Fieldnotes: Blogging on UNICEF's child survival work in the field
Entries from Fieldnotes tagged with 'education'
Monday photo: First day of school in Madagascar
Angita Emerentienne, age 9, lives in Marolondo, Madagascar. She has been studying in a tent since her classroom was destroyed in cyclone Ivan in 2008. Today's Monday photo was taken on the first day of the new school year and this is what Angita had to say:
Lions Clubs help kids in emergencies
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
Light and hope in Angola
Melissa Madzel is the Corporate Philanthropy Manager for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.
One of the greatest pleasures of working with UNICEF is being able to see that kids are the same, throughout the world. In a recent visit to Angola, I was reminded of this beautiful reality, which is unfortunately set against a backdrop of disparity and strife. The place where this was most evident was Lar Kuzola, a government-run home for children and a nearby foster home in the outskirts of Luanda, the capital city of Angola.
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| © UNICEF Angola/Hvass |
| Melissa Madzel shares the picture she's taken of a young girl at Lar Kuzola. |
UNICEF believes in institutionalization for children as a last resort, so UNICEF Angola partners with Lar Kuzola to help move children out of the institutionalized setting and into the homes of caring families - either foster families or providing services and support to reintegrate them into their families of origin. Lar Kuzola provides temporary shelter and care for up to 330 children at a time, from newborns to teenagers. The children have found their way to the home in a range of heartbreaking circumstances. Some of them have lost their parents to illness, while others have mental or physical disabilities that led to their abandonment, and yet others were accused of witchcraft for any number of reasons.
Inspired Kicks: Eric from Ivory Coast
My name is Eric, I'm 13 years old and I am in my second year of high school. I live with my mother in Bondoukou in the North East of the Ivory Coast. In Bondoukou, many of my friends were never registered at birth and don't go to school, especially the girls. UNICEF and the Football Federation of the Ivory Coast organized a soccer tournament from May 12 to 16 for boys and girls aged between seven and seventeen years here at Bondoukou and Odienne called "Right to Score" ("Droit O But"). We played soccer with 300 children and in doing so, sent a message to adults to respect our rights. My team was called "The Unregistered Children" but didn't win because of our goalkeeper. We still enjoyed ourselves though and I had the opportunity to tell parents that they should register their children at birth at the mayor's office and to enroll them at school.
Launching the new TeachUNICEF.org
Over the course of the past year, the Education Department has been hard at work on a total redesign of our website--teachunicef.org. On June 1, all of that hard work culminated in the new website launch. The new site accomplishes the following features: An easy, intuitive way for users to access educational resources. A multitude of downloadable podcasts and videos, many of which are youth-generated. Tips on how to take action. Links to social media and opportunities to share TeachUNICEF across all your social networks and link directly to our Facebook and Twitter feed. The new site is flexible, beautiful and most importantly, user-friendly and resource-rich. We'll be adding podcasts and videos regularly, and featuring resources and topics of the month, so please visit the site often. And let us know what you think!
Congratulations, graduates!
The Volunteer and Community Partnerships Department would like to congratulate all of the seniors who have or will be graduating this season. Whether you are in our high school or college level clubs, thank you for your many hours of dedication and service to the world's children. And congratulations on your acheivement.
Women's Luncheon Series: "I've had enough of wars."
Sally Fay Cottingham is a member of the Board of Directors for The U.S. Fund for UNICEF's New England regional office.
Anne Garrels, world-renowned foreign correspondent for NPR's foreign desk, spoke at the Women's Luncheon Series held in the U.S. Fund for UNICEF's Boston office late last month.
"I have had enough of wars," she told the audience. "The goal (of war) is to destroy one's sense of self."
Garrels told one compelling story after another, including the story of the women who, when asked what she would like Anne to bring her, asked for "a pot of crème", something that she could put on her face to remember that she was a woman.
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| © Roger Farrington/2010 |
| Left to right: NE board chair Kaia Miller, Anne Garrels, NE board member Caterina Bandini |
Garrels spoke about Iraq and the U.S. involvement there. She described how the Americans mismanaged money and were unprepared when they arrived. Speaking on the effects of the war on Iraqi women and families, she observed that the sectarian divides affected women the most. "This destroyed the family structure. They had to move--all those mixed marriages because there was so much tension around them. The middle class was depleted and moved away to Syria and Jordan."
Anne spoke passionately of Pakistan, calling it "the key place" to be right now. She said the country is close to being in a civil war. "We should have done so much more for decades," she said, particularly in the area of the educational system. Garrels noted that illiteracy in Pakistan is much worse than India. Primary education is always "informal," which typically means "an ill-trained woman on a dirt floor, with no water." She warned that "you've got more and more angry, frustrated Pakistanis. Healthcare getting worse, not better."
She told us that there was an advantage to being a female journalist in Pakistan because she was allowed "to walk both sides of the street."
"I can see the Presidents, local authorities, and I can go into the houses, maternity wards, boys' and girls' schools, and men can't. Male colleagues who want to do these stories, can't."
Thursday video: "A cup without a handle"
Heading into Memorial Day, most American students I know are thinking of summer vacation, getting a job at the ice cream parlor, or perhaps what to wear during that beyond-silly-last-week-of-school when desperate teachers organize "pajama day" and "inside-out day" to keep their classes somewhat distracted from the summer outside.
But for much of the world, school vacation is not something to be relished. This week's video is about a girl in Afghanistan who goes to school so she can be an engineer, and a journalist, and also a doctor. The problem is, she lives in a place where violence regularly keeps her from school.
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Welcome to Fieldnotes. Blogging gives us the ability to quickly report from the field, alert you to media coverage of interest, and share the success of UNICEF's lifesaving work around the globe.
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