Fieldnotes: Blogging on UNICEF's child survival work in the field
Entries from Fieldnotes tagged with 'education'
Give the gift of hope to a child who needs it most
Valentine’s Day is just about a week away. This year, give your special someone a gift that’s more meaningful and with an impact that can last a lifetime-- the gift of hope to a child who needs it most from Inspired Gifts.
Inspired Gifts is an innovative program that gives you the opportunity to purchase actual life-saving items that will be shipped directly from both the UNICEF warehouse in Copenhagen and one of UNICEF's many suppliers to one of over 150 countries where UNICEF serves. Inspired Gifts are actual items like warm blankets, water purification tablets, first aid kits, and oral rehydration salts.
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| © UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0155/Noorani |
| Smiling girls carry blankets and other items they received during a distribution of newly arrived care packages for children, at the UNICEF-assisted Foye Zanmi Jezi orphanage, in the Lilavois neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. |
Inspired Gifts can make an immediate and dramatic difference in the life of a child threatened by malnutrition, disease, and unclean water, basic immunizations and basic medicines.
After the recent earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12th, UNICEF delivered these same essential, life-saving supplies. These simple, basic items can easily help prevent further loss of life and help restore some degree of normalcy for children, quickly.
Choose a UNICEF Inspired Gift from our categories of education & play, nutrition, immunization, water, health and emergencies. Then, let your Valentine know about their gift by choosing an e-card, printable card or even a mailed card.
Your Inspired Gift will continue to live on in the hearts of both a child in need and your Valentine.
Newsnet: As Haiti news coverage dwindles, UNICEF’s work is just beginning
News coverage of the Haiti earthquake and the fight to help survivors is steadily dropping off three weeks after the disaster. As many other stories vie for a spot in the ever-accelerating news cycle, reporting on Haiti is becoming more sporadic and less prominent. News organizations like CNN and The Voice of America deserve credit for keeping the story in play and for spotlighting the acute need for further assistance.
The sobering truth is that in the wake of a calamity as devastating as last month’s earthquake, it is usually weeks or months after the initial crisis—and after most of the news crews have left—that some of the hardest work begins.
As survivors face both new and ongoing deadly threats—including potential disease outbreaks and malnutrition—it is vital that the world not forget about Haiti. Earlier this week, UNICEF teamed up with the World Health Organization and the Haitian government to launch a massive campaign to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children against measles, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough. The immunization drive has received limited media coverage so far, but both The Washington Post and The Miami Herald ran fairly in-depth stories about it.
Bring global themes into your classroom
How do you bring global themes into your classroom?
Who better to ask this question to than teachers? And last week, we did just that. This was one of many questions that New York City educators explored during a workshop hosted by the U.S. Fund for UNICEF (USF) and facilitated by the New York State Spanish Bilingual Education Technical Assistance Center (SBETAC) and the USF’s Education Department.
Some of the many answers to this question were:
- Talk to students about personal experiences, needs and worries;
- Bringing literature from other cultures into the curriculum to engender discussion of culture, history etc.;
- Movies, documentaries and curriculum;
- Write own plays and pamphlets on social issues.
This particular workshop allowed educators, who work with English Language Learners, to share and see strategies and explore TeachUNICEF resources for classroom implementation. We look forward to our next workshop and continued dialogue throughout the year.
Going for the goal
For me, the sport of soccer evokes memories of a suburban childhood: freshly laundered uniforms and energy drinks, grass stains and post-game pizza parties. Never once during the many years of weekend tournaments and afternoon practices did I consider the children across the world enjoying the same sport, in dusty streets and alleyways instead of newly sodded fields. And I certainly never considered the many children denied the fundamental right I took for granted each day—the right to play.
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| © UNICEF/NYHQ2009-1231/Giacomo Pirozzi |
| A boy balances a soccer ball on his head outside a UNICEF child-friendly space in Antananarivo, Madagascar |
Monday UNICEF pic: Rwanda
p>The importance of education and clean water are always on our minds around here, and this photo -- of boys drinking safe water in a classroom in Rubingo School, a child-friendly school in a village in Rwanda's Gasabo District -- illustrates both.
Did you remember to wash your hands?
Nishi Kumar is working as an intern at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF throughout the Fall.
“Did you remember to wash your hands?” This is a question most of us heard thousands of times throughout our childhoods. Hand washing is a routine we pick up at an early age, drilled into us by constant reminders from relatives, teachers, and catchy TV jingles. By adolescence, it becomes an ingrained habit that we eventually pass down onto our own children. Most of us have never stopped to consider why this simple act—washing our hands with soap and water—is so important. The truth is that thorough hand washing can save the lives of millions of children each year.
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| © UNICEF/NYHQ2008-1117/Christine Nesbitt |
| Children line up to wash their hands in a communal bucket at at school in Tenghory, Senegal |
Children are full of surprises
I’m standing in front of 115 children and marveling. (You forget how small children are: it’s quite possible to fit that many in a normal sized room, as if they’re stackable.) This should be no big deal. Working at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, I look at kids at all day—kids queuing for vaccines, kids holding lemonade stand sales for one cause or another, kids overcoming terrible situations and behaving generously in privileged ones.
There’s one key difference, though. Those kids are in photographs, but here, in front of me, are 115 eager little minds, fidgeting with their school uniforms, whispering earnestly to each other, and, (according to the teacher next to me and the organization for which I work), expecting me to teach them something. Yikes.
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| © British International School |
| Students from the British International School in their Halloween costumes. |
But these children were absolutely remarkable, and didn’t need much help from me. I was at the British International School of New York, speaking to classes from 1st to 6th grade about Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF doesn’t just raise money to help children in need—it engages a new generation of young people with the idea that they actually possess a power to change the world around them. Really. 70¢ (which can buy exactly a lot of nothing in New York) can immunize one child in the developing world against polio—giving her the chance to run, play, even just to walk. That’s priceless.
