Fieldnotes: Blogging on UNICEF's child survival work in the field

Early diagnosis and treatment can significantly improve the prospects for survival of newborn babies exposed to HIV, according to a report released today by four United Nations agencies.

The report, Children and AIDS: Third Stocktaking Report is the third review of progress on how AIDS affects children and young people since Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS was launched in October 2005 by UNICEF, UNAIDS and other partners with a commitment to be accountable for results.

Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS is a call to action around the impact of HIV and AIDS on children. It focuses on the needs of children in four key areas, known as the “Four Ps”: preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, providing paediatric treatment for children infected with the virus, preventing new infections among adolescents and young people, and protecting and supporting children affected by HIV and AIDS.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF's work against HIV/AIDS. And in honor of World AIDS Day, please consider making an online donation in support of this vital, lifesaving work.

Posted by Frank Susa, UNICEF USA on December 1, 2008 12:51 PM
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This is part three of a three-part series on UNICEF photography workshops for kids.

A camera can be a key to the future.

For the children who have participated in UNICEF’s photography workshops, the act of taking pictures not only empowers them to tell their own stories—it unlocks their potential and reveals new life opportunities.

“These workshops help children establish a vision of the future where they see themselves as capable, confident contributors,” says Amanda Melville, Child Protection Specialist with UNICEF Headquarters.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2007-2088/Gilbert Tuyishime

RWANDA: Galet, 10, dives into Lake Kivu, in the city of Gisenyi in West Province. The photograph was taken by Gilbert Tuyishime, 13, one of 20 students who participated in a UNICEF-organized photography workshop to increase awareness about malaria and related issues. Gilbert was part of the 'environment' theme group.

Take UNICEF’s Eye See II photo workshop in Pakistan. Young survivors of the monstrous earthquake that struck northern Pakistan in October 2005 were given cameras and challenged to capture their vision for rebuilding the region. Among the 30,000 images they compiled, 35 were selected by professional photographers for an international exhibition. Beginning in Islamabad, the exhibition went on to New York, London, Tokyo and Rome.

The children were also asked to identify some of their communities’ most urgent needs. The young photographers said that homes and schools should be reconstructed and that paved roads should be built, so their mothers wouldn’t have to spend as much time gathering food and water. The government vowed to incorporate the children’s concerns into reconstruction plans.

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Posted by Elizabeth Hira on December 1, 2008 9:46 AM
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	© UNICEF/NYHQ2005-2379/Anita Khemka
	A woman feeds "khichdi," a high protein and carbohydrate mix of lentils and rice, to her child at a community health center in West Bengal State, India.

This Thanksgiving, I find myself thinking about all the little things in life that I often take for granted. So many kids around the world are in need of simple, lifesaving items that I don't often think about twice...

I complain about the size of my apartment, but forget to be thankful for its shelter from the cold.

How many times have I let food spoil while forgetting that others don't have nutritious food to eat.

The constant complaining about the sniffles I've had for a month, while children can't even get immunized against measels and polio.

Taking long showers to "wake up" in the morning, while children have to walk miles in bad weather and dangerous situations just to get clean water.

These simple things that we all take for granted are the very same things that children are dying for, literally, every day—25,000 of them to be exact. By purchasing UNICEF Inspired Gifts, you are saving chidren's lives.

This Thanksgiving, be thankful for what you have, and be inspired to help others.

Posted by Andrea Carricato, UNICEF USA on November 27, 2008 9:00 AM
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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.

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Posted by Adam Fifield, UNICEF USA on November 26, 2008 4:52 PM
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I'm often saddened by how little the conflict in Iraq shows up in the news these days. It was already fairly underreported, and then the election and financial crisis knocked it even farther off the media radar. The good news is that there actually is less violence in Iraq to report these days. The country has stabilized quite a bit from when I was a reporter there in 2004.

But it's still a very dangerous place. And the daily UNICEF operations briefs I read almost always include some disheartening news from Iraq. (Two recent ones contained subheads Five killed, one injured north of Baghdad and Iraq violence leaves 14 dead.)

© UNICEF/NYHQ2007-2321/Michael Kamber

IRAQ: Children follow American soldiers as they patrol the streets of a neighborhood in the town of Falluja. The levels of violence in the city have fallen dramatically over the course of the year. But critical shortages of medicines and vaccines have left nearly one-third of children in remote areas without basic services. One in five Iraqi children has stunted growth, 1 in 13 is underweight, half are missing routine vaccinations and 1 in 5 girls is not in school.

I sometimes think that one of the reasons we Americans don't want to know too much about the situation in Iraq is that it's just so complicated. There are a lot of different combative groups, and it can feel as though it's sometimes hard to know who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. But for UNICEF, it's simple: kids are always the good guys.

