May 2013
7 posts
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ChildFund Participates in World Bank and IMF...
Every spring, thousands of government officials, journalists, civil society representatives and other interested observers gather in Washington D.C., for the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
As part of those meetings, the Civil Society Forum conducts a series of events hosted or co-hosted by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other groups to foster...
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Motherless Children
This is my first Mother’s Day without my mother, who passed away a few months ago. She died just a few weeks short of her 92nd birthday, having lived a long, happy and productive life. She was the matriarch of a large family of eight children, 18 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
No one is ever prepared or ready to lose their mother – even if she is in her 90s. But I feel so blessed...
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How can innovation improve access to quality... →
Last week, the government of Denmark and UNICEF hosted the interactive discussion “Breaking Barriers: Innovative Partnerships Creating Exponential Change in Access to Quality Learning.”
Moderated by journalist Femi Oke, the discussion brought together government representatives, leaders from the private sector, civil society and others to explore how innovations can surmount barriers for children...
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Preparing Youth to Be Leaders
Indonesia is near the top of countries at risk for natural disasters. It’s important for families to be prepared at all times. To improve emergency preparedness, ChildFund held a Disaster Risk Reduction Youth Facilitator Workshop in Jakarta earlier this week. Our Indonesia office reports that more than 80 youth from across the country attended the workshop, which was also attended by the director...
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Not Giving Up on Those Who Live in Poverty
As the InterAction Forum 2013 winds down, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, president of World Bank Group, is making some great points. I’ll share a few quotes:
“The World Bank wants to get back to focusing on poverty.”
Kim says he plans to open doors “even wider” at the World Bank, adding that he’s “not giving up” on achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
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April 2013
15 posts
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“One of the reasons you go into public service is because everyone needs someone...”
– Gayle Smith, special assistant to President Obama, speaking at InterAction Forum.
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Humanitarian Consequences
Attending InterAction’s Forum in Washington, D.C., this week. António Guterres, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is speaking at the opening session. He notes that the international community’s capacity to prevent conflicts really doesn’t exist. As a result, we will “face more and more humanitarian consequences.”
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50 Days of Action for Women and Girls
The “50 Days of Action for Women and Girls” campaign is underway with several organizations, including ChildFund, seeking to advance progress in U.S. foreign policy efforts on the following issues:
Ending Early and Forced Marriage
Ensuring Quality Education for Women and Girls
Preventing Violence against Women and Girls
Improving the Health of Women and Girls
Promoting Economic Empowerment of...
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Warm Discussions in a Cold Climate
I spent last week at the 65th Annual Conference on World Affairs, sponsored by the University of Colorado Boulder. In the space of four days, I spoke on seven panels with topics ranging from “Climbing out of Poverty: Global Strategies” to “Investing in Women and Girls Will Change the World.”
The more than 200 sessions are open to the public and during the course of the week, more than 70,000...
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ChildFund Participates in Global Newborn Health...
Pleased to report that Luis Amendola, project director on ChildFund Honduras’s USAID-funded Community-Based Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Innovation project will be presenting today at the Global Newborn Health Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The theme for this year’s conference is “Accelerating the Scale-up of Maternal and Newborn Health Interventions. Luis is one is one of five...
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Learning About Healthy Snacking
In Indonesia’s West Java region, some tiny chefs are learning their way around the kitchen.
Children at two Early Childhood Development centers supported by ChildFund took part in a healthy-snacking program earlier this month. They learned how to make sandwiches and an iced-fruit dessert while their mothers joined a session about which snacks are good for their children.
The program was part...
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U.S. Department of State: Join a Discussion on... →
statedept:
The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Public Affairs and the United Nations Foundation will be hosting a panel discussion entitled “The Next Level of Diplomacy: Youth and Global Engagement.” The event will feature Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities, U.S….
Looks like a great discussion coming up on April 18.
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Listening to Luis
Each year, ChildFund and our global colleagues in the ChildFund Alliance, gain insights through our Small Voices, Big Dreams survey. The survey asks 10- to 12-year-olds some important questions about their hopes, fears and dreams.
Luis, age 11, from Guatemala had some key messages for us: “If I was president of Guatemala, I would give children support and protect them from the violence that...
March 2013
13 posts
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Protecting Children From Acts of Violence
Protecting children from violence was the focus of a high-level panel convened by the governments of Canada and Liberia on March 25 in New York at UNICEF House.
Julia Duncan Cassell, Liberia’s minister of gender and development, and Margaret Biggs, president of the Canadian International Development Agency, welcomed representatives of 49 governments and leading NGOs.
ChildFund Alliance...
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Lifelong Learning: A Key to Global Development →
At a global meeting last week in Dakar, education took a starring role in the post-MDG 2015 development agenda. More than 100 representatives from U.N. agencies, donors, academia and civil society organizations agreed to put quality lifelong learning at the heart of the development agenda. Participants also mapped out ways to ensure all children, youth and adults - especially the most...