The children at the British International School could fathom that. They could identify how their needs were unique from their peers, and yet they had an empathy I’m ashamed to say is foreign to many adults.
A Kimberly-Clark employee's view from the field
As Kimberly-Clark Brazil's liaison for UNICEF, Jefferson Correia has had the opportunity to see UNICEF’s child survival initiatives in Brazil firsthand. In Jeff's own words: "This role has given me the chance to better understand UNICEF’s projects and the country where I live."
In Brazil, Kimberly-Clark and UNICEF have been partners since 2007. Since then, Kimberly-Clark has partnered with UNICEF by supporting projects to address the needs of indigenous children and adolescents living in the Amazon and quilombolas (Afro-Brazilian) populations in the desert-like Semi-Arid region. These two populations represent the lowest child development rates in the country, live far away from where the resources are, and are quite distant from authorities, statistics and public opinion. Despite all of the difficulties facing these children, I was surprised to see how much potential exists, thanks to UNICEF’s efforts and the support offered by local NGOs. I witnessed these young people attending schools and fighting to improve illiteracy rates. They are receiving quality educations, related to their local culture and context, which are enabling them to become conscious citizens as adults.
Monday UNICEF pic: Madagascar
Last week we were celebrating the drop in child mortality to 24,000 a day. For me, this photo captures one aspect of what we were so happy about, and what we continue working for: two kids, alive and happy, in school and energized by their education:
© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-1243/Pirozzi
These boys are in a pre-school class at a public primary school in Madagascar. It's one 360 schools that offers public pre-school classes. The Government, with assistance from UNICEF, is introducing early childhood development programs in schools throughout the country.
On a Monday morning, this smile is going to keep me believing in zero.
The New York Times spotlights girls' education
This weekend's New York Times Magazine will be completely devoted to women's issues and rights—with a focus on the developing world. This is something I'm really looking forward to reading. You probably know by now that a big part of UNICEF's work is helping women and girls get an education and supporting programs that foster gender equality. So this is right up our alley.
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| © UNICEF/NYHQ2009-1271/Marta Ramoneda |
| Pakistan, 2009: Girls attend a class on the first day of the restart of school at Aman Kot Girls’ Primary and Middle School in Swat District in North-West Frontier Province. Over 400 girls’ schools were damaged or destroyed during the region's recent fighting. |
I encourage you to take time out to read these powerful articles—like this one, which profiles the girls' school in Afghanistan where students were brutally attacked with acid last year. After you've read them, let us know what you think.
A new resource for teachers
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This week we launched our newest youth report, Maternal and Newborn Health: A Global Challenge, drawn from the real life stories and data in the 2009 State of the World’s Children report. This is the second youth report we’ve developed in a continuing series devoted to the global challenges UNICEF is addressing every day.
The report's author did an excellent job extracting the core components of the State of the World’s Children report--highlighting the scope of the problem, the countries that are most affected, the main causes, and what can be done. We’re really excited about this report!
A powerful statement
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“We are not only the citizens of the U.S., we are citizens of the world and global issues affect our fellow citizens. The youth have the power to galvanize and change the future.”
When I heard this statement I knew I wanted to share it with a larger audience, so I decided to write this post.
In my eyes this helps to convey what our education department here at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF is trying to do. We too believe that we are all citizens of the world and that we can make a difference. We do it by providing free classroom resources through TeachUNICEF to educators so students can learn and discuss the global issues that are impacting their peers around the world.
What makes this statement even more profound is that it was written by a high school student! Last week, at the invitation of Global Kids, I spoke to 30 NYC youth about UNICEF. We not only discussed the foundational elements of UNICEF, but also had a larger discussion about the importance of supporting our global community.
Student responses, like the one above, allowed for thoughtful discussion and debate. I think this is a clear sign that students, when given the opportunity, can add to the discourse of how we can better support our global peers.
United We Serve: Harlem Youth Learn About the DRC
In response to President Obama’s ‘United We Serve’ call to community service, cabinet member Susan E. Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and representatives from the US Fund for UNICEF hosted an interactive classroom at the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) on June 22nd. The Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) is a nationally recognized non-profit organization, which provides a unique, holistic network of support in Harlem for 10,000 children - from birth through college - including public charter schools, as well as after-school, pre-kindergarten, social-service and health programs.
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| © US Fund for UNICEF/2009 |
| Ambassador Rice looks on as Kirsten Sheldon from the US Fund for UNICEF discusses the importance of water and sanitation with HCZ students. |
Ambassador Rice spoke to over 120 HCZ students about her career and recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The 8th and 9th grade students asked Ambassador Rice a range of questions, covering her career and working relationship with President Obama, to global issues and the children of DRC. Cynthia McCaffrey, Senior Vice President of Programs for the US Fund for UNICEF also spoke to the students about her experience in the refugee camps and what the US Fund for UNICEF is doing to assist with the humanitarian crisis in the DRC.
The students had the opportunity to see first-hand, life-saving products that may be purchased through the UNICEF Inspired Gifts program. The gifts on display included insecticide treated mosquito nets, school-in-a-box kits, first-aid kits, nutritional supplements, measles vaccines and more. US Fund staff were present at each interactive station to educate students about the importance of each item. This opportunity provided students with an engaging and educational experience. After students visited each station they were asked to recommend items to be sent to the children of the DRC based on what they learned at each interactive classroom.
It was exciting to see Ambassador Rice, US Fund staff, HCZ staff and HCZ students participate in rich dialogue about child survival.
A UNICEF staff member is killed in Pakistan
We're still reeling from the death of UNICEF staff member Perseveranda So. In case you haven't seen the news, So was killed in the massive car bomb explosion that hit the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, Pakistan on Tuesday. The hotel was acting as home base for many aid workers, including more than 25 staffers from UN agencies. All told, 5 of the 17 people killed in the blast were with UN agencies responding to the region's growing humanitarian crisis.
