RETURN TO MAIN PAGE // Archive for the ‘UNICEF’ Category
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Joel Madden on the Tap Project
Joel Madden, lead singer of the band Good Charlotte, became a UNICEF Ambassador in 2008. He’s particularly committed to supporting UNICEF’s water and sanitation programs, and is acting as the 2009 National Spokesperson for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF Tap Project.
Photo credit UNICEF/Pierre Holtz
Last year, I got to see—up close—what it’s like when safe, clean drinking water is a luxury, not a given. I traveled to the Central African Republic (CAR), where a third of the people don’t have safe water. Instead of waking up in the morning and turning on the tap, they may have to walk miles to get water from a dirty stream. Or pay someone for a bucket of water that came from a contaminated well. In a health clinic in this great little town, Sam Ouandja, we met children who were sick and dying from drinking unclean water. It was awful. I’m a father and seeing kids dying for reasons that can so easily be prevented was something I just couldn’t accept.
But every day around the world, over 4,200 children die from water-related diseases. This year, I signed up to be the spokesperson for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF Tap Project, because I want people to be aware of this horrible truth. And do something to stop it. During World Water Week, March 22–28, the Tap Project raises money for UNICEF to bring clean water to millions of kids around the world. It works like this: restaurants ask people who come in for a meal to give $1 for tap water they’d usually drink free. That one buck can pay for a child to have clean drinking water for 40 days. This is a great, simple idea that makes a difference. Go check out the Tap Project website to find restaurants near you that are part of Tap this year. Or learn about all the other ways you can donate and get involved.
On my trip to trip to CAR, I got to see some of the awesome work UNICEF is doing with the money we raise. I can’t tell you how great it felt to meet people who—because of UNICEF—had clean water in the refugee camp we went to. Or to hang out with kids at a school with a UNICEF well who were healthy—not sick from bad water. But I think about the kids I met in Sam Ouandja—children I sat with, played with, sang with… children who could die because they don’t have clean water. You can really make a difference for kids like these with the Tap Project. So please—get involved!
-Joel Madden
Tap Water – Clean Water For All
Are you looking for a way to support the efforts of assuring that everyone in the world has access to clean water? If you’re already planning to go to a restaurant next week, you can find one in your area that has partnered with the Tap Project and you can be part of the solution!
During World Water Week, March 22-28, 2009, the Tap Project will once again raise vital donations and awareness for UNICEF’s water and sanitation programs. For every dollar raised, a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days. All funds raised support UNICEF’s efforts to bring clean and accessible water to millions of children around the world.
Next Thursday, March 26 ONE members and their friends will be meeting for dinner at Gordon Biersch. Instead of getting tap water for free, patrons will be asked to donate $1 or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for no cost, and all funds raised will support UNICEF’s efforts to bring clean and accessible water to millions of children around the world. Participants can RSVP at the ONE event site.
-Lori Saltveit, ONE member, San Francisco Bay Area
Zimbabwe Updates
As we continue to monitor the situation in Zimbabwe, there are a couple developments today worth noting:
Word has come that South Africa will host a regional summit on Zimbabwe. This announcement follows a failure in talks between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on forming a power-sharing government.
“The summit of heads of state and government is expected to be attended by all (Southern African Development Community) member states,” the South African Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Zimbabwe is a member of SADC and the statement said the MDC was also expected to attend the summit.South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, Mozambique’s President Armando Guebuza and Thabo Mbeki, SADC mediator and former South African president, met the two Zimbabwean sides in Harare last Monday but no agreement was reached.
A unity government is seen as the best chance of preventing total collapse in once prosperous Zimbabwe, where prices double every day and more than 2,000 people have died in a cholera epidemic.
Last week the Executive Director of UNICEF Anne M. Veneman visited Zimbabwe to meet with Mugabe and other key stakeholders The discussions “underscored the humanitarian impact on women and children.”
“The cholera outbreak is the tip of the iceberg,” said Veneman, the first head of a UN agency to visit the country in three years. “The economy in Zimbabwe is crumbling, with the highest inflation rate in the world at 231 million percent. Over half the population is receiving food aid, health centers have closed and when the school term starts there is no guarantee that there will be enough teachers.”
The Executive Director visited a cholera treatment clinic and a care center that is part of a UNICEF supported program that helps 250,000 orphans and vulnerable children.
-Chris Scott
Believe in Zero
Our friends at UNICEF just passed along this great blog post written by Clay Aiken. Enjoy!
