If you’ve been following our Facebook and Twitter feeds, you’ve likely seen our community’s incredible response to the “Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday” campaign. The idea that we could put a stop to preventable child deaths has resonated with our followers online, and it’s been wonderful seeing so many sharing #5thBDay posts and crafting their own. Perhaps most impressive of all has been the hundreds of 5th Birthday photographs you’ve submitted to the campaign site and to us. When you share your #5thBDay photograph, you’re raising awareness among your friends, family and our entire community of the more than 7 million children who die of preventable causes each year—roughly 21,000 a day. Despite this startling reality, child mortality has been reduced by about 40% over the past 30 years, and we know that we can get that number to zero with your support.

Last night, over 400 of UNICEF’s Next Generation’s friends and family gathered to view photos capturing UNICEF’s extraordinary work all over the world.

Tackling poverty and hunger, providing universal education, reducing child mortality, reversing the spread of HIV. Those are just 4 of the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations in 2000 as key benchmarks to be reached by 2015.

Casey Rotter is a development officer for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

The UNICEF Next Generation Steering Committee joined together to support member Mia Baxter and UNICEF supporter David Lieberman showcase photographs from their recent visit to Guatemala. The exhibit was held at a KiptonART Gallery in SoHo and will continue to be open by appointment only until May 30th.

© David Heithold/U.S. Fund for UNICEF

Left to right: Casey Rotter, Barbara Bush, Jenna Bush Hager, Mia Baxter, David Lieberman, Kipton Cronkite, Robert Thompson, Manish Vora, Danielle Abraham.

Members of the Next Generation group travelled to the Central American nation to witness UNICEF’s innovative solutions to combat malnutrition rates in February. Speakers of the evening included Jenna Bush Hager, Mia Baxter, David Lieberman and Robert Thompson, Sr. Vice President for Development for the US Fund for UNICEF. There were over 300 people in attendance, and over 100 FEED Guatemala bags were sold.

DJ Jeff Megraw donated his time and played music with a Latin vibe. A silent auction of the photographs took place which helped the event raise an additional $3,000 to directly support UNICEF’s Next Generation’s mission to support UNICEF nutrition programs in Guatemala. All proceeds from the evening went to benefit UNICEF’s nutrition programs in Guatemala.

To join UNICEF’s Next Generation and learn more, please visit www.unicefusa.org/nextgeneration.

Imane Tirich is one of six young photographers who will be travelling to Cannes this week to accept a Sony World Photography Award sponsored by UNICEF and the World Photography Organization.

Along with other young advocate/photographers from Romania, Israel, Brazil, New Zealand and the USA, Ms. Tirich set out to capture an image relevant to the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This week’s Monday photo focuses on a child’s right to education.

Thousands of children around the world die from preventable causes each day