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| © UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0671/Marta Ramoneda |
| Pakistan, 2009 On 1 June, a girl attends school in a tent classroom in the Chota Lahore camp in Swabi District, in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). An estimated 877 children are enrolled in the school. UNICEF is helping to provide education support for displaced children in camps and host communities. The Chota Lahore camp is one of many created in the last few weeks to accommodate people fleeing the current conflict. |
We all know that working in volatile countries brings personal risk. Just a few months ago, Kate Horton blogged about the dangers UNICEF field staff often face. And the fact that some die while on the job. But knowing the dangers doesn't make news like this any easier. When colleagues like Perseveranda So—"Persy" to those who knew her—are killed in violent and targeted attacks it feels particularly tragic. And just, well, unfair. Those who are working tirelessly to help save and improve lives should not be felled by those who seek only to destroy lives.
Putting children first in Tanzania
The past decade in Tanzania has been marked by successful reforms, steady economic growth, and political stability. Despite this progress, Tanzania’s challenge for the future is to create better living conditions for the rural poor, control the spread of HIV/AIDS, address the needs of the largest refugee population in Africa (due to neighboring conflicts), and through education develop the next generation of leaders. Sonya Renner was part of a U.S. Fund delegation from Texas and Georgia and witnessed firsthand how UNICEF impacts the lives of Tanzania’s children, and through them, Tanzania’s future.
Is it a childhood luxury to be able to attend primary school? Are dreams for the future a privilege for a limited few? While the American public education system and its schools face challenges, particularly now, we have an advantage that many countries don’t have: a long and deep-rooted belief that quality education is a right for all children. We work to insure that education is free and compulsory. We teach our children that they can—and should—dream of a future.
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| © U.S. Fund for UNICEF/Renner/2009 |
| Students at a school not in the child friendly school pilot program talked of their need for more classrooms, windows, floors, desks, books, paper, and pencils. |
UNICEF believes that every child around the world has an equal right to education and should dream of a better future. This can become a reality for more children through UNICEF’s child friendly school model, which focuses not just on academic skills but also teaches basic life skills—lifesaving skills—such as hand-washing, hygiene, and preventing the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS. The child friendly school program then can have a major role in achieving zero child deaths from preventable causes.
TeachUNICEF: Providing tools for success
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TeachUNICEF is a provider of resources for many education programs across the country, both in school and afterschool youth programs. We support these programs by providing resources that highlight the global issues UNICEF and its partners address on a daily basis. All resources are free and can be found at www.TeachUNICEF.org.
One such afterschool organization is Higher Achievement Program, located in Washington, DC. On May 19, the TeachUNICEF team attended Higher Achievement’s graduation ceremony of 62 scholars. Keynote speaker U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan commended the organization for their success and the empowered youth graduating on to high schools. To learn more about the event
Tell us your story of how you utilize TeachUNICEF resources by writing to us at teachUNICEF@unicefusa.org or responding to this posting.
Take the TeachUNICEF survey
Last week we posted a survey to gather feedback and provide direction for the future development of TeachUNICEF. In the upcoming academic year TeachUNICEF will be developing K-12 resources as well as modifying the website. Your feedback is extremely important. What do you think of our resources? What global issues would you like TeachUNICEF to address? How can we improve our website? Please take a moment to answer the brief survey which consists of 15 questions at www.teachunicef.org.
Thank you!
New teachers' resources on gender equality
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TeachUNICEF posted a new Middle and High School unit: Doly’s Story: Adolescent Girls Take Action. This free standards-based interdisciplinary unit introduces students to ways local organizations for adolescent girls are helping to promote gender equality throughout the world. Doly’s Story: Adolescent Girls Take Action contains a video case study, two lesson plans, visual aids, and handouts for small group work.
In lesson one, students watch a video case study about a girl named Doly from Bangladesh and learn about her work in a Dhaka neighborhood. In lesson two, students will read and discuss case studies about promoting gender equality. Each case study highlights the work of an adolescent girl and a supporting organization. Service tips and extension activities are provided throughout the units.
To download Doly’s Story: Adolescent Girls Take Action for free, click here. For more units and lessons plans, please visit teachunicef.org.
Global Pioneers, New York-bound
Last week I blogged about the announcement of the winning team to represent the United States at this year’s Junior 8 Summit in Italy. Global Pioneers, pictured here, and their teacher Mrs. King, are headed to New York City this...
On Mother's Day honor her by helping others
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It's not too late to get the women in your life a great Mother's Day gift. Thank her by helping mothers and their families survive and grow by sending a UNICEF Inspired Gift eCard. Inspired Gifts gives you the opportunity to purchase actual life-saving items that will be shipped directly to one of over 150 countries where UNICEF serves.
Here are some gift ideas:
For the countless meals cooked, thank her by providing the gift of nutrition to a child in need.
For the doctor's visits for shots, thank her by providing 86 children with a polio vaccine.
For the help with homework assignments, thank her with the gift of notebooks and pencils.
For the baths after a day of playing in the mud, thank her with the gift of clean water.
The gift may seem simple, but the gesture is immense. Honoring her by providing others with Inspired Gifts means no children falling prey to malnutrition, no young lives lost for lack of immunizations and no child denied the chance to learn and play. It means you believe that no child should fall victim to a preventable cause.
Make her proud, and purchase UNICEF Inspired Gifts today!
* Be sure to choose our ecard option to ensure delivery by Mother's Day.
Discussing global issues with U.S. youth
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| © UNICEF/NYHQ2007-1106/Shehzad Noorani | |
| In Afghanistan, a young girl writes on the blackboard during a class inside a mosque that serves as a community-based school, on the outskirts of the north-western city of Herat. |
At TeachUNICEF, we strive to empower, engage, and inspire youth to become lifelong global citizens. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF believes that youth can play an important role in the survival, protection, and development of children around the world. As a way to engage youth in these serious issues we have developed free standards-based resources (e.g. units, case studies, videos, statistics, and service tips) for U.S. educators that reflect the work of UNICEF and its partners.
