On a rainy Thursday last week, I attended the UNICEF Annual Meeting and even after working with the organization for three years, the content was compelling. I already knew the heartbreaking statistic of 25,000 children dying a day die from preventable causes but sometimes a number is just a number and you can’t really get your head around it. That’s why a few of the stories of the day stood out:
- Cynthia McFadden told a story about a girl in a yellow dress standing day and night by her mother’s bed as she lay dying. She then played a segment from Nightline that aired in February in which she traveled with UNICEF ambassador Salma Hayek to Sierra Leone (yes the one where Salma Hayek breastfed a starving baby but more importantly, the segment that showed a seven-day old baby taking her last breath). Even so, the most poignant part of her speech came at the end when she said she would keep doing whatever she could to help children in honor of the girl in the yellow dress – it gave me chills.
- UNICEF Field Officer Silvia Gaya spoke about sanitation efforts in Chad but it was later when I got to speak to her one on one that I learned that she had been critically wounded in Chad while working there several years ago. Despite a more than three-year recovery, she longs to go back as she simply feels that it is her mission to be out there helping children.
- Finally, Pernille Ironside spoke about the atrocities in Darfur. Pernille was captivating – she seemed exhausted by what she has seen and done and yet so calm and matter of fact about her work. Over a slideshow of her own pictures in the background, Pernille talked about reuniting children with their families after they had been captured and made to be child soldiers and sex slaves. After she finished, the session was opened to questions but there were none as the audience seemed shell-shocked by what they had heard.
A day like that reminded me that no matter how rainy it is in NYC or how bad the economy is in the U.S., that nothing feels better than putting a smile on a child’s face because they have a full belly.
Showing posts with label Unicef. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unicef. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
UNICEF's Tap Project highlights World Water Week
UNICEF recently held its annual fundraising campaign, the Tap Project, a grassroots initiative to provide clean water to children around the world that asks individuals to donate $1 or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for free at participating restaurants. The Tap Project took place this year during World Water Week, March 22 – 28, 2009 with more than 1,500 restaurants participating nationwide.
This year’s Tap Project kicked off with two Water Walks taking place in
Now in its third year, the Tap Project expanded in 2009 with additional efforts in
The Tap Project is such a simple way to reach people by asking them to donate during their meal at a restaurant. The donation doesn’t necessarily have to be a large monetary amount as UNICEF stresses that just $1 can supply a child with safe drinking water for 40 days! Our nation has been so focused on our current economic issues that we sometimes forget that there are individuals around the world who aren’t able to access the things we take for granted, like the most basic need of clean drinking water.
We are thrilled to have supported Tap since its inception and look forward to many more years working on the campaign and with UNICEF to further its goal to reduce the number of needless child deaths to zero.
Posted by Liz Castoro, Assistant Account Executive
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Honduras Close-Up! JS2 President Joins UNICEF In Their Champion For Change Program
I recently returned from a trip to Honduras with our client UNICEF where we visited several programs that are funded by UNICEF in collaboration with Change for Good, an American Airlines sponsored giving campaign. This program is powered solely by individual American Airlines flight attendants (Champions for Change) who feel passionately about giving back to the children of the world through UNICEF. On international flights and now transcontinental domestic flights, the AA Champions show an in-flight video on how money collected by American Airlines and disbursed through UNICEF can literally make the difference between life and death for many of this world’s children. Change for Good, a very apt name, encourages passengers to donate any left-over currency from overseas travels, or whatever spare pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters or $20.00 bills find their way into the UNICEF bag!
For me, this trip was life altering. As a business owner and a mother of two, I have been desperately trying to put our current economic downturn into perspective and give it some context. It is very easy to let our economic state-of-the-union and overall national depression color and control our lives. With this trip to Honduras, where 30% of the children are malnourished and so many have no running water; I quickly remembered how fortunate I am. It is up to people like me to become advocates for the children of the world who deserve so much and receive so little.
Fabiola, Julia and Hector, our Honduran UNICEF leaders, are superstars. I learned so much from Fabiola in particular. We spent a great deal of time discussing the rights of children and how essential it is to engage and encourage them to be involved in their own destiny. The respect with which Fabiola and Hector approached each and every child made me understand how nuanced and deep UNICEF’s work truly is.
