arts are hugely popular among the young people of East Timor, and Chan urged his young fans to use their sport "as a peaceful force." For the children of East Timor, Jackie Chan's visit marked the beginning of a return to normalcy for their country after years of unrest and violence.

© UNICEF/HQ08-0644/Josh Estey

Jackie Chan joins children at the Comorro Youth Center in Dili. The center provides literacy classes, skills training and sports and recreation for young people.

UNICEF Ambassador Mia Farrow just returned from a week-long trip to the Central African Republic. She brought back some pictures that we wanted to share with you below. She also brought back some sobering news, describing the people of the Central African Republic as, "without question, the most abandoned people on the earth."

© UNICEF/ HQ08-0580/Pierre Holtz

Mia Farrow takes notes during a visit to a "bush school" in the northwestern province of Ouham-Pendé. Working with the Italian NGO COOPI, UNICEF reopened 104 schools in 2007, serving some 32,000 primary school students. More than half of the schools are located in the bush where families have taken refuge, afraid to return to their villages following attacks by armed groups.

The Central African Republic (CAR) has been ravaged by civil war for a decade now, in addition to being affected by the conflict in neighboring Sudan. What's even worse, the people of CAR are terrorized by gangs of bandits who loot property and kidnap children. As a result, many families with children hide in the bush where they are threatened by disease and rape, have little to eat or drink, and have no school for their children to attend. More than 300,000 people are now refugees in their own country, and almost a million people have been affected by the ongoing violence.

UNICEF’s first ever comprehensive report assessing the status of Africa’s children cited major challenges and some significant gains in the effort to cut that continent’s stubbornly high child mortality rates.

The State of Africa’s Children 2008: Child Survival, released late last month, noted that among the nearly 10 million children who die each year before they reach age five, half of these deaths occur in Africa.

Mark Engman, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, was recently in Panama for a conference involving UNICEF’s national committees from around the world, and UNICEF’s Latin American and Caribbean offices.

Fact: Between 1990 and 2006, Panama lowered its overall under-five mortality rate by a third, from 34 to 23 per thousand live births.

Fact: Among rural, indigenous communities, the poorest people in Panama, the under-five mortality rate is about 57 per thousand live births, more than twice the national average.

Those facts highlight both the progress and the problems facing the Americas and Caribbean region. At our UNICEF workshop in Panama, we heard Nils Kastberg, UNICEF's Regional Director, talk about the "tyranny of averages." Throughout the region, national progress in many areas – child health, education, access to AIDS treatment – masks the underlying reality that the poorest communities have been left behind.

© Mark Engman

	UNICEF/ HQ98-1137/Giacomo Pirozzi
	In this photo, taken during a different trip, a girl is examined at one of the many hospitals and health clinics in Angola that receive vaccines and other essential supplies from UNICEF.

We saw Maria on Tuesday. The U.S. Fund delegation visiting Angola was observing UNICEF-supported services at a pediatric hospital in the southern city of Lubango. In a small room off a corridor, a tiny, striking child—too tiny to be 15 months of age—lay in a bed near a window. Feeding tubes snaked out of her little body. Her wide eyes stared at some other place. Rows of scars marked her stomach—evidence of a traditional healing ritual.

Sitting next to her on the bed, Maria's mother quietly watched her daughter cling to life. Maria suffered from severe malnutrition and diarrhea. Because she was taken to traditional healers and brought to the hospital only as a last resort, her chances did not look good.

On Thursday, we learned that Maria had died. The burdens of malnutrition, diarrhea, and perhaps other complications were too much for her to withstand—especially because she had not been taken to the hospital until she was very sick.

We did not know Maria, or her family, but we know she was an innocent child who deserved the right to live. Her death—the death of any child—is an unnatural, world-splitting event. In Angola, it is also horrifically commonplace.

	© Mark Engman
	Edith (at right) and her daughter Isabel. Isabel says, “I am so proud of my mother.”

Mark Engman, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, is in Panama for a conference with UNICEF’s national committees from around the world. Prior to the conference, UNICEF Panama took several visitors to learn about its work in the field, including its partnership with the Panamanian NGO, PROBIDSIDA.

Though Panama's AIDS prevalence rate is less than one percent, the disease is growing most rapidly in young women. Unfortunately, though testing is free, only half of all women are tested for HIV.

Eleven years ago, Edith's life turned upside down.