We realize that teaching global issues in the classroom can be challenging, but like many, we think it’s imperative that our youth become well informed about our world and its pressing issues. We hope that by providing a space for discourse we can learn from one another. To get the conversation started we’d like to pose two questions:
What are some of the strategies that you’re using?
Have you encountered any challenges?
I've got connections
Imagine my surprise when—while reading news from the field on the UNICEF website—I discover my connection to the famous basketball player, Samuel Dalembert, of the Philadelphia 76ers. Not only had the NBA star and I both been born in Haiti, we both share deep concern for the great challenges our country faces—including poverty, armed violence and lack of access to education.
Dalembert has made a three-year commitment to support UNICEF programs and hurricane relief efforts in Haiti. He probably doesn’t know it, but his gift impacts me in a very personal way. I preserve two very distinct memories of growing up in a small province on the eastern coast of Haiti: that of my hometown’s tree-studded beachside, grazed by fizz and suds from the sea, and the green mountaintops freckled with bright-colored, hut-like homes. But last year, four back-to-back storms uprooted large portions of the countryside and displaced or killed many of its inhabitants—people with whom I had shared my childhood.
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| © UNICEF Haiti/2007/Parisot |
| Samuel Dalembert shows children at the Lakou Center how to shoot a basketball from afar. Lakou is a day center with activities geared towards the reintegration of street children. |
In response to the disaster, UNICEF immediately shipped tons of emergency aid supplies—blankets, hygiene kits, water purification tablets—to devastated areas. They figured out how to get around washed away roads and bridges (literally doing whatever it takes) to get help to people who needed it. Today, UNICEF maintains a vital presence in Haiti, helping the country continue to overcome the effects of last year’s storms and to prepare for the upcoming hurricane season. Now (I am very happy to say) UNICEF’s work in the country has the full support of a famous NBA star.
It’s hard for me to forget last year’s events because they (literally) hit close to home. But so has Samuel Dalembert’s generous donation to relief efforts in Haiti. I can’t even begin to describe the breadth of my toothy smile. I’ve got connections.
A real-life Norma Rae in Guatemala
Jennifer Dorian, member of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s volunteer Marketing Committee and a true friend of children, visited UNICEF programs in Guatemala this week and sent this post from the field.
Growing up, my favorite movie was Norma Rae.
I loved the character--the way she stayed a welcome member of her community without suppressing her natural leadership. She was unstoppable despite her odds and humble beginnings. She led her mill town to a better life with charisma, strong opinions and courage.
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| © Dorian/2009 |
| A real-life Norma Rae: Jennifer Dorian with Marileni. |
Today I met a real-life Norma Rae in Nuevo Concepcion, Guatemala. She is young (21), childless (by choice), charming and beautiful. Her name is Marileni.
Always on the side of children
We're very relieved by the news of the Gaza cease-fire. As is the case with all violent conflicts, children have been suffering the consequences of thoroughly adult problems. UNICEF's mission to help children is vital in times like these. And we're not hampered by being on one side, or on another side—we are simply and always on the side of children.
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| © UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0016/Iyad El Baba |
| Gaza, 2009: On 12 January, a girl waits on a curb with empty water containers in the southern city of Rafah. Approximately 500,000 people have no access to running water. Water and sanitation services have partially collapsed due to considerable damage to the networks, difficulties faced to make repairs and lack of fuel for power. UNICEF is working with partners to distribute supplies, including family water kits. |
As I write, UNICEF is delivering six truckloads of emergency supplies and equipment to Gaza. With water and sanitation systems in the Gaza Strip badly damaged by fighting, UNICEF is worried about outbreaks of water-related diseases, such as diarrhea and cholera. So, working with our partners, UNICEF has already distributed more than 66,000 bottles of water, and emergency water and sanitation supplies for some 30,000 people.
Fighting also upended normal food supply lines, and many children are going hungry. UNICEF is rushing to distribute 7,500 cartons of high-energy biscuits—enough to feed 80,000 children for three months. We're also sending in much-needed health kits, obstetric surgical kits, midwifery kits, resuscitation kits, first aid kits and surgical instruments.
How bicycles help girls learn
Fifteen-year-old Rahinatu has a lot of responsibilities. In Ghana where she lives, as in many countries, adolescent girls like her are expected to play a major role in taking care of the household. And Rahinatu's chores take priority over just about everything else—including, alas, education.
That means Rahinatu can only leave for school in the morning after she's finished jobs that include cleaning the area around the family's home and washing up after breakfast. But her school is over three miles from her home—a lengthy walk on top of the chores.
"I was coming to school late every day," says Rahinatu.
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| © UNICEF/NYHQ2008-0866/Olivier Asselin |
| Ghana, 2008: Rahinatu, age 15, and Sherifatu, age 16, at attend school in the town of Tarikpaa. The bicycles nearby were distributed through a UNICEF-funded program to help cut children’s travel time in rural areas, where long distances are a major barrier to girls’ school enrollment. |
Rahinatu's schoolmate, Rahina, also had trouble making the long trip to school after scrambling to finish chores. In fact, she would miss school completely two or three times a week. All over the world there are girls like Rahinatu and Rahina—girls who desperately want to get an education but struggle to find enough time in the day for all they have to do.
Four years after THE tsunami
There's no way I can forget the date of the massive 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami: the tsunami struck December 26, which happens to be my birthday. The next day, my husband—who's also a journalist—was on a plane to Indonesia. And in the coming weeks, he would call me every day with vivid descriptions on the devastation. Bodies in trees. Boats somersaulted onto houses. Mile after mile of empty coastline where villages had washed forever out to sea.