I’m Clay Aiken, and I am a UNICEF Ambassador.
The U.S. Fund for UNICEF is proud to be a partner of ONE. ONE has mobilized millions of Americans to speak up about the importance of tackling global poverty – saving and improving lives around the world.
I’ve had a chance to see many wonderful children, full of laughter and hope, in even the poorest places around the world. And I’ve seen the incredible work of UNICEF to help those children and their families survive and thrive. But I have also seen children sick and dying from lack of basic nutrition and medicines. And I cannot forget that despite UNICEF’s work, 25,000 children die every day, mostly from preventable causes. I believe that number should be “zero”– no child dying unnecessarily.
All of us can help to save children’s lives – individuals, nonprofits, corporations, and governments.
So I am asking President Barack Obama to launch a Presidential Initiative to Accelerate Child Survival. And I am asking YOU to join me, by signing a petition to the President.
ONE supporters care about helping the most vulnerable people on our planet. Please join me in telling the next President of the United States that Americans want him to make global child survival a top priority. For more information and to sign the petition, go to:
http://volunteers.unicefusa.org/activities/advocate/presidential-initiative-to.html.-Clay Aiken, UNICEF Ambassador
-Photos courtesy of UNICEF/Nick
New UNICEF Report: State of the World’s Children
Yesterday, UNICEF released its new State of the World’s Children report which calls for the big gap in maternal and child death rates between the developing world and industrialized countries to be addressed more aggressively. The report examines maternal mortality in developing countries and reports that too many women and children are dying of causes that could be prevented or easily treated.
In the world’s least developed countries, having a baby is among the most serious health risks for women. Every day, 1,500 women die from complications of pregnancy or childbirth – mostly in Africa and South Asia. And the younger the mother, the higher the risk: girls who have children before they turn 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20’s. While the child mortality rate in developing countries has decreased by 27% since 1995, a child born in a developing country is still 14 times more likely to die during the first month of life than a child born in a developed country. Most of these deaths are preventable. UNICEF’s Executive Director Ann Veneman states: “Progress has been made in reducing child mortality, but much more must be done especially in addressing maternal and newborn health.” Proven, cost-effective interventions exist which can save mothers’ lives and consequently, improve the chances that their children will survive too.
The barriers to bringing these interventions to the women and girls most in need are significant, but not insurmountable. The report cites weak health systems and a shortage of trained health workers as two of the biggest obstacles to reducing maternal mortality rates (and address other key health issues) in Asia and Africa. The health worker shortage is felt most acutely in Africa, which has 24% of the global disease burden but only 3% of the global health workforce. In countries where fertility rates are high and where women are not empowered to make decisions about their healthcare, these problems are compounded.
Efforts to address these problems and generate declines in maternal mortality are increasing. Just within the past five years, the number of new initiatives designed to generate new money for health systems and expand the reach of maternal and child programs have increased dramatically. Donor funding for maternal, neonatal, and child health has (more…)
Plumpy’Doz: Nutrition Innovation
As we move on to a new year in our fight against global poverty and hunger, UNICEF is introducing an innovative food supplement — “Plumpy’Doz” — to very young children in Somalia.
The brown paste supplement is made from vegetable fat, peanut butter, sugar, milk, and other nutrients, and is designed to taste good to kid. Critically, it also has a longer shelf life than previous diet supplements and doesn’t need to be mixed with water.
Three teaspoons of Plumpy’Doz three times a day provides each young child with additional energy, including fats, high-quality protein and all the essential minerals and vitamins required to ensure growth and a healthy immune system.
Other partners, such as the World Food Programme and Doctors Without Borders, have already been using the supplement, but: “this is the first time that Plumpy’Doz will be distributed on such a large scale. UNICEF is working with partners to take proactive action to not only treat but prevent malnutrition,” said Christian Balslev-Olesen, said UNICEF Somalia Representative. “By adopting this new approach, we aim to reach children before they become malnourished.”
You can read a AFP article here and statements from UNICEF here.
-Virginia Simmons
CNN To Highlight UNICEF and Child Survival Sunday
New sobering numbers on the impact of soaring food prices: the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the rising cost of food has increased the number of hungry people in the world by 122 million in 2007 and now threatens to swell the malnourished population for a decade. The number of new hungry people — the biggest increase since the department started producing the report 16 years ago — is roughly the population of Japan.