Happily married and the mother of a young boy, Edith learned that she was HIV-positive—and so was her son. Her husband, who had hemophilia, contracted the disease from a transfusion; he passed it to her, and she passed it to her son. Her husband and son both died from the disease, leaving Edith to care for her daughter Isabel and fight the disease alone.

	© Frank Susa
	Girls from the Taboada school's student government wear traditional Panamanian dress to greet their visitors from UNICEF.

Frank Susa is in Panama for a conference with UNICEF’s national committees from around the world. Prior to the conference, UNICEF Panama took several visitors to learn about its important work for children in a variety of Panama City's most marginal neighborhoods.

At first, it might not seem so novel to consider putting children's needs at the center of a school's mission. But in Panama City, the idea has far-reaching implications for how a school works and how successful it can be.

On Thursday, we visited one such school in the neighborhood of Tocumen, which has been successfully implementing its "child friendly" approach to education for four years with the support of an alliance between UNICEF, Panama's Ministry of Education and COPA Airlines.

Tocumen is a fast growing neighborhood largely populated by an influx of Panama's indigenous peoples, but with very little infrastructure and even less governmental support. Unemployment is high, so the cost of private education is outside the reach of most. But public schools here have been underfunded and incapable of supporting the growing needs of children in the area for years. Not only are qualified teachers in short supply, but basic things like running water and food are sometimes scarce.

	UNICEF/ HQ96-0110/Giacomo Pirozzi
	This photo, taken during a different trip, shows an Angolan boy in a UNICEF-assisted centre for children orphaned by the war.

Greetings from Angola. I arrived here early Sunday morning as part of a U.S. Fund for UNICEF group visiting this captivating, yet struggling, country on Africa's southwest coast.

Angola is a nation of stark contrasts. After 40 years of war, and only six years of peace, this former Portuguese colony now has the second fastest growing economy in all of Africa, and a wealth of natural resources including oil and diamonds. But the majority of Angola's estimated 18 million people have been left out of the country's new prosperity, with 62 percent living on less than two dollars a day. The child mortality rate is staggering—one out of every four children dies before their fifth birthday.

Greetings news buffs! My NewsNet posts will be on hiatus for a few weeks while I travel to Angola and Swaziland on U.S. Fund field visits.

I’ll be accompanied by additional U.S. Fund staff, among others, on both trips. I will attempt to submit some Fieldnotes posts during my travels, if technology allows it. Meanwhile, I encourage you to follow the important work of UNICEF as it responds to the Myanmar cyclone and many other crucial challenges.

Stay tuned.

UNICEF Ambassador Lucy Liu recently visited a UNICEF-sponsored program for orphans and children with disabilities in Moscow, Russia and shares her experience in the following post.

Last week I was in Russia, and on Friday I had a chance to visit UNICEF's “Maria’s Children” project in Moscow. The facility is in a basement in the center of the city and has two small rooms where orphans and children with disabilities can go and express themselves through art. In addition to the art facilities, they also teach children cooking and other life skills to help them once they “graduate” from the facility.

© Aaron Poirier

Unfortunately, in Russia there is a stigma attached to children with any type of handicap and children who have been orphaned and therefore institutionalized. They are at a great disadvantage, not only educationally but socially as well. UNICEF is currently working on an inclusion program, helping schools slowly integrate these children to have a more normal and connected lifestyle with other kids and with society in general.

Studies have shown that they receive a very limited education, not only because they are alienated from society but also simply because handicap access on buses and in schools does not exist. Some children will only receive what would be a 4th grade education for their entire lives. This, of course, limits their possibilities for their futures.

© Aaron Poirier

The orphans I had the pleasure of meeting were wonderful. We spent the day with kids who ranged from 8 to 13 years old creating a giant collage about Moscow. It was a very involved process and took about 6 hours. We started with drawing the images, and then painting with watercolors. Then we cut the images out and glued them onto paper to create a beautiful and incredibly colorful collage.

© Aaron Poirier

The little boy that you see me hugging in the photo looks 7 or 8 years old, but he is actually 13 going on 14 in April. His growth was severely stunted because of lack of nutrition from the time he was born. Sadly, there is nothing that can change that now; he will be quite small for the rest of his life. We worked together on the same sheet of paper sharing thoughts on color and what animals to draw to create our very own idea of what trees and animals and people lived in Moscow. Incredibly, though neither of us spoke the other’s language, we were able to communicate through art. It’s really special to be able to express your thoughts and imagination with children this way and to also help push them to have more self confidence and fun in their lives.