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| © UNICEF/NYHQ2004-0886/Shehzad Noorani |
| SRI LANKA, 2004: Minhaz Haque, 15, guides his bicycle through the mud of his neighborhood, destroyed by the tsunami. Many of Minhaz' friends went missing and his family's house was wiped out. |
It feels hard to believe, in some ways, that the tsunami was (exactly) four years ago. I didn't work for UNICEF back then. But since I've been here, I've learned an awful lot about UNICEF's response to the tsunami and I am constantly impressed by just how many children we've helped in the aftermath of the disaster. In the early post-tsunami days, UNICEF stepped in to protect orphans and children separated from family members; supplied clean safe water, basic sanitation, and nutrition to children and families who had lost everything; and began to (yes, even in those very early days) rehabilitate schools. UNICEF actually took a leadership role amongst humanitarian organizations on the scene, coordinating water, sanitation, education and child protection efforts to maximize the efficiency of the overall response. (This is something we do a lot in emergency situations.)
Clay Aiken: Help kids in emergencies stay in school
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| © UNICEF/05-0203/Pietrasik | |
| SRI LANKA: Eight-year-old Shahid carries a batch of exercise books at Ak-Al Badr Nagar Vidyalaya School in the eastern district of Ampara. The books, which bear the UNICEF logo, are from a shipment of Schools-in-a Box. |
For the final 12 days of 2008, UNICEF celebrity Ambassadors and supporters are posting daily blog entries about the impact UNICEF Inspired Gifts are having on children around the world.
Every child has a right to an education.
Often times in emergency situations, it becomes harder than ever for children to go to school. Natural disasters and conflict often destroy schools and supplies, leaving children without a place or the tools to learn.
UNICEF works hard to make sure that children receive an education no matter what the obstacle. For just $186 you can send children in need a School-in-a-Box kit, offering an opportunity to an education that otherwise wouldn’t exist. Just think—one kit provides a temporary school for up to 80 children at a time in an emergency!
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As you count down the twelve days this holiday season, think of these children who have nothing but hope—don’t turn your back on a child’s right to education.
I am Clay Aiken and I believe in zero.
25,000 young children die every day from preventable causes—things like malnutrition, poor sanitation and lack of safe, drinkable water. UNICEF believes that number should be zero.
Jon McLaughlin: A little can go a long way
For the final 12 days of 2008, UNICEF celebrity Ambassadors and Supporters are posting daily blog entries about the impact UNICEF Inspired Gifts are having on children around the world. Jon McLaughlin is a singer-songwriter who recently performed at the UNICEF Snowflake lighting in NYC.
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| © © UNICEF/99-0825/LeMoyne | |
| VIETNAM: Two small children look back, seated behind a woman on a bicycle, as they return from school in the town of Ngoc Lu in the northern province of Ha Nam. |
A simple mode of transportation can really get you far, and I'm not just talking about distance. It could easily help save and improve the lives of the world's most vulnerable children.
A bicycle is something we might take for granted here in the U.S., but in many parts of the world, and in hard to reach places where aid is often most needed, it can be a lifesaving mechanism. An emergency aid worker can deliver medicine and other time-critical supplies by simply navigating through impassible trails and roads much more quickly than on foot.
Bicycles also provide safety and make education possible. Distance is oftentimes a major obstacle to girls' attendance at school. And, instead of walking on foot for hours, bicycles help kids travel long distances from home to school. In many ways, bicycles can make dreams come true!
So please consider giving a bicycle as a UNICEF Inspired Gift. One costs only $34.06, and it's so easy to do. Just click here.
I am Jon McLaughlin and I believe in zero.
25,000 young children die every day from preventable causes—things like dehydration, poor sanitation and lack of safe, drinkable water. UNICEF believes that number should be zero.
Annual Report: A great year for children
The U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s 2008 Annual Report (PDF, 2.76 MB), released earlier this month, affords supporters an intimate look at UNICEF’s lifesaving work—and how their contributions make that work possible.
The crisp, 34-page publication chronicles the activities of our organization during our last fiscal year, which ended on June 30, 2008. It describes some of the year’s exciting fundraising initiatives, educational programs, and public information and advocacy campaigns. A page of financial highlights gives readers a snapshot of the U.S. Fund’s fiscal operations.
As noted in the report, 90 percent of every dollar we raise goes toward the mission of our organization, including program services, public advocacy and education.
The power to save a child
What if you knew a child whose life was in danger?
And what if you knew you had the power to save that child?
Of course, you would do whatever you could.
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| © UNICEF/NYHQ99-0884/LeMoyne |
| VIET NAM: A man lifts up his baby son as he stands on their houseboat on a canal in the Mekong Delta in the southern province of Dong Thap. |
Around the world, there are more than 25,000 children who are alive today but will not be tomorrow. They will die even though the medicines and technology that could save them readily exist. They will die from utterly preventable causes.
Today, on Universal Children’s Day, I think we should all pause to consider these 25,000 youngsters who will not live to see their fifth birthday. It is a day to mourn their tragic and cruel loss.
But it also a day to stand up and say enough—enough young lives needlessly extinguished, enough unnecessary suffering, enough squandered promise.
I invite you to join me in committing to a future in which the number of children who die from preventable causes is not 25,000 per day—it is zero.
Zero children killed by malaria, diarrhea and tetanus, zero children fatally sickened by unsafe water, zero children wasted by malnutrition. I believe in zero—zero preventable child deaths.
Peru: "Napaykullayki" from Ayacucho
Kendra Flowers works with the U.S. Fund for UNICEF at our national headquarters in New York City. She's currently in Peru visiting UNICEF programs.
I'd like to begin this entry by sending wishes of support to those presently suffering in the aftermath of Pakistan's recent earthquake. Having just left the devastation of Pisco and Chincha—still recovering from their own devastating earthquake of over a year ago—I am somber, yet so glad to know that UNICEF is working tirelessly in Pakistan to ease the suffering of children and get aid to those in need.