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Posted by Jen Banbury, UNICEF USA on November 25, 2008 6:00 PM
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Beginning November 25, 2008 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Third World Congress against the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents seeks global protection policies to prevent the sexual abuse of children. A guiding principle is that silence on this abuse is a form of acceptance.

Click here to launch a new UNICEF photo essay on the sexual exploitation of children.

Posted by Frank Susa, UNICEF USA on November 25, 2008 3:00 AM
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I am always excited to buy holiday gifts that are beautiful and that give back! Cartier offers one of the best: a LOVE Charity bracelet with an 18K gold mini LOVE ring set into a cyan-blue knotted silk cord. There is also a new bracelet that features interlocking miniature LOVE bracelets in 18K white gold and 18K rose gold.

Get this: for each single bracelet with the cyan-blue cord purchased between now and June 19, 2009, Cartier will donate $100 to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, and $200 from the sale of each double bracelet. I can think of several people who might like this. And, they’ll love it even more because it helps children in need.

The Cartier LOVE Charity Bracelet benefiting UNICEF is available in 34 boutiques across the U.S. and Canada. For more information, call 1.800.CARTIER or visit www.love.cartier.com.

Posted by Esther Choi on November 24, 2008 9:00 AM
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This is part two of a three part series on UNICEF photography workshops for kids.

Kids in the developing world and in crisis situations are no strangers to cameras. Often, as they're lined up for water or navigating the debris of war, there are photojournalists on hand to document their plight. The images that result, though captured with the best of intentions, often emphasize the great gap between the children pictured and us, the viewers.

© UNICEF/ HQ07-2141/Archie Pah

LIBERIA: Two-year-old Mending covers one eye at a therapeutic feeding centre in Virginia, a suburb of Monrovia, the capital. She is malnourished and also suffers from malaria. The photograph was taken by Archie Pah, age 14.

Ellen Tolmie, Director of UNICEF's global photography operations, explains how UNICEF photography workshops flip the relationship. "Children in developing countries are used to being photographed. Now they get to photograph. It's an empowerment tool, but it's also a demystifier." Suddenly the camera isn't an invasive tool used to further objectify the children, making them symbols of suffering. Instead, cameras give them the power to capture and document their own experience.

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Posted by Elizabeth Hira on November 21, 2008 1:43 PM
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Just 1 minute. If you’re reading this post, I hope you have one more minute to vote for UNICEF on the “Our World Gives” Facebook promotion sponsored by Western Union and the Western Union Foundation. There are only eight eligible organizations, including the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, and the cause with the most votes will win $50,000. But you have to vote by November 28.

So please take just one minute to vote and ask your friends to do the same. Your vote counts and can bring us one step closer to zero—zero preventable deaths for the world’s children.

Posted by Katie Scolari Borden, UNICEF USA on November 21, 2008 12:00 AM
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I’m excited to announce that 2009 Tap Project Campaign Volunteer registration is up and running—so go to tapproject.org/volunteer right now to learn more and to join this lifesaving campaign!

It seems like just yesterday that we were wrapping up the 2008 Tap Project, celebrating our thousands of volunteers and thousands of participating restaurants. With the World Water Week just around the corner, it’s already time to get started for the 2009 campaign. The Volunteer Center will feature lots of new resources—which will help us to make the Tap Project an even bigger success in 2009.

Right now, registered Campaign Volunteers can take an online training on the World Water Crisis and access information about how far funds raised by the Tap Project can go toward saving the lives of children who do not have access to clean drinking water. We are encouraging Campaign Volunteers already to start thinking about their restaurant recruitment plans and to start spreading the word about the Tap Project in their towns or cities. And, more resources will be posted throughout the campaign.

So please join us, and recruit your friends and family to get on board! We want to make the 2009 Tap Project bigger and better—and we need your help! Register today!

Posted by Kristi Burnham, UNICEF USA on November 20, 2008 7:00 PM
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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.

© 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.

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Posted by Caryl M. Stern, UNICEF USA President and CEO on November 20, 2008 10:31 AM
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It is a fate difficult to imagine for an adult, much less a child:

As fighting engulfs your community, your family is forced from their home. In the chaos that ensues, you become separated from your loved ones. Around you, people are being assaulted and killed. You run, but you don’t know where to go. You are terrified and alone. Soon, you are hungry. Soon after that, you are sick.

But for many children separated from their families during recent fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), this is only the beginning of the nightmare.

Reports of forced recruitment of children by armed groups are on the rise throughout the conflict-riddled North Kivu province of the DRC. UNICEF has warned that unaccompanied children are particularly at risk of exploitation. Displaced children are also made vulnerable to other forms of abuse, including rape.

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Posted by Adam Fifield, UNICEF USA on November 18, 2008 10:54 AM
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The holiday season is just upon us, and what better way to kick it off than by honoring the children of the world.

Shining in the heart of New York City and Beverly Hills, the UNICEF Snowflake is a special symbol for the world's most vulnerable children. The iconic snowflakes—at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City and on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills—hang during the holiday season as a reminder of UNICEF’s commitment to doing whatever it takes to save a child.

