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December 2023 - UNICEF

Here it is. The final Hot Topic of the year 2023.


It has almost been a year since posting here on our glamorous new website and talking about "the beautiful game" hosted in Qatar and how it corresponds to British Values!


Why have we chosen to talk about UNICEF during the month synonymous with giving gifts and looking towards the future? We want to raise awareness of the work that UNICEF does and celebrate the good they do worldwide. What better time than in the month of their 77th birthday?


Good from Evil - The Origins of UNICEF


To begin understanding UNICEF's origins, we must first understand the origins of UNRRA - the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.


The United States and Britain founded this administrative body as a grand global experiment to establish an international social welfare programme. President Franklin Roosevelt pitched it to the US Congress as a means to re-energise the peoples of Europe and China on behalf of democracy on the 9th of November, 1943.


In an article titled "A United Nations Health Service - Why not?" published in Free World magazine as early as September 1943, Ludwik Rajchman, a Polish health expert, suggested incorporating a health service within the forthcoming international organisation. He also advocated for the imposition of a "health tax" to be contributed by member states.


In early 1944, Ludwik was approached by the Deputy General of UNRRA and was assigned to develop programs for epidemiology (the science of understanding how diseases spread and why they occur) and refugee assistance.


In the following year, 1945, World War II had concluded and left millions without a place to call home, struggling every day for food and water and at the peril of tuberculosis in the aftermath. In response, the UNRRA began to operate a small relief effort in October of that year on behalf of the UN to provide aid against famine and diseases in Europe.


Skipping ahead a year later to December of 1946, the Allies of World War II reconvened as the Cold War began to divide Europe into two distinct zones, Eastern and Western. At the same time, UNRRA also ended with a leftover budget since it knew it was not openly welcome in every part of Europe. However, as winter was rapidly threatening to become one of the worst in history, the Allies knew one thing was clear: A relief group was necessary, lest the misplaced and ill-prepared survivors of the war succumb to the harsh winter ahead. During a UN assembly, Ludwik proposed that the UN should set up a new branch to use the leftover budget from UNRRA to feed children.


This simple proposition by Ludwik left the entire UN assembly board entranced. And so, on the 11th of December, 1946, a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly declared a new branch with a goal similar to that of UNRRA. The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund emerged as a temporary beacon of hope for the world's most vulnerable population in Europe after the war – children. Their goal was to provide food and drink, clothing, and health care to every child of war. The branch's goal was also reflected in one of its first unique logos that depicted a boy drinking milk above the initials of this newly established branch: UNICEF.


January of 1947 saw a businessman named Maurice Pate become the first Executive Director of UNICEF. As part of his administration, he ambitiously noted that there are more children in the countries outside of Europe. He ambitiously moved the goalposts detailed in UNICEF's initial mandate from exclusively helping Europe to helping developing and independent countries worldwide.

Cards For Humanity - UNICEF'S First Fundraiser

Now for a bit of timely Christmas card trivia. In 1949, UNICEF was the first charity to start making greeting cards for fundraising. Their first Christmas card campaign featured approximately 500 cards featuring a painting sent as a gift to the UNICEF headquarters from Czechoslovakia by a seven-year-old girl named Dzitka Samkova. Sent by one of her teachers, this captivating painting shows:

  • Five girls dancing around a colourful maypole with equally colourful dresses.

  • A bright blue sky featuring a cheery sun with rosy-red cheeks and a face, quite literally beaming down a smile.

  • On a hill in the background is the UNICEF bureau in Prague.

On the topic of UNICEF and greeting cards, did you know that in 1952, several famous artists were recruited and even donated unique artworks to feature on UNICEF's cards? These artists include:

  • Henri Matisse (The visual artist behind vibrant works including "Woman in a Hat" and "The Snail")

  • Salvador Dali (One of the well-known artists of surreal art and the artist behind "The Persistence of Memory" with melting clocks)

  • Pablo Picasso (Yes, the Spanish artist/sculptor famous for his "Cubism" style and the artist behind pieces like "The Old Guitarist" and the widely debated "Guernica")

  • Raul Dufy (A French artist known for their Fauvism technique and the artist behind "Chateau and Horses")

The campaign was a huge success, and this fundraiser meant that UNICEF could continue to help countries in need. Partially thanks to this campaign showing the work they do for one child among many, the UN decided to cement UNICEF's branch indefinitely in 1953, which also saw the words "Emergency" and "International" officially dropped from the name of the branch.


Nineteen years after the branch was initially founded in 1965, UNICEF even won a Nobel Peace Prize for "its effort to enhance solidarity between nations and reduce the difference between rich and poor states".


How are they helping today?