After Tuesday's seven-hour drive through the beautiful Andes, and a little light-headedness at over 12,000 feet, the lights of Ayacucho in the valley below were a welcome sight. Wednesday morning we journeyed over an hour back into the Andes to the indigenous communities of Rosaspata, Arizona, Chullucapampa and Huamanguilla.
There we learned directly from the community leaders and parents all about their early childhood stimulation programs and child health surveillance centers. Early childhood stimulation practices the concept that children fare far better socially, physically, and intellectually when they're sung to, played with, and engaged in activities as infants and toddlers. Surveillance centers are posts where child growth is measured and local health promoters are trained in an effort to combat chronic malnutrition in indigenous communities.
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| © US Fund for UNICEF/K. Flowers |
| UNICEF-trained heath promoter in Rosaspata community of Ayacucho District, Peru. |
We were all struck by how utterly committed these communities are to their children's physical and emotional health. The president of one community program was so impassioned when he proudly explained their meticulous charts and graphs that one needn't have any knowledge of Quechua (the native tongue) to know his community's priorities revolve around its children. UNICEF trains health promoters within the community to monitor families and ensure they are educated in how to nourish and protect their children. The promoters report back to the center with height, weight and other general health measurements revisiting the children's progress each and every month.
Haiti: Getting kids back to school
For many children around the world, fall means it’s time to go back to school after the long summer holiday. Not so this year in Haiti, which has been pummeled by four back-to-back hurricanes in the past few weeks. Storm winds and floods have destroyed many thousands of homes and businesses, left large parts of the country under several feet of mud, and disrupted the lives of 800,000 people—including 300,000 children.
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| © UNICEF/ HQ08-0744/Roger LeMoyne |
| HAITI: A boy walks at dusk across a flooded street in the older part of the flood-damaged city of Gonaives. Several weeks after successive hurricanes and tropical storms hit the country, many of the city’s streets remain covered in water and mud. |
In the coastal city of Gonaïves alone, almost 70,000 people have had to leave their homes. Two-year-old Fernando Thermidor and his mom, Judith, were forced to flee when the waters rose, and they’re now living with several thousand others in a school that’s been converted into a temporary shelter.
Though safe from the flooding, Fernando, Judith and the rest of the family are facing other dangers: crammed into a room with almost 200 other people, with no access to clean water or proper sanitation, the risks of contracting diarrhea and water-borne diseases are high. UNICEF is shipping many tons of emergency aid to Haiti, including blankets, hygiene kits, water purification tablets and oral rehydration salts. But with all roads and bridges connecting Gonaïves to the rest of the country washed away, the lifesaving shipments have had to be delivered by boat and helicopter.
Teach your children well
While recruiting my sister and her two sons to Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF this year, she made a great comment: “Of course we’re going to Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. My kids need to learn about the world they live in, not gorge themselves on candy!”
Make Halloween count by getting your kids involved in something bigger and more meaningful than a bag full of candy—teach them the importance of helping others in need.
It’s fun and easy to get started, and a great supplement to any candy excursions (if they must get their chiocolate fix)!
Get the scoop on Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF and other youth programs by subscribing to our Youth Action e-newsletter. Then, visit our Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF download center for great resources to support kids' efforts and show them they can make a difference in the lives of others.
Here are few ways to Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF:
- Order free collection boxes and take them out with you this Halloween
- Trick-or-Treat Online by creating a personalized webpage
- Make a mobile donation by texting the word “TOT” to “UNICEF” (864233)
Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF Halloween party and get others involved
Show them that they've got the power to do it!
Dangerous days in Afghanistan
I have a number of friends—reporters and photojournalists—who spend a lot of time in Iraq and Afghanistan. I used to worry more when they went to Iraq, and would feel relieved if they were just going to Afghanistan. But that's all changed. Afghanistan's low simmer of violence has been slowly building towards full boil.
This year has been deadlier for civilians in Afghanistan than any since the U.S. engaged the Taliban in 2001. According to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 1,445 civilians were killed in the first eight months of 2008, compared with 1,040 for the same period in 2007.
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| © UNICEF/ HQ07-1106/Shehzad Noorani |
| AFGHANISTAN: A girl writes on the blackboard inside a mosque that serves as a community-based school, in Kamar Kalagh, a village on the outskirts of Herat. As there are no official schools nearby, some 460 girls and boys from nearby villages attend informal classes here, although attendance, particularly for girls, is irregular. |
A resurgence in violence in Afghanistan is bad news for all sorts of reasons. The worsening security situation in the southern and western parts of the country is keeping almost 70 percent of school-age children away from schools. In the past three years, more than 230 students and teachers were killed, and militants attacked around 250 schools.
UNICEF is there for New Orleans
Back in April, I traveled to New Orleans for the first time to meet up with my best friend, a Tulane alum. For years, she had boasted about the wonder of the city. Finally seeing it with my own eyes, I was struck by the thought that less than three years ago Hurricane Katrina had caused the death of more than one thousand people and had displaced nearly two million—including hundreds of thousands of children.
On Monday, almost three years to the day since Katrina, New Orleans was struck by another hurricane. Fortunately, Hurricane Gustav’s damage was minimal compared to the devastation left in Katrina’s wake.
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| © UNICEF/ HQ05-1112/Radhika Chalasani |
| On September 10, 2005, a woman carries her one-month-old grandson, Devon, in a shelter for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina in the city of Houma, Louisiana. The family, who stayed in their home for nine days after the storm, was forcibly evacuated to the shelter. About half of the displaced in the shelter were children. |
Did you know Hurricane Katrina was so catastrophic, in fact, that it marked the first time in history UNICEF was asked to assist in an emergency on American soil? Immediately, UNICEF set out to build an international task force with assistance from partner organizations including the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization and three UN interagency teams.