They started out quite shy but still very curious, as all kids are! By the end of the day, they were showing me how to wash up for dinner and giving me lots of hugs. I was heartbroken when it was time to leave, but so happy for the time we shared together.

It's been awhile in the making, but we've just put the final touches on Clay's album of photos from his holiday visit with kids at UNICEF programs in Mexico.

Everyone who donated $50 or more to Clay's appeal for Mexico will be getting a link to a PDF of the album this week via e-mail -- and signed copies for folks who were able to give $1,000 or more will be going out by postal mail shortly.

Keep your eyes open for yours, and let us know what you think!

Jenna Bush, former UNICEF intern and author of Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope, based on her work with UNICEF, is visiting UNICEF programs in Peru and blogging from the field. This is her third entry.

Today started early; at six in the morning we were up preparing for a visit to the provinces of Chincha and Pisco, two areas that faced serious damage after an earthquake affected the region on August 15th. Although the sun had just risen above the grey water of the Pacific, our two-hour drive South to Chincha was filled with energy and anticipation. The earthquake, a magnitude of 7.9, caused tremendous devastation to the regions of Chincha, Pisco, and Ica: 519 people were killed, 430,000 people were affected. The earthquake resulted in massive destruction of houses, health centers, schools and, communication infrastructure. And UNICEF Peru was there the day after the tragedy, assisting in disaster relief and providing comfort to the families affected; we were anxious to see their work first hand.

The damage around Chincha was startling. Although, the earthquake occurred almost five months ago the area was still reduce to rubble. A row of camping tents covered debris and I could imagine the community of houses that were once there. Our first stop was at a Ludoteca, or a Play Center. UNICEF assisted with the emotional relief of the children affected by the earthquake by establishing 30 recreational centers in the area. They knew that with the devastation of the community’s homes and schools, the kids had nowhere to play; and they would need time to recover and heal with their friends in a safe environment.

As we walked the path to the play center, the laughter of children combined with the noise from drums and flutes and spilled out onto the sidewalk.

“Ven! Come in,” the kids called. As we entered the small one room house, the walls painted an optimistic yellow, the floor covered with games, books, and toys the kids swarmed around us, kissed us on the cheeks and pulled us into different corners of the room.

I ended up with some elementary-school-aged girls who were adorned with plastic pink and silver capes.

“Nosotros estamos reinas. We are queens,” they giggled.

During our time at the play center, I met a 12-year-old girl named Anita. Anita told me that she lives only five minutes from the center and walks here every morning and afternoon. She recalled, with a look of jaded fear that during the earthquake she was in her house with an older cousin and a wall collapsed between them. She was frightened, isolated in a small space for nearly three hours. When some family members finally rescued her, she was devastated to see that her house was ruined.

“I was really sad and scared before, but I like having somewhere to come and play. I like coming here and sharing stories with my friends, playing ball, and forgetting about my problems.” Anita said. She told me later that she now lives in a tent with her family.

Our next stop was at the San Martin primaria school. The elementary school was completely destroyed by the earthquake; the 1,500 students deprived of a safe place of learning. UNICEF in partnership with other relief organizations immediately started building temporary bamboo classrooms called esteras and put up tents to serve as classrooms. UNICEF Peru not only assisted with the rebuilding of this school, but also helped rebuild 304 temporary classrooms, making it possible for 34,000 kids to return to finish the school year.

I walked around the courtyard lined with tents and esteras posing as classrooms, imagining the school that was once there. I entered one tent that housed a third grade class. The kids all stood when I walked in, calling in unison, “Buenos dias, good morning.” They were studying multiplication and when I started quizzing them on problems from the times table they called out the answers proudly and joyfully. Leaving the school, I was filled with the notion that these kids, these third graders, are so very similar to my third grade students in the U.S.

Our last stop in Chincha was at a module for integrated protection, an early-childhood development program that keeps infants and toddlers nourished while also providing parenting classes to their mothers. UNICEF established 54 similar modules to feed the young children of these poor regions twice daily, preventing malnutrition in the area.

The tent was full of thirty babies, toddlers, and their mothers. Some of the mothers were in the corner holding their babies while, nurses, trained by UNICEF, taught parenting classes. The kids were spooning a nutrient-enriched porridge into their small mouths.

