Aid staff have increasingly been the target of kidnapping and physical violence: in fact, last year there were more deaths of aid workers --- "armed" only with food, medical supplies and emergency shelters --- than of UN peacekeeping troops. This date (August 19) was chosen to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, an attack that killed twenty-two workers.
It may be hard for some to understand that the aid workers only agenda is to help ensure the survival of people whose lives have been disrupted. It is especially important to lend aid when the victims of circumstances not of their own making are children.
I have been a supporter of the U.S Fund for UNICEF since I was a grade school girl carrying my bright orange Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF donation box each Halloween. Through college and into my early professional life, I supported the UNICEF gift shops in Westwood Village and in Beverly Hills. I've sent UNICEF holiday cards for over twenty years.
But in recent years, it took the campaigns of UNICEF's celebrity ambassadors to bring the organization back into sharp focus for me. I don't have children, so my social activism was not specifically directed at them. Now it is. The celebrity ambassadors were not the reason for my involvement, but they were the catalyst. As UNICEF knows, fame has its uses, and one of its best uses is to raise awareness of critical concerns.
UNICEF works through their thousands of unsung staff and field workers, as well as through their Celebrity Ambassadors, Corporate Partners, NGO Partners, Sports Partners and their indispensible volunteers.
For more information of UNICEF's essential work and to see what you can do to help, download the 2009 UNICEF Humanitarian Action Report.
Follow U.S. Fund for UNICEF on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.
In honor of all international aid workers, it is time to stop making excuses. Act now to do your part to help UNICEF do "whatever it takes to save a child."
Love is but a song we sing
And fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Though the bird is on the wing
And you may not know why
C'mon, people now
Smile on your brother
Ev'rybody get together
Try to love one another right now
Some will come and some will go
And we shall surely pass
When the one that left us here
Returns for us at last
We are but a moment's sunlight
Fading in the grass
C'mon, people now
Smile on your brother
Ev'rybody get together
Try to love one another right now
If you hear the song we sing
You will understand
You hold the key to love and fear
In your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It's there at your command
C'mon, people now
Smile on your brother
Ev'rybody get together
Try to love one another right now
Technorati tags: U.N., United Nations, World Humanitarian Day, aid workers, UNICEF, volunteers, children, education, clean water, sanitation, nutrition, health, immunization, advocacy
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