Funds raised by the U.S. Fund for UNICEF added crucial support to the recovery effort. Within two weeks, 935 School-in-a-Box kits and 740 recreation kits were flown in from UNICEF's central warehouse in Copenhagen.
"Talking Walls" in Zambia
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| © US Fund for UNICEF/Casey Marsh | |
| Moms and their kids came from miles around when we came to visit their schools, even though the school year doesn't start for another month. |
En route to visit UNICEF programs in the southern province of Choma, Zambia, today we learned that the president of Zambia, Dr. Levy Mwanawasa, has died. So, today begins a national mourning period of 7 days, and the country is in quite a state of shock and grief. Everyone is being urged to stay calm in this time of crisis. Our first stop out in the field was Child Hope Africa, a pre-school with capacity for 150 children. It seemed as though all the mothers and their children—hundreds of them—walked for several kilometers to greet us at the school today, despite the fact that classes are not in session until September. But despite their numbers, there are unfortunately more than 1,000 pre-school-age children in the area that want to attend the school, and many have to be turned away because of overcrowding. Training and early-childhood education are key priorities for our colleagues at UNICEF Zambia, in close conjunction with the Zambian government. In fact, everything that UNICEF does is in partnership with the government and typically with other NGO partners as well. The idea is for the government to be self-sufficient, and ultimately, for there to no longer be a need for UNICEF in the country in the future.
Hope for Zambia, despite challenges
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| © US Fund for UNICEF/Casey Marsh | |
| Mother and child receive medical care at a UNICEF-supported health clinic in Zambia. |
Today was a fully-packed day! Our group visited the UNICEF Zambia office where the staff made several presentations about the nature of their work.
There are four key areas of UNICEF's work in Zambia: child health, which includes nutrition and HIV/AIDS prevention; basic education, which includes life skills and information on HIV prevention; water and sanitation projects; and child protection, such as the prevention of child trafficking, child labor, and other forms of child abuse.
Of course, UNICEF is always there in emergencies. Recently, there have been more floods and droughts in Zambia as a result of climate change, so more frequent urgent emergency intervention is needed.
The staff faces a variety of challenges on a regular basis, too. Zambia is a large country—similar in size to Texas—with a relatively small population of about 11 million. This means that people are scattered far and wide throughout the country, making it difficult to make services such as health clinics and schools accessible to everyone. Plus, out of 177 countries, Zambia is ranked 165th in terms of poverty on the Human Development Index.
The best way to help us help children
Recently, I had a great conversation with Shanelle Hall, director of UNICEF's supply division. As if I didn't know it already, she really gave me a vivid sense of how many essential, lifesaving supplies UNICEF gets to children all over the globe, every day. In 2007, for example, we shipped enough educational kits to supply over 12 million children and 100,000 teachers. We procured 3.2 billion doses of vaccine, at a value of $617 million—that's enough for 40 percent of the world's children. But, as massive as these achievements are, we're always thinking about the children we haven't yet reached: children who don't have the tools they need to learn, or who are dying from a disease that 27 cents worth of vaccine could have prevented.
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| © UNICEF/ HQ05-1695/Josh Estey |
| INDONESIA: A girl holds a UNICEF school kit bearing outside her new school in Banda Aceh, capital of Aceh Province. The school kit contains workbooks, pencils, pens, crayons, rulers and sharpeners. |
You may have gotten an email recently about becoming an online monthly donor. If you aren't on our email list, you can read about it here. Regularly scheduled giving—where you commit to an ongoing monthly, quarterly or yearly donation paid automatically through your credit card—is a godsend to us. It makes it easier to sustain those programs that kids around the world need so badly. Because there are always new babies to vaccinate, and there are always children who want and need to learn. Scheduled giving also saves us tons of money on fundraising, which means more money going straight to helping kids. And it means we're not sending you regular paper mailings, asking you to renew a pledge (this, of course, has the added bonus of saving trees).
China: More aid sought for long-term recovery
On Friday, the United Nations issued a new appeal for international aid to assist with earthquake recovery efforts in central China. The aid sought will be used across UN agencies, including UNICEF, to support mid to long-term recovery and reconstruction efforts in earthquake-affected areas.
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| © UNICEF/ HQ08-0627/Adam Dean |
| UNICEF Water and Environmental Sanitation Specialist Yang Zhenbo is surrounded by students at a primary school in the town of Danjing Shan, Sichuan Province, China. Yang is assessing related needs in the area. UNICEF will provide water-purification equipment at the school, which was damaged during the earthquake. Students are now attending classes in a temporary school on the grounds. |
The total appeal amounts to $33.5 million for the period of July to December 2008. UNICEF's portion of this appeal totals $6.7 million—which will fund just the first phase of UNICEF's three-year recovery plan for the region.
Clay Aiken calls for Kenya's kids to return to school
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.
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| © 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.
Somalia: Keep spreading the word
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.
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| © 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.
Somalia: Where is the outrage?
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.
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| © US Fund for UNICEF / 2008 / Nick Ysenburg |
| UNICEF Ambassador Clay Aiken with children he met on his recent visit to Somalia. |
Education is a magic wand
Have you noticed from our recent efforts in China and Myanmar that UNICEF goes to extreme lengths to make sure children always have access to education, even in emergency situations?
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| © UNICEF/HQ07-1110/Shehzad Noorani |
Education is like a magic wand for children—it can provide them with a secure, happy and safe place to spend time (ping!); it can turn a scary future into one filled with possibility (swoosh!); it can even make a child healthier (tadaaa!).
Yes, education enables children to lead healthier lives, and to make improved choices for themselves and their future families. A recent study actually shows that better education leads to longer life expectancy. It is, as much as anything, a child survival issue. And achieving universal primary education by 2015 is one of the UN's Millennium Development Goals.