A nine-year-old girl walked directly towards me; holding her three-year-old sister’s hand.

“I want to tell you my story,” she said as she pulled up a chair for me. “This is my baby sister. I bring her here twice daily. After the earthquake, my family didn’t have any money so my sister started getting skinny; I was worried. I had heard about this center and asked my mom if I could bring her here. At first, my mom said no, but finally she agreed to let me bring her. Now she is happy because my sister has gotten so big, so healthy.”

I’m struck by the maturity of this young girl. She too is just a child, but because of the earthquake she has been forced to grow up too fast.

“You are so brave,” I told her. “And so smart. What do you want to be when you grow up,” I ask?

“A woman who provides porridge to the children” she replies, smiling.

In the afternoon, we were off to Pisco. Driving past the traditional town square we saw shattered windows, abandoned stores and a boat that was catapulted from the ocean a mile away in the middle of the street, creating an eerie ghost-town-like feel. You could tell that Pisco was once a charming fishing village but now the streets were lined with tents and temporary bamboo houses, much of the village had been destroyed.

We spent the afternoon at the Parque Zonal shelter, a type of refugee camp for the residents of Pisco who had lost their homes. The camp took over what must have been a beautiful park, benches still sat among bushes of tropical flowers. Now, however, the park is a makeshift community center. UNICEF assisted the people of the camp by providing both a recreation center and a module for the children. One of the teachers told me later, “It was a gift when UNICEF built the play tent. The kids were scared from the earthquake and since they were out of school many became bored and turned violent. Now, with a place to play many are healing and there is far less violence in the camp.”

When we arrived at the play center, the kids of the community were playing games, cards, and building block castles as the sun began to slip towards the horizon. Two boys began playing bongo drums as we lined up, an eager audience. A young boy and girl enticed by the rhythm of the drums start stomping their feet, and shaking their small hips to the music. They present us with a fluid traditional Peruvian dance.

I’m overcome with emotion. It’s so amazing to me that these kids--kids who have been affected by something so traumatic, many of whom have lost family members, their homes, and schools--are so resilient. These kids are overcome with worries, but they have continued studying, smiling, laughing and playing.

On this beautiful summer day in Peru these kids have continued to survive, continued to live. They have continued to dance.

Jenna Bush, former UNICEF intern and author of Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope, based on her work with UNICEF, is visiting UNICEF programs in Peru and blogging from the field. This is her second entry.

We woke to the sun breaking through the clouds of the Andes and flew to Lima for a day visiting urban programs. As we drove through the crowded city, passing large buses and motor taxis, mothers and children I was struck by the stark difference between the isolated, slow life in the communities outside of Cusco and the congested city life.

After a thirty minute drive through traffic, we arrived at our destination: the Tahuantinsuyo Bajo Health Center.

Dr. Cornejo immediately leads us down a narrow hall and takes us into a small examining room. He then introduces us to Ines, a pregnant mother of three. A nurse is speaking with Ines about the HIV/AIDS rapid test.

Dr. Cornejo explains, “This clinic has one of the most integrated programs in preventing the transmission from mother-to-child and we have given more HIV rapid tests than any clinic in Peru.”

UNICEF Peru has provided much of the research and assistance in creating this program. In this clinic, and eleven others in the area, the plan is this: a patient receives information about HIV, including the rapid test, the health of their baby and then ultimately it is their choice if they will take the test. After a patient knows the results there is a staff of guidance counselors that will help them accept the news.

Ines has decided that she will take the test, not only for herself, but for her unborn child.

UNICEF Peru has supported Tahuantinsuyo Bajo Center and many other clinics in Peru by providing rapid HIV tests for patients just like Ines. Ines is already seven months pregnant and therefore cannot wait for the results from Elisa, the traditional HIV testing measure; she must know immediately. Her test results from the rapid test will be ready in fifteen minutes.

We say goodbye to Ines and she tells us she is comforted that she will know her results so soon. We continue to walk down the hall and enter a mother and baby waiting room. Five mothers lay in twin beds cradling and breastfeeding their newborns. They smile when we enter and beam with maternal pride when we take pictures of them with their babies.

Dr. Cornejo tells us that this room is provided as a comfort for new mothers, but is also, a place of learning. Nurses provide counseling, early child parenting classes and teach the mothers the importance of breastfeeding and lifelong nutrition.