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16-spring-snakes-in-a-nut-can asked: This might sound like a bizarre question. When I write to a sponsored child in Africa, how much postage should I use? I would ask the ChildFund website, but I couldn't get the "ask a question" app to work.
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Unlocking Children's Potential →
ChildFund is launching a five-year fundraising campaign focused on early childhood development. We can’t think of a more important goal than helping children reach their full potential, and our own staff is committing their time, talents and treasure to the campaign to help ensure its success.
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coma18-deactivated20130318 asked: how can i help? how can i get involved? i am living in geneva, is there any chance?
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A Love for Children
In honor of International Women’s Day today, I wanted to share with you a post written by Sagita Adesywi, a communications officer in ChildFund’s Indonesia office. She recently interviewed Kristin, a formerly sponsored child who is now a tutor in our early childhood development programs. Kristin is the perfect example of the work we do at ChildFund to help girls grow up to become strong, capable...
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Delivering Health Care to the People
Last week I traveled to Central Java, Indonesia, with ChildFund International’s Board to take a firsthand look at our programs. Yesterday, I posted about our visit to an Early Childhood Development center.
Our next stop in Indonesia took us to a posyandu, or village health services post. In this remote rural area and in the absence of medical facilities, the posyandu is set up in a community...
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Thrive to Five
Last week I traveled to Central Java, Indonesia, with ChildFund International’s Board of Directors to take a firsthand look at our programs, particularly those focusing on children aged 0 to 5.
Malnutrition and infant and child mortality remain high in Indonesia. Early learning opportunities are also limited, with fewer than half of Indonesian children participating in pre-primary school.
Our...
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February 2013
13 posts
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No More Waste
Even before I came to ChildFund, I detested waste. I detest wasting time, energy, money and all kinds of other things.
I detest wasting food in restaurants or at kitchen tables, where more food is provided than is wanted or consumed. I detest buying something that’s not needed or liked, and having it sit unused and sometimes unopened. I detest wasting time doing something over again because it...
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Predicted Decline in Charitable Giving Could Have... →
In my Huffington Post blog this week, I explore the possible negative impact on children in our programs if Americans are unable to sustain their usual levels of charitable giving.
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World Day for Social Justice 2013 →
Sharing a link to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s statement on World Day for Social Justice: “As we mark World Day of Social Justice, we see far too many places where there are increasing opportunities for a few and only rising inequality for the many.”
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A Thank-You Note
We received a sweet note from children in our Kenya programs. Seeing their happy faces reminds me of the important work we are doing through the support of ChildFund sponsors and donors:
We say Thank You to our sponsors
For your kindness and support.
We learn, eat and play
Because of you.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Children from AIC ECCD, Archers post, Northern Kenya
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Last Reflections on My Trip to Afghanistan
I heard that miniskirts were worn in Kabul in the 1970s. I don’t know if that’s true, but the Afghanistan I saw two weeks ago was far different from those years. And, yet, the country is also far different, and much improved, from 2001, when ChildFund first began operations there, following 20 years of war.
Although the last 12 years have brought more fighting in the effort to restore security,...
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Keeping Safe in Afghanistan
Since I have returned from Afghanistan, many people have asked me what security was like in the country.
Although security is an everyday concern, it doesn’t stop life from moving on, albeit slowly and with some serious interruptions. The half-day gun battle that I mentioned in an earlier blog was unusual even for Kabul. Explosions happen, but extended battles between insurgents and the...
U.S. Department of State: Coming Home: A Day of... →
statedept:
About the Author: John Kerry serves as the 68th Secretary of State of the United States.
A day of milestones — here at what I’m learning now to call “the Mothership,” they tell me this is the 5,000th blog entry on this page, and it’s the first of what I hope will be many opportunities…
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Afghanistan Makes Strides in Educating Its...
Part three: Recapping my recent visit to Afghanistan.
One of the highlights of my trip to Afghanistan was observing a ChildFund-supported literacy class for young women and mothers in Jalalabad. My male colleagues went to meet with the male members of our Child Well-being Committee, while I visited with 20 young women sitting on the floor of a small room learning to read and write. Literacy...
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Outside Kabul
Part two: Recapping my recent visit to Afghanistan.
I was up very early one morning to fly to Jalalabad, a major city east of Kabul near the Pakistan border. Jalalabad is a major re-entry point for refugees coming from Pakistan, and ChildFund has been working there for several years helping resettle Afghans returning home.
Once we landed in Jalalabad, our first stop was an early childhood...
January 2013
9 posts
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Afghanistan: “The Worst Place to Be Born”
I spent last week in Kabul, Afghanistan, visiting ChildFund’s programs. It was a visit I had looked forward to for a long time. We hear about the war in Afghanistan all the time in the news, but I was eager to learn what everyday life was like for Afghan children and families.
ChildFund has been working in Afghanistan since November 2001 and has assisted more than half a million children and...