Back to school despite all obstacles in Myanmar
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| © © UNICEF/HQ08-0563/Win Naing |
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| © © UNICEF/HQ08-0559/Win Naing |
[Pix] Children step behind the camera
This time, it's the children themselves who are taking the pictures. Recently, two groups of kids participated in UNICEF-supported photography workshops in Liberia and Rwanda. The children were given digital cameras so they could document their lives and, by working on specific themes, get a better understanding of the difficulties their countries face. UNICEF has just received the extraordinary images these children took, and we'd like to share some of them with you. The photos will also be shown in a traveling exhibition in Canada, Liberia, Rwanda, Japan and other countries.
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| © UNICEF/ HQ07-2164/Gay Handful |
| Liberia: An adolescent boy walks through standing water, a common breeding ground for malaria-bearing mosquitoes, in Fiamah, a slum area of Monrovia, the capital. The photograph was taken by Gay Handful, 14. |
Education and violence prevention in Panama City
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.
UNICEF's emergency work in Myanmar continues
As you know, UNICEF began responding within a day of the disaster, drawing on pre-positioned emergency medical supplies. Here's a quick recap of what's been delivered to date:
- 6,000 ORS, 1,500 water guards, 10 essential drug kits (to cover 5,000 people per kit), 20 first aid kits, 270 tarpaulins, 1 bleaching drum and 300 family kits to Laputta, Irrawady division
- 5,000 ORS, 5,000 water guards, 10 drug kits, 20 first aid kits, 100 tarpaulins and 1 bleaching drum to Mawlemyine Kyun, Irrawaddy division.
UNICEF in Uruguay gets creative
Faced with one of the country’s worst economic crisis in history, Uruguay is struggling to provide their children with a good education. Many rural schools are in tatters, with few books and scant schools supplies. Current school drop-out rates top 40 percent in some communities. To turn the spotlight on this issue, the creative staff at UNICEF in Uruguay grabbed the media’s attention this past winter by organizing a cross-country horseback trek to visit rural schools. Why on horseback? Because it’s the traditional way many countryside children travel to school in Uruguay.
NewsNet: UNICEF and Education
UNICEF’s success in helping reduce the global child mortality rate and its efforts to provide education to all children, even in the wake of emergencies, were highlighted earlier this week in a Financial Times profile. The article related a brief history of UNICEF, including its embrace of education as a central tenet of its mission to save and improve children’s lives. It also discussed other current challenges, including the battle against HIV/AIDS and child exploitation.
Back to school in the Democratic Republic of Congo
UNICEF announced that the annual back-to-school campaign it runs with the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo helped 1.5 million kids return to school! In the campaign, UNICEF and its partners provided 40,000 teachers with instructional materials and 1.5 million kids with school supplies.
[Holiday Giving] A School-in-a-Box is a gift of education
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child--a guiding principle for UNICEF--is the most ratified human rights treaty in history. One right of a child is the right to education and recreation. Schools are often destroyed in emergencies, and recreation--vital for children's psycho-social wellbeing--is easily neglected. With our Inspired Gifts program, you can help protect these rights.
[In the Field] Capacity Building for a Self-Sustaining Community
Our last visit was to the Murama 'Catch Up' program that is located in the primary school in the Bugesera District about 40km east of Kigali. The goal is to provide a basic education to all children even though they...
[In the Field] Student Mentoring and Child-Friendly Schools
The last part of our trip focused on education. We first visited the Rubingo primary school located in the Gasabo district outside of Kigali. The ride to the school was surreal as a storm was coming, forcing the clouds to...
[In the Field] Youth Empowerment - Making Changes in Rwanda
What a spectacular country!! It is truly beautiful here with cool temperatures and sunshine. We began the day with a briefing at the UNICEF office and had the pleasure of meeting a handful of the 60 staff who work at...
[PIX] UNICEF in Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, insecurity and violence continue to impede recovery from decades of war and limit progress for all the country’s 25 million people—particularly its children and women. © UNICEF/HQ07-1080/Shehzad NooraniA health worker vaccinates a child at Torkham, a town on...
[Pix] School and play for the children of Darfur
As new sanctions are imposed and G8 ministers prepare to discuss the situation in Darfur, UNICEF is continuing its lifesaving work for the millions of children caught in the crisis. Clean water, nutrition, medicine -- these are all critical needs...
[In the Field] UNICEF in Panama
Media Relations Officer Richard Alleyne is traveling and sent the following notes from Panama. More to follow, with pix: Day 1: El Dorado, PANAMA I’ve arrived in Panama and at first blush my impression is: why does UNICEF need to...
[In the Field] Mothers, babies and excited students
Kristen Mangelinkx from UNICEF's Boston office is blogging on her trip to Madagascar. This is her fourth post. We were up early again this morning and drove to Antalaha to visit more health centers. We have met so many mothers...
Clay Aiken in Afghanistan:
"There is so much more that needs to be done"
UNICEF Ambassador Clay Aiken wrote this blog post for Fieldnotes, reflecting on his visit to UNICEF field sites in Afghanistan. It's not that fun being wrong. Fortunately for me, I don't have to do it very often! HA HA! Okay......
[On TV] Idol Gives Back: Will Simon Sing for $50 million?
Yesterday Fieldnotes reader Sheila asked if we could give advance notice when UNICEF is going to be featured on TV. We do our best, but sometimes we’re also taken by surprise! Last night during American Idol there was a great...
[On TV] Tune into Good Morning America tomorrow
ABC News anchor Chris Cuomo is reporting from Iraq this week. As part of his overseas assignment he has prepared a report on education, which will air tomorrow on Good Morning America. Cuomo visited UNICEF-supported education projects in Iraq and...
[Print] Miami Herald: "UNICEF, truly a lifesaver in Congo"
A descriptive piece on the state of education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo appeared in Saturday's edition. Read it here. And if you want to support UNICEF's work in the DRC, click here....
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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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