Our visit is almost over, but Dr. Cornejo wants us to view the hospital counseling program in action. UNICEF Peru has provided the training and support for many of the nurses. We enter a room where a young girl, only fourteen-years-old, sits across from a nurse who is explaining diagrams from a large flip book.

The girl looks up when we enter and smiles gently. Her mother who is seated next to her mumbles a greeting, her eyes worried.

The young girl, who has just finished her first year of escuela secundaria, or high school, is four months pregnant. But it seems to me, that despite the challenges her baby will bring she is full of hope.

The nurse gives her the information she needs to keep her newborn baby healthy and information about HIV/AIDS prevention. Then she tells us that 20% of the patients in the hospital are teenagers.

We ask the girl if she plans to finish high school. Her mother shakes her head in doubt but the girl replies, “ Yes, por supuesto, of course.”

I ask, “Promise?” “Promise,” she says as she shakes my hand in confirmation.

Jenna Bush is visiting UNICEF programs in Peru and blogging from the field. This is her first entry.

The low clouds hung over the mountains as we drove from the center of Cusco up the rolling hills to the rural village of Huancarcani. The two and a half-hour drive through winding cliffs to the elevated community which sits at 3,800 feet keeps the villagers isolated from the city life below. The village’s economy is the fifth poorest of the 1,831 municipalities in Peru. We have come for a full day in the village: first a meeting with local political figures, then to tour an innovative health center, and finally a visit to a children’s defense center.

We arrived at the traditional square to meet with the Association of Child Friendly Municipalities. With the decentralization of Peru more power and financial resources have come into the hands of municipalities around the country and UNICEF Peru has been there to help with the transition. UNICEF’s goal is to help these small local governments access and manage the funds supplied by the government with a result-based focus on human rights. They help these municipalities with their budgets and encourage them to spend in a way that will strengthen public health and education.

Three of these municipalities—Caicay, Colquepata, and Huancarcani—have come together to create the first ever Association of Child Friendly Municipalities. With UNICEF assistance, their philosophy is that by creating municipalities that focus on the welfare of children all people in their villages will profit.

In the meeting, Jose Patricio Mendoza, the mayor of Huancarani told me, “We hope to use funds for the government to help the kids of our village. Here in Huancarcani only 40% of all of the people are literate. There are no real professionals and none of our children have gone on to university. Many of our kids must walk 3-4 hours to get to school and this is not acceptable.”

UNICEF Peru supports this collaboration of municipalities and hopes that the association is a model for other municipalities to follow. They have strengthened their voices by joining together and are advocating for more funds from the government to help provide nutrition, education, health, and safety for their children.

And UNICEF Peru is helping them use the existing funds efficiently because as Jose Mendoza said, “All children no matter where they live deserve a good education and a chance for a successful future.”

After the meeting came to a close, and we were embraced with the traditional wraps and hats of the villages, we were escorted down the street to visit another UNICEF supported program, the Health Center of Huancarani. This innovative heath center has been supported by UNICEF Peru since the beginning. The health center is a place where pregnant indigenous women, many of whom live in remote villages miles away, can come and give birth in a way embraced by their culture.

Ten years ago, the health center was empty because the indigenous women of the community chose to give birth from their homes. The language barrier and the fact that the hospital promoted horizontal birth, a practice foreign to the women’s culture kept them away and in turn the maternal and child mortality rates were high.

The health center worked with women from the community and changed their policy to support the traditions of the indigenous women and advocated for vertical birth and other practices. On our visit, the health center was full of expecting mothers and mothers and toddlers returning for check ups.

We met with Yeri, a mother who was expecting her third child to come any day and we watched as a traditional doctor preformed the ancient birthing practices. We also spoke with the doctors about how now—since, many women use the clinic—the doctors are able to perform rapid HIV/AIDS test to prevent the spread of HIV from mother to child.

After her check up, Yeri lead us up a hill to the maternal waiting house, another UNICEF supported project. Yeri has been boarding in the house for the last week and will stay there until several weeks after she gives birth. Many of the patients including Yeri live hours from the clinic and by the time they are ready to give birth they are too far to make it in time.