And then there were the children, who are beautiful, moving, funny, intelligent, motivated and resplendent in their promise! Football for life, the schools, the clinics, the water and hygiene programs – all incredible!! One program in particular that is funded by Change for Good, Arte Accion, knocked my socks off! The founder and leader of the program, Douglas, a former gang leader, heads up this brilliant arts program where gang kids can find a safe place to blossom into artists. He literally plucks the gang kids who have been “green lit,” or targeted for death from the gangs, out of harm’s way and gives them tools with which to express their lives. I cannot speak about this place without being moved to tears because this program, for me, is symbolic of all that UNICEF does. I personally silk screened a t-shirt for my 13 year old son with their logo and tried to explain to my two children how lucky they are and how much they take for granted. We talked well into the night when I returned to Los Angeles and I felt, for the first time, that my son and daughter began to understand why UNICEF is so important and why I am so committed.
On the way back from Tegucigalpa I was able to see the Change for Good program in action. We raised $250.00 in less than 10 minutes on the flight from Tegucigalpa to Miami and then Franck, one of the AA Champions, raised another $160.00 from Miami to Boston. When I think of what that $410.00 can buy, I get so excited!
On my trip to Honduras I became empowered to make a “Change for Good,” and have fully committed JS²’s resources to this incredible program. I cannot wait to take this to the next step and am thrilled to be working with this tremendous group of people with whom I just spent four days. I feel that with this trip I have become a true UNICEF activist and cannot wait to do more. I hope that I will have the opportunity to go on another UNICEF trip in another part of the world sometime soon, but in the meantime this trip, which is so alive inside of me, will feed our work together moving forward.
For me, this trip was life altering. As a business owner and a mother of two, I have been desperately trying to put our current economic downturn into perspective and give it some context. It is very easy to let our economic state-of-the-union and overall national depression color and control our lives. With this trip to Honduras, where 30% of the children are malnourished and so many have no running water; I quickly remembered how fortunate I am. It is up to people like me to become advocates for the children of the world who deserve so much and receive so little.
Fabiola, Julia and Hector, our Honduran UNICEF leaders, are superstars. I learned so much from Fabiola in particular. We spent a great deal of time discussing the rights of children and how essential it is to engage and encourage them to be involved in their own destiny. The respect with which Fabiola and Hector approached each and every child made me understand how nuanced and deep UNICEF’s work truly is.
And then there were the children, who are beautiful, moving, funny, intelligent, motivated and resplendent in their promise! Football for life, the schools, the clinics, the water and hygiene programs – all incredible!! One program in particular that is funded by Change for Good, Arte Accion, knocked my socks off! The founder and leader of the program, Douglas, a former gang leader, heads up this brilliant arts program where gang kids can find a safe place to blossom into artists. He literally plucks the gang kids who have been “green lit,” or targeted for death from the gangs, out of harm’s way and gives them tools with which to express their lives. I cannot speak about this place without being moved to tears because this program, for me, is symbolic of all that UNICEF does. I personally silk screened a t-shirt for my 13 year old son with their logo and tried to explain to my two children how lucky they are and how much they take for granted. We talked well into the night when I returned to Los Angeles and I felt, for the first time, that my son and daughter began to understand why UNICEF is so important and why I am so committed.
On the way back from Tegucigalpa I was able to see the Change for Good program in action. We raised $250.00 in less than 10 minutes on the flight from Tegucigalpa to Miami and then Franck, one of the AA Champions, raised another $160.00 from Miami to Boston. When I think of what that $410.00 can buy, I get so excited!
On my trip to Honduras I became empowered to make a “Change for Good,” and have fully committed JS²’s resources to this incredible program. I cannot wait to take this to the next step and am thrilled to be working with this tremendous group of people with whom I just spent four days. I feel that with this trip I have become a true UNICEF activist and cannot wait to do more. I hope that I will have the opportunity to go on another UNICEF trip in another part of the world sometime soon, but in the meantime this trip, which is so alive inside of me, will feed our work together moving forward.
Jill Sandin
President
Posted by Jill Sandin, President
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