Issue

THREEIn this issue >>>

December 2010

Field Visits

Events

Children and AIDS Report

National Ambassador Profile

Newly Appointed Ambassadors

Pakistan Fundraising Ad

Ambassador A NEWSLETTER FOR UNICEF AMBASSADORS

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Sir Roger Moore visited Kazakhstan from 16 to 21 Novem-ber and called on the country and all other states to uphold the rights of all children, especially the most vulnerable including those with disabilities.

During the five day trip, Sir Roger and his wife Lady Kristina, met and spoke with local offi-cials, members of civil society, parents, children and the media to raise awareness about the importance of inclusion for all children. The couple also attended a Charity Ball in support of UNICEF‟s work on behalf of children with disabilities.

The trip included a stop at a school out-side Almaty, the former capital of Ka-zakhstan, to witness an earthquake and fire emergency preparedness drill in the earthquake prone country. Sir Roger and Lady Kristina also visited a baby home in Almaty for abandoned children and spoke with young people at a Youth Centre. Joined by UNICEF National Ambassador for Kazakhstan, Batyrkhan Shukenov, they also participated in an event orga-nized by Special Olympics in Kazakhstan.

Danny Glover Visits the Amazon Region of Peru

In October, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Danny Glover visited UNICEF Peru to support their Buena Onda campaign, a social mobili-zation and fundraiser aimed at improving the living conditions for Peruvian children.

Mr. Glover‟s first stop was in the region of Ucayali located in the heart of the Peruvian tropical rainforest. He travelled by motor boat for over three hours before reaching his final destination, the remote community of Nuevo Saposoa, which is home to the Shipibo Conibo. This group represents almost 9% of the Peruvian indigenous population.

Mr. Glover visited the primary school where grades one through six are taught all in the same classroom by one teacher. The classes are conducted in Shipibo, thus exer-cising the children‟s right to be educated in their own native language.

Shipibo is now an official language in Peru. It passed from being an oral language to written after having all the elders and leaders agree on the creation of their alphabet. Mr. Glover, while playing with the children, discovered that he could not spell his own name in Shipibo because their alphabet has no „D‟. But he was not discouraged by this and with a big smile, presented his name as „ANNY‟.

In Peru, regions with the highest percentage of indigenous population are those with the lowest scholastic performance and lowest completion of primary school. This is why UNICEF Peru has been working under an intercultural bilingual approach in order to improve their quality of education.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-2521/Pirozzi

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-2079/Markisz

Congratulations Orlando Bloom

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Orlando Bloom received the prestigious Bambi Award in Potsdam, Germany on 11 November for his humanitarian work with children.

Sir Roger Moore Travels to Kazakhstan

World famous soprano and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Maria Guleghina travelled to Minsk, the capital of the Republic of Belarus, to present UNICEF awards to the par-ticipants of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. The focus this year was on children with disabilities. In addition, she visited several UNICEF-supported projects and met with partners, the Mayor of Minsk and the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko.

She also visited a number of projects including a youth-friendly health service, a maternity clinic and a pro-gramme for chil-dren with disabili-ties.

“It was wonder-ful to see how teachers, special-ists, parents and the children with disabilities work together in this centre. You can see that the children feel free, trusted and loved and that the integrated approach to education and health care is really showing clear results,” said Ms. Guleghina.

On 19 November in Frankfurt, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Nana Mouskouri spoke at an annual fund-raising event for UNICEF Germany. Sabine Christiansen, UNICEF Ambas-sador for Germany and Ms. Mouskouri received a cheque for 110,000 Euros. The funds will be dedicated to the project „Clean Water Saves Lives‟ for UNICEF Ethiopia.

Maria Guleghina Meets Youth in Minsk

Event >>>

Germany Gala

Field visit >>>

Newly Appointed National Ambassadors Canada: Solange Tuyishime, Ms. Canada Galaxy 2011 Dominican Republic: Jatnna Tavarez, TV Presenter Georgia: Paata Burchuladze, Opera Singer Hungary: Agnes Kovacs, Olympic Medallist, Swimming USA: Vern Yip, Interior Designer

© UNICEF/Belarus/2010/Konotop

On the eve of World AIDS Day, on 30 November, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Vanessa Redgrave lent her support to the launch of the Fifth Stocktaking Report „Children and

AIDS‟. The report highlights innovations like the Mother-Baby-Pack that can bring life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to more mothers and babies.

It also marks the five-year point of the Unite for Children, Unite Against AIDS campaign launched by UNICEF and partners in 2005 to put children at the centre of the international AIDS agenda.

The campaign has four priorities: prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV; paediatric treatment; prevention among ado-lescents and young people; and protection for orphans and vulnerable children.

This year‟s report is dedicated to the memory of Thembi Ngubane, a leading South African advocate for prevention of child HIV/AIDS, who died last year from complications relating to the disease.

Vanessa Redgrave Launches ‘Children and AIDS’ Report

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-2536/Markisz

Event >>>

© UNICEF/ 2010

© UNICEF/ 2010

Solange Tuyishime, Ms. Canada Galaxy 2011 is the newest National Ambassa-dor for Canada and a native of Rwan-da. On 9 December, she spoke to UNICEF staff at their Private Fund-raising and Partnerships annual team building day in Geneva.

On 27 September 2010, Ishmael Beah, UNICEF Advocate for Children Affected by War, spoke at a high-level meeting at UN Headquarters, the third Ministerial follow-up Forum to the Paris Commitments. Adopted in 2007, the Paris Commitments on Chil-dren Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups are a voluntary promise by States to work to-gether to halt child recruitment, support the release of chil-dren from armed groups and help reintegrate these children into civilian life.

