Now that our favorite fall tradition, Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, is officially over, it’s a perfect time to thank our partners and supporters who’ve helped make this campaign one of the most exciting ones yet!

Child marriage remains a common practice throughout much of the developing world. In order to combat this detrimental practice, we are pleased to announce an alliance between the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and Girls Not Brides in the effort to end the practice of child marriage.

I was recently in Morocco, visiting a computer lab supported by Dell YouthConnect, the Dell signature giving program, which works to increase access to technology for youth in at-risk communities of Casablanca and Rabat. Through Dell’s generosity, we are able to build computer labs, bringing in computers, printers, LCD projectors, and teachers to train youth on information communications, and technology skills and to provide computer access to young people, as well as the adults who use the community centers while kids are at school.

The UNICEF Campus Initiative National Council, founded in 2008, strengthens the Campus Initiative program and works closely with the U.S. Fund to represent and support campus clubs around the country. This is their collective account of the three-day Campus Initiative Summit held in New York this month.

The annual sweet-treat extravaganza known as Halloween draws ever closer, and as parents prepare costumes and children get their legs in gear for their door-to-door excursion, we at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF have been reminding folks of how they can make Halloween count.

Imagine having a team of idea generators with a can-do energy working side-by-side with you. Imagine being able to join a brainstorm on the couch about building a services office for developmentally challenged youth at the University of Pristina (it’s helpful if you speak Albanian), curl up on a bean bag to watch a presentation on peer-to-peer learning, or escape to one of the open computers to fine-tune your proposal, edit your budget, or finish a report. It’s kind of like college all over again. Except here, these projects have real world application and the projected results will have immediate momentum- building effect. The fun part is that this collaborative environment is self-motivated. These youth are serious about change and it’s infectious. The really cool part is watching the staff at the Lab provoke and leverage all of these good ideas into something actionable.