As a member of the of the Global Team of 200, a dedicated group of mom bloggers from Mom Bloggers for Social Good, we have the unique opportunity every month to highlight and amplify the message around certain campaigns that positively impact the lives of women and children around the world.
This month, UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund is one such campaign. The UNICEF website explains that: “UNICEF is the driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realized. UNICEF has the global authority to influence decision-makers, and has a wide range of partners and programs at grassroots level to turn the most innovative ideas into reality. UNICEF is all about nurturing and caring for children as the cornerstones of human progress. UNICEF was created with this purpose in mind – to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path.”
One way UNICEF involves us and our children each year in their fundraising and advocacy campaigns is through the Trick Or Treat Campaign.
Here are a few Quick Facts about the Campaign:
1. Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF is one of the longest-running youth volunteer initiatives in America. For 62 years, it has helped motivate kids to become active global citizens while teaching the fundamental value of helping others.
2. Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF encourages kids of all ages to help raise funds for their peers in developing countries by going door-to-door on Halloween night or participating in other festive fundraising activities.
3. Through Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, more than $167 million has been raised, providing children in 190 countries and territories with much-needed health care and immunizations, clean water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more.
4. In 1950, during the aftermath of World War II, the original Kids Helping Kids Campaign® launched as girls and boys across the nation collected coins to aid children still affected by the war. Today, the mission to save and improve children’s lives is more important than ever.
Share this fun video with your kids and when you see the UNICEF donation box at your door, make sure to contribute! And even if the “boxes” don’t come by your house, you can still help kids through UNICEF by making a tax deductible donation on line today!
While many kids in the USA are getting their costumes ready in anticipation of Halloween, Frankenstorm” is threatening the eastern seaboard of the Unites States and may cause the “cancellation” of Halloween celebrations for millions of children. Large storms like this need to be seen in the context of the environment we are creating for them to occur. According to the US National Academies of Science, 97-98% of climate scientists agree that climate change is real, it is happening and we are causing it to happen.
Here in the US and elsewhere around the world, extreme weather as a result of climate change has significantly impacted food crops, and food shortages loom on the horizon; many children don’t know what they will be eating for their next meal. Yet, for the first time in 30 years, our presidential candidates are ignoring the evidence and the facts and the – “big white elephant” – in the room, and did not take the opportunity to talk about climate change in any of the 3 presidential debates. Maybe this Halloween mother nature has decided to interject and say “BOO!”
Yours,
Climate Mama