“I‟ve been to several of these meetings and each time I‟m hopeful, but I also leave with a heavy heart,” said Mr. Beah. His hope is that there will come a day when there will no longer be a need for these meetings, and all governments and people can celebrate the end of child recruitment.

Ishmael Beah’s Voice of Hope

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-2033/Markisz

Leo Messi, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, on 9 December responded to questions asked by children from twelve schools in Spain and Argentina.

Children in Argentina asked their questions through video while those in Spain had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Messi in the facilities of Football Club Barcelona.

During the meeting Mr. Messi said, “I believe in the valuable work of UNICEF to improve the lives of children around the world. This work brings real change to the lives of millions of children.”

The most surprising question the children asked was about the cause he would like to “stick a goal to.” His answer was "child mortality, because the causes which are behind 22,000 deaths of children under 5 every day are preventable."

Leo Messi Speaks with Students

Born in Sierra Leone, Mariatu Kamara, UNICEF Canada Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict is a survivor of Sierra Leone‟s brutal decade-long civil war. At the age of 12, she and her cousin Adama were held captive for more than 10 hours by rebel soldiers of the Revolutionary United Front. During her captivity, Ms. Kamara was exposed to the horrors of conflict and like thousands of other children, both of her hands were cut off. For three years, she lived in the refugee camps of Freetown and eventually immi-grated to Canada in 2002. Ms. Kamara now lives in Toronto and is attending college.

Mariatu Kamara be-came involved with UNICEF Canada in December 2007. In February 2008, she trav-elled with UNICEF back to Sierra Leone and visited a number of UNICEF-supported projects. She now seeks to share her story and help raise awareness about the work that UNICEF does for children around the world.

In September 2008, Bite of the Mango, co-authored by Ms. Kamara and journalist Susan McClelland was published. The book chronicles Ms. Kamara's remarkable journey from her time in Sierra Leone before, during and after the war to her pre-sent life in Canada.

Profile >>>

© Tony Bock/UNICEF Canada

Mariatu Kamara A Courageous Young Woman

UNICEF National Ambassadors Iván Zamorano and Diego Forlán from Chile and Uruguay recently supported the Chile country office in the launch of The Oc-topus Corner.

This easy-to-set-up library of books, toys and educational games provides developmental resources to the children of Chile who suffered psy-

chological effects from the earthquake that hit the country in Feb-ruary 2010.

In each 'corner' there is an average of 120 games and 100 books for children 2 to 12 years old.

The Octopus Corner

© UNICEF/España/Joan Simó/2010

Events >>>

© UNICEF/Mario Ruiz/2010

Newsletter produced by the Celebrity Relations and Partnership Section, UNICEF, NY Contact Information: gadutwum@unicef.org; fsilverberg@unicef.org

Priyanka Chopra, Bollywood superstar, UNICEF National Ambassador for India, and champion for children pledged her support for the Awaaz Do campaign, urg-ing Indians to speak up for the 8 million children out of school.

Ana Ivanovic Speaks Out Against Violence In November, tennis star and UNICEF Na-tional Ambassador for Serbia Ana Ivanovic, met with students in the School without Violence programme in Belgrade, Serbia. They discussed the issues surrounding violence, such as the role of the school in providing sup-

port to children who suffer from or who commit violence.

Ms. Ivanovic talked about the importance of making a personal decision and choosing the way to react to other people‟s behaviour. The School without Violence programme is a partnership project implemented by UNICEF, the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Institute for the Improve-ment of Education.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-1599/Matta

Children’s Day in Iran Film Actress and UNICEF National Am-bassador for Iran Mahtab Keramati brought a big smile to the children‟s faces, through her participation in Children‟s Day on 8 October in Tehran. Approximately 3,000

students – all in first grade – participated in the celebration, which was organized by the Government with UNICEF‟s support. Un-der the message “Children are the heart of the Millennium Development Goals,” the celebration was held along with a seminar at Khavaran Cultural Centre, south of the capi-tal Tehran, to highlight the disparities among children. Parallel celebrations were also held in other districts of Tehran as well as across the country.

© UNICEF Serbia/2010

Acclaimed dancer and UNICEF National Ambassador for Italy, Roberto Bolle, traveled to the Central African Republic (CAR) in early November to highlight the devastating impact on children from large-scale malnutrition. Mr. Bolle visited sev-eral nutrition centres where severely mal-nourished children receive life-saving therapeutic feeding. The trip inspired the dancer to dedicate his annual gala to UNICEF. On 20 November, Mr. Bolle and friends danced at Rome‟s Auditorium della Conciliazione to raise funds for

UNICEF‟s child survival and nutrition programmes in CAR. Nearly four in ten children are stunted in the country, which is reeling from poverty and armed conflict.

Roberto Bolle Visits CAR

© UNICEF/2010/Pirozzi

UNICEF and UNDP Goodwill Ambassadors David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane team up to support Pakistan’s fundraising efforts.

© UNICEF Iran/2010/Salehi

Field Visits >>>

Priyanka Chopra Pledges Support

Events >>>

Angélique Kidjo met with students at an elementary school in Dakar on 17 Decem-ber to raise awareness about violence in school, experienced by many Senegalese children, especially girls. She encouraged the boys to advocate against early marriage, female genital cutting and other harmful prac-tices that impede girls‟ education. During her visit, she delighted the students, by dancing and singing with them.

Angélique Kidjo Meets Students in Dakar

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-2746/Anne Look

Holiday Greetings