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Priorities UNICEF mainly helps out in the poorer regions of Africa although it has done charity work all over the world. UNICEF is currently focused on 5 primary priorities: Child Survival and Development, Basic Education and Gender Equality (including Girls Education), Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse, HIV/AIDS and children, and Policy advocacy and partnerships for children’s rights. Related areas of UNICEF action include early childhood development, adolescence development and participation, life skills based education. UNICEF work to improve the status of their priorities through 14 methods ranging from direct and legal interventions to education and beyond to research and census data collection. Education Education is a proven intervention for improving the lives of all people, including children. Educating young women yields spectacular benefits for the current and future generations, and specifically affects a range of UNICEF priorities including child survival, children in family, immunization, and child protection. UNICEF’s aim is to get more girls into school, ensure that they stay in school and that they are equipped with the basic tools they need to succeed in later life. As part of its on-going efforts to ensure every girl and boy their right to an education, UNICEF’s acceleration strategy is speeding progress in girls’ enrollment in 25 selected countries during the 2002–2005 period. Period. Immunization plus Immunization is a direct intervention method which has made great improvements in the health of children world-wide over the past 20 years. But every year, more than 2 million children die from diseases that could have been prevented by inexpensive vaccines. The plus in the programme is the additional immunizations made possible during interventions. Ranging from client education to nutritional supplements to insecticide-treated mosquito netting, these life-saving services make immunization programmes a powerful tool for child health. . Child protection Every day children are forced to be soldiers, sex workers, sweatshop workers, servants. They are abused, exploited, and the subject of violence and the outcomes are uneducated, unhealthy, and impoverished children. UNICEF works in a variety of ways to provide protection and support, from child's rights advocacy to child soldier demobilisation programmes, working with individuals, civic groups, governments, and the private sector to bring about positive change. Among many other programmes, UNICEF supports the international Child Rights Information Network. HIV/AIDS 15 million children are now orphaned due to AIDS. It is estimated that by the year 2010 in sub-Saharan Africa alone, more than 18 million children, will have lost at least one parent to AIDS. Half of all new infections are people under the age of 25, with girls being hit harder and younger than boys. Working to protect and support orphaned children, to prevent parent-child transmission, and to give young people gender-sensitive and youth-friendly services, UNICEF also advocates for a protective familial, social and legal environment. UNICEF is also running several programmes dedicated to controlling both online and offline child pornography. Early childhood Every child must be ensured the best start in life – their future, and indeed the future of their communities, nations and the whole world depends on it. UNICEF applies a holistic, evidence-based approach to Early childhood, including the following principles: Public perception UNICEF is the world's leading children's organization. Over the 60 years of its history it has become a primary reference for governments and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), collecting and disseminating more research on children than any other organisation, writing position papers on various aspects of the health and environments of children. UNICEF has also organised world-wide fundraising drives, to fund interventions which directly benefit children. But many groups, governments, and individuals have criticised UNICEF over the years for failing to meet the needs of their particular group or interest. Recent examples include criticism of its perceived failure to hold the Government of Sudan adequately accountable for the practice of slavery in southern Sudan, its policy against the marketing of breast-milk substitutes in developing world hospitals, and its adherence to the 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been ratified by every member state in the United Nations except for the United States (which is a signatory to the convention) and Somalia. Unlike NGOs, UNICEF is an inter-governmental organisation and thus is accountable to governments. This gives it unique reach and access in every country in the world, but also sometimes hampers its ability to speak out on rights violations. UNICEF has also been criticised for having political bias; while UNICEF aims to fund only non-political organisations, NGO Monitor (published by former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Dore Gold) criticises the UNICEF-funded "Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation" (PYALARA), a student-run Palestinian NGO, for what NGO Monitor alleges is its covert political agenda justifying suicide bombings and demonising Israel. The Catholic Church has also been critical of UNICEF, with the Vatican even withdrawing donations, because of reports by the American Life League that parts of the funding pay for sterilizations, abortions, and contraceptives. The cause for this accusations had been, that UNICEF had spread information about possible measures to girls who were in danger of being raped by soldiers during civil wars as well as education on how to avoid HIV-infection and how to reduce exorbitant birth rates. . Sponsorship On 7 September 2006, an agreement between UNICEF and the Spanish club FC Barcelona was reached whereby the club would donate 0.7% of its total yearly revenue to the organization for five years. As part of the agreement, FC Barcelona will wear the UNICEF logo on the front of their shirts, which will be the first time the organization would have such a sponsorship deal with a sports club. It is also the first time in club history that the logo of another organization (save for the logos of the athletic manufacturers of the shirts) will be present. Trick-or-Treat UNICEF box Since 1950 when a group of children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania donated $17 they got on Halloween to help post-World War II victims, the Trick-or-Treat UNICEF box has become a tradition in North America during the haunting season. These small orange boxes are handed to children at schools and at various locations (such as Hallmark Gold Crown Stores) prior to October 31. To date, the box has collected approximately $91 million dollars (CAD) in Canada and over $132 million (US) in the USA. Art in All of Us UNICEF sponsors the Art in All of Us * initiative organised by Anthony Asael. The mission of Art in All of Us is to promote creative cultural exchange throughout the UN listed countries, using universal art elements such as photography and poetry. The AiA World Art Book Program of Art in All of Us will present in one book each and every of the 192 UN-listed countries through a single portrait of a resident, a drawing and a poetry done by a local child. See also | ||||||||||
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