Wall Street Journal: Rising Food Costs Further Pressure World Hunger
-Steve Wilson
In Ethiopia, only enough food for the “hungriest”
The food crisis has taken its harshest toll on the poorest countries, Ethiopia being one of the hardest hit.
From the Christian Science Monitor :
In this African nation, about 10 million people, more than 12 percent of the population, are now in need of emergency food aid after a drought wiped out harvests. But because grain is now twice as expensive as a year ago – if it is available at all – there is not enough food in Ethiopia to feed everyone in need.
The UN estimates that 4.6 million Ethiopians are suffering from “severe malnutrition,”, but the lack of food is so severe that foreign and domestic aid-workers need to “prioritize” who is the most needy. Some have take to weighing children on wooden scales and providing food rations to the most malnourished.
UNICEF has made an appeal for $49 million to go towards “immediate intervention” in Ethiopia. UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Hilde F. Johnson emphasized the severity of the situation:
“We talked to mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers and all actors in the field. This picture was confirmed by all of them and a clear message was conveyed: there is no food. The assistance needs to be taken to scale and it has to happen urgently.”
-Betsy Avila
UNICEF reports some success in the fight against HIV/AIDS
UNICEF announced yesterday that some progress is being made in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS in children. According to UNICEF’s “Children and AIDS: Second Stocktaking Report”, significant improvements have been made in reducing rates of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and increasing the number of children receiving life-saving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). In 2006, 350,000 HIV-positive pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries received drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission, a 60% increase from 2005. Also in 2006, more than 125,000 HIV-positive children were receiving AIDS treatment, up 70% from the year before.
In particular, steady progress has been made in eastern and southern Africa. Two years ago, only 11% of HIV-positive pregnant women in the region were receiving drugs to prevent transmission of the virus to their babies. That number rose to 31% by 2006. The number of children receiving ARVs also rose dramatically, from 70,000 to 127,000 over the same period.
Despite this progress, the world is still far from reaching UNICEF’s target of 80% treatment coverage by 2010. “Poor geographical service reach, aggravated by weak health systems, and the fear, stigma and denial that discourage many women from being tested for HIV are significant barriers to wider coverage,” the report said.
- Jessica Warren
World Water Day 2008 (T- 3 days)
Our friends at Water Advocates compiled this list of upcoming World Water Day events.
Beginning Sunday, March 16 through Saturday, March 22, restaurants will invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they would normally get for free. These donations to UNICEF will go towards improving access to safe water and sanitation facilities in schools and communities, while promoting safe hygiene practices in more than 90 countries around the world. Plug in your zip code to find restaurants in your city.
World Water Day 2008 will be celebrated by the UN on Thursday, March 20. In New York you can help bring awareness to the sanitation crisis by “standing up for those that can’t sit down.”
PSI will host a World Water Day discussion about their Safe Water Programs, the successes and challenges, and the way forward on March 20 from 3:30-5:00 PM. If interested, please RSVP to akhanna@psi.org.
Celebrate World Water Day with Water For People on Friday, March 21. Raffles and speakers-including Amy Hart - Filmmaker, WATER FIRST-will make the evening one to remember.
If in Louisville, KY, join Edge Outreach on March 21, 2008 for a night of music, water and film. Join speakers and hear stories of what is being done for those without water and sanitation.
The DC Environmental Film Festival will have several water movies showing on World Water Day March 22. There is also a panel of water experts at 4:00 PM that day from Water Advocates, the Global Water Challenge, Natural Resources Defense Council and ConservationStrategy.
Join the Global Water Challenge, Water Advocates and others at the Student Movement for Real Change event on March 22: “Water is Life: Youth Leading Change on World Water Day”.
In 2007, 69 cities across the United States passed resolutions acknowledging March 22 as World Water Day. Join those interested in promoting World Water Day in a variety of events across the country.
WaterAid America in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History present a panel discussion exploring the burden unsafe water and sanitation place on women, and the role women can play in water and sanitation development interventions. The discussion will be held on World Water Day, March 22.
Attention runners: join in an effort to raise awareness about the global water and sanitation challenge and help build a borehole well in the Azawak Valley, Niger - sign up for a Run for Water on March 22.
The Global Health Council will hold a briefing on Capitol Hill called “The Link Between Clean Water and Health.” The briefing will be on March 26 at 12:30 PM on Capitol Hill.
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The ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with frequent contributions from volunteers, members and partner organizations.
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TAGS: NGO Partner, UNICEF, Water and Sanitation