Yeri boards here, adjacent to the clinic and receives check-ups daily so, that when her baby is ready she is close to the center and faces no threat of delivering at home, endangering herself and her child. Yeri smiled at me and squeezed my hand as we left. She seemed ready to give birth and at peace in the small home.

The last stop in Huracani was at a Communal Defense Center. We walked into the small wood room and were greeted by Ana and her daughter Xenia. Xenia immediately grabbed my hand and sat close to me on the wooden bench where she colored in her small note pad.

Her mother, Ana, lead the meeting and explained to us that the defense center is a place that works for child and women’s rights and the decrease of physical and sexual violence.

Ana told us how she and the other volunteers work traveling from home to home explaining to families their rights, conducting classes for children and parents, and documenting and protecting those who have faced abuse. Ana said, “There is a lot of sexual and physical violence in this community. Before the health center was created in 2002, I was overcome with despair for the children of the community. But women and children are learning their rights.” Right then Xenia’s small body leans in closer to me and it’s easy to see the inspiration for her mother’s tireless efforts.

As we are leaving, Ana hugs me and thanks UNICEF for their dedication in saving children’s lives. Before I go, I feel a tug on my shirt and Xenia, who is beaming, hands me a drawing of a little girl smiling.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in UNICEF Ambassador Clay Aiken's holiday challenge--once again you have amazed us and surpassed our goal of raising $100,000 to help the children of Mexico. Thank you so much for sharing the true spirit of the holiday season with children who need it the most.

We're putting together Clay's Mexico Holiday Photo Album now -- in the meantime, here is one photograph we wanted to share with you to start off the New Year -- faces of two of the people your generous gifts are going to help.

From all of us here at UNICEF, a great big thank you and best wishes to you and your loved ones for the happiest of new years!

UNICEF Ambassador is visiting UNICEF projects in Mexico and blogging from the field.

"Les deseo un prosperó año nueva!"

Yesterday we spent a long, but rewarding, day visiting schools that were severely damaged by the floods. I had the opportunity to talk to many children who have been unable to attend school since the disaster struck. They are full of hope and excited to return to school soon.

We also had the unique opportunity to visit the largest shelter in Villahermosa, Tabasco. When we got there I began walking and immediately a little boy ran over to me with the biggest smile on his face. And of course I was confused that he was excited to see me since I am not well known in Mexico, but it all became clear when he pointed to my UNICEF t-shirt and gave me a hug.

Throughout my travels with UNICEF - to Indonesia, Uganda, Afghanistan and now Mexico - I have been greeted with this same warm welcome. Children everywhere know that UNICEF is there for them, to help them get the food, shelter and education they need to not only survive but to thrive.

I am so proud to be a UNICEF Ambassador and to do my part to help UNICEF as they take care of children in need around the world. And I thank you for joining me this holiday season to give to those in need.

C

P.S. Good news everyone! We have our bags - yes, even mine!

UNICEF Ambassador Clay Aiken is visiting UNICEF projects for children affected by the recent floods in Mexico. He sent the following post from the field.

Merry Christmas to all from Mexico!

The past couple of days have been crazy – from delayed flights to lost luggage (yes, the airline lost all our bags – mine, mom’s and Brett’s – and mine’s STILL missing, so if you see it, could you send it my way?), to missed flights - if it could go wrong it did! But despite everything I couldn’t be happier than to be with my family and UNICEF in Mexico sharing the Christmas holiday with the people of Chiapas and Tabasco who have suffered such tragedy.

They have lost so much (much more than a few suitcases) but they have an unbelievable spirit and contagious joy. This is the holiday season and the spirit of family and giving is alive and well here.

Yesterday we were privileged to travel with the First Lady of Chiapas to the mountain village of Ostuácan. People here were severely affected by the recent flooding and mudslides. In fact, more than 2,000 people, many of whom are children, have lost their homes and are celebrating Christmas in shelters this year. But, they rolled out the red carpet for us and we celebrated the holiday together singing Jingle Bells and other holiday songs and even taking a whack at a piñata (and, believe it or not, I didn’t hit anyone!).

As upbeat and positive as the people are they still need our help. There is much to do to reconstruct their village and get their lives back to normal. Thank you on behalf of myself, UNICEF and the people of Chiapas for your generous donations… and if you haven’t already, please consider opening your heart to these wonderful people who have opened their hearts and homes to me.

More tomorrow from Tabasco… in the meantime, from my family to yours we wish you a very Merry Christmas!