While UNICEF's goals and understanding have evolved, their mandate has remained unchanged. Let us look into some of the fascinating ways in which UNICEF make a difference that we might overlook:

Food for Thought, Therapy and Life

Here’s a small challenge. Name a food that:

  • Has a shelf life of up to two years

  • Contains important vitamins and minerals

  • Comes in and can be eaten in a packet

  • Can be quickly eaten/digested by children under 5 (and is also somewhat enjoyed)

  • May go by the brand name “Plumpy’nut” or “Malai Mix”

"RUFT" is the generic term for Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food, with main ingredients including peanuts, butter, and vegetable oil. It helps mothers and children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition. Additionally, combined with other fortified foods (such as biscuits and cereal), multi-nutrient tablets, and breastfeeding, RUFT can help combat malnutrition and save the lives of infants and children.


While expensive and unsuitable for sustained consumption, UNICEF strategically coordinates with suppliers to ensure a three-month supply buffer for unexpected crises.

WASH, A Liquid Lifeline

Every community needs clean, accessible water. Yet, despite this, children are often the unfortunate ones burdened to journey miles for water or to ration and live without seeing a drop for a week or more. Some communities are so desperate that they make do with visibly dirty water. Be it from mud or waste, they are forced to make the unpleasant choice of drinking a "cocktail" of waterborne diseases (such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid) or forfeit drinking and risk dehydration instead.


As a short-term response to a crisis, UNICEF may supply water-purification tablets and what is known as a water flocculant kit. To summarise, these pre-measured powder kits involve:

  1. Adding the powdered chemical mix to unsanitary water enables the solid waste to collect in large, solid clumps (known as flocc) that begin to settle at the bottom of the body of water.

  2. These solidified clumps can then be filtered out using a cloth (or a similar object) as an impromptu sieve to allow for safe, sanitary water that can be drunk.

  3. In the flocculant kits, a small amount of residual chlorine is used as a disinfectant. Up to 10 litres of water can be purified per kit.

But struggling for water is merely one problem. What about hygiene and sanitation to prevent waterborne diseases? UNICEF's WASH (Water and Sanitation Hygiene) initiative addresses these equally essential issues.


While situations can vary, one success story of the WASH initiative can be found in Nigeria, where UNICEF worked with partners in the area to help set up:

  • A solar-powered motorised water pump

  • Initiatives to educate children in primary schools

  • Installing long-lasting, gender-segregated latrines


Additionally, the presence of water also helps to shape agriculture. But how can people, plants and animals thrive in a rural community such as Madagascar? A multi-use system connects all three needs together. It allows plants to get the right amount of water, enables homes to have clean water through a borehole (a narrow hole dug into the ground to extract water) and also helps to dispense water in troughs to animals automatically, which can, in turn, fertilise the crops.


Even after crops are grown, UNICEF may help teach new mothers how to sanitise vegetables, prepare meals, and the importance of breastfeeding to set their babies up for a bright start to life, on top of giving skills for life.

Lasting Cure

UNICEF are not just limited to giving food, water and education. They also work with the WHO - another branch of the UN - to provide medical aid and technology to children and mothers who require them.


Offering medicine and vaccines can be challenging depending on the type of environment (and exposure to the sun), especially as vaccines must be stored at a consistent temperature from when they are manufactured up until the crucial moment of vaccination, which can affect the dosage's effectiveness. Once lost, there is no way to restore the efficacy of a vaccine, rendering it spoilt.


Vaccines are stored as refrigerated cargo to be delivered by plane, stored in a cold room, and delivered in refrigerated cars and trucks to maintain a consistent temperature. Where there are no roads, they are transported in cooler boxes on foot and possibly even ziplined to even the most remote villages.


Even since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, many countries have been cut off from getting supplies due to the major disruption caused by global supply chains. UNICEF was able to procure and deliver:

  • 1,493,000,000 vaccines to 112 countries

  • 1,645,000,000 syringes and 16,000,000 safety boxes to 99 countries

  • 489,000,000 face masks and 33,200,000 N95 respirators

  • 411,900,000 gloves

Even now, mothers and children require aid, and UNICEF is trying to respond by implementing various programs and initiatives aimed at addressing their needs. From providing essential healthcare services to ensuring access to clean water and nutrition, UNICEF works tirelessly to safeguard the well-being of mothers and children around the world, regardless of whether that help is needed in conflict zones or areas at risk from natural disasters. UNICEF's emergency response teams proactively work to both rescue and educate.

Discussion points for Safeguarding and British Values:

  • How can advocacy for children's rights contribute to a more peaceful society?

  • Can more be done to advocate for children's rights?

  • Do children deserve to be empowered to participate in life-affecting decisions?

  • How can we protect the vulnerable from harm?

  • What other ways does UNICEF respond to humanitarian crises, and what unique challenges does it face in such situations?





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