Each year, UNICEF hosts the special lighting ceremonies for both Snowflakes to mark the beginning of the holiday giving season and to symbolically shine a light on the children around the world who need our help.

This year the UNICEF Snowflake in New York City will be lit on the eve of Universal Children’s Day, Wednesday, November 19. The evening's events will be hosted by U.S. Fund for UNICEF President and CEO Caryl Stern, with a special performance by Broadway Kids Care and a visit by Sesame Street character Kami, friend of UNICEF. The night's event will also include a surprise musical guest! (Hint: He is currently featured in the U.S. Fund for UNICEF's new media campaign: I Believe in Zero.

The lighting ceremony on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California, highlights the City of Beverly Hills’ Light the Night annual holiday event. UNICEF Ambassador and lead vocalist for the band Good Charlotte, Joel Madden, will be joined by Nicole Richie to “flip the switch” and light the UNICEF Snowflake in Beverly Hills on Saturday, November 22nd.

The UNICEF Snowflake Lighting events are open to the public, and the Snowflake will be illuminated for the entire holiday season serving as a beacon of hope, peace and compassion for children around the world. We hope you’ll be able to stop by and show your support. If you do, be sure to take pictures and add them to our UNICEF Snowflake Flickr group!

Posted by Andrea Carricato, UNICEF USA on November 17, 2008 6:00 PM
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Working in the Communications Department of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, I often get intimate glimpses of people’s lives all over the world. Part of my work entails researching photos of children and their families, many who live in developing countries and suffer from poverty, disease, disaster and other ills.

The images range from the horrible to the hopeful: a child succumbing quietly to fatal malnutrition, preschoolers in rapt attention as a teacher explains how to spot landmines, mothers in colorful wraps with rosy infants waiting for lifesaving vaccines.

© UNICEF/HQ06-1234/Zubair

PAKISTAN: Child’s View – Zubair, 8, photographs himself in the village of Haji Abad in Mansehra District in North Western Frontier Province. “I wanted to see my own image so I took this picture to see what I look like,” he said. “The three main needs in our community are shelter, food and water.” Zubair is one of 160 children who participated in the EYE SEE II project for earthquake-affected children.

Even among these powerful images, a few stand out as extraordinary. These are pictures not just of children, but by them.

These photos are the product of UNICEF photography workshops, week-long events that take place around the world and focus on local children. Collectively coordinated by UNICEF photographers, country offices, local NGOs, corporate sponsors, and, of course, children, the program empowers young people to document the world around them—to tell their own stories.

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Posted by Elizabeth Hira on November 14, 2008 4:58 PM
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You’ve read our blog postings during the weeks leading up to Halloween asking our volunteers and supporters to get involved in a variety of ways: host a Halloween Party, Text-to-Treat, and share pictures at flickr, and more.

© Yenny Darmajaya, 2008

This Atlanta-based youth group had a smash hit Halloween Party for UNICEF and posted their photo to the flickr group.

The 2008 campaign was our best year yet! While we are still receiving all the coins everyone collected, we offer a special thanks to all our volunteers for all your efforts in participating in Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign.

We asked our volunteers to host Halloween Parties, and are thrilled to report more than 625 registered their parties with us and have already started sharing their photos. Check them out, and if you haven’t already, post your party photos as well!

Thank you for your support of UNICEF!

Posted by Kristi Burnham, UNICEF USA on November 13, 2008 11:58 AM
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Are you a Delta Air Lines SkyMiles member? Do you have unused frequent flyer miles? Put them to good use by donating them to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. With Delta's SkyWish program, SkyMiles members can donate their miles to any participating charity organization, including the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. For more information, visit www.delta.com/skywish.

Posted by Frank Susa, UNICEF USA on November 12, 2008 11:00 AM
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One day last month, twelve-year-old Saliu came to his father, complaining of terrible stomach pains. Saliu's health quickly deteriorated, and his father rushed him to a hospital in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau, where he was diagnosed with cholera.

Saliu is among many thousands who have fallen ill since cholera broke out in Guinea-Bissau in May. We wrote about it in early September. But, according to Reuters, the disease has still been spreading at a rate of more than 1,000 infections per month. Worst hit are the capital and regions in the west and south.

© UNICEF/UGDA01084/Hyun

UGANDA: A child affected by cholera receives an intravenous drip as his father sits by his bed inside the Cholera Treatment Center of Kitgum Government Hospital in northern Uganda. The center was established with UNICEF support to respond to a cholera outbreak in 2006.

Cholera is a highly contagious water-borne disease that causes acute diarrhea and vomiting. And in severe cases, it can lead to death from dehydration within hours. Cholera spreads where sewage is left untreated and people don't have access to clean drinking water. The prevalence of the disease is considered a key indicator of social development.

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