520 Post Oak Boulevard, Suite 280
Houston, TX 77027
713.963.9390
713.963.8527 (fax)

STAFF | EVENTS | EMERGENCIES | FIELD VISITS |
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES | BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Staff

Sonya L. Renner, CFRE, Regional Director
Karen Turney, Regional Development Officer
Nathalie Herpin, Regional Development Coordinator

The Southwest Chapter is grateful for the volunteer leadership of our Board of Directors.

Recent Events

An Exquisite Evening with Lucy Liu

© Fulton Davenport

UNICEF Ambassador Lucy Liu and Southwest Region Board Member Monsour Taghdisi.

The Southwest Region began 2010 with a stunning evening at the home of John and Becca Cason Thrash.  On January 14th, UNICEF Ambassador Lucy Liu and US Fund President and CEO Caryl Stern joined 240 guests at a record-breaking fundraiser where the night's auction revenue was committed to Haiti relief.  With extraordinary, if not one-of-a-kind live and silent auction items and generous additional support for Haiti victims, the evening raised almost $775,000, becoming the most successful southwest region event to date.

Emergency Relief Efforts

Earthquake Strikes Haiti

On January 12, 2010, Haiti was rocked by an earthquake that registered over 7.0 on the Richter scale. In its wake, the quake left massive devastation and a nation in desperate need of the world’s assistance. Hundreds of thousands have been left homeless and it is believed that as many as 200,000 have been killed. Still, with nearly 40% of all Haitians under the age of 15, this disaster is correctly called children emergency. The 1.5 million children that have been directly affected by the disaster represent an entire generation of Haitians that will have to struggle with harsh memories of this calamity.

Despite the challenges, UNICEF worked around the clock to get much needed assistance into Haiti and mobilized an unprecedented global response.  UNICEF, with its partners, is continuing to support relief operations and assist in reconstruction and recovery faces. UNICEF is insuring that the three Haiti priorities for 2010 are:

1. Keeping children and women alive and strong since they are in much higher risk of various health threats, particularly communicable diseases. UNICEF will continue to provide support to ensure immediate access to basic health care for women and children, including support to emergency immunization activities. UNICEF is also working on the reestablishment of sustainable public health system for maternal, neonatal and child health services including HIV services.
2. Keeping Children Safe. UNICEF will continue to assist the Haitian government in order to respond to children’s psychosocial needs and protect them sexual violence. Furthermore, UNICEF will assess the capacity of local partners, associations and networks to conduct recreational, psychosocial and protection activities at their community level.
3. Ensuring that Children Are Learning. In order to ensure that the children are able to establish there schools, UNICEF is coordinating with UN forces the ensure primary schools are prioritized in clearance efforts. Moreover, UNICEF will continue to work with the Haitian government to guarantee that learning opportunities are available, free, and effective: and that the Ministry of Education is supported to level in which it can manage teaching, learning and construction standers in both public and private schools.

Field Visits

"I have recently returned from Sierra Leone where I bore witness