Action: Trick or Treat for UNICEF

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is one of the most far-reaching and respected humanitarian organizations in the world. I love UNICEF--I'll just come right out and say it. I did an internship at the UNICEF-Philippines country office (and I've seen their work in many other countries), and I am always amazed at how UNICEF really can get into places that other organizations can't. UNICEF focuses their efforts on children. Funds donated to UNICEF go to six key areas: Education, emergency relief, water and sanitation, health and immunization, HIV/AIDS, and nutrition. We'll be talking about all these issues in future blog posts, but for now you can click the links to get more information about the specific kinds of projects that UNICEF sponsors.

Every year, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF sponsors Trick or Treat for UNICEF. This is where kids take little orange boxes with them while trick-or-treating, collecting coins and donations for UNICEF. I'm sure many of you will be trick-or-treating this weekend, so it's a great opportunity for you to do a little fundraising while you're at it! To get an orange box, go to the Trick or Treat for UNICEF website. You can search by zip code for UNICEF's retail partners that have boxes available at their locations. Or, alternatively, the website also has a downloadable orange label that you can print out and paste on a canister to take with you.

The website is also full of other kid-oriented resources and fact sheets, including ideas on what to say as you're encouraging people to donate. After you've collected the money, you can send it through a Coinstar machine, or you can donate online, by mail or over the phone.

In college, I worked with schools who were doing Trick or Treat for UNICEF, and it was fantastic. It's a really powerful teaching tool for kids: an opportunity to say, "Let's be grateful that we have access to clean water and enough food, because not all kids do," then watch your kids kick into do-something mode. Kids have an amazing natural impulse to get involved, and Trick or Treat for UNICEF gives them the chance to participate meaningfully in their global community. So get yourself a little orange box and hit the streets! If you do it, please post a comment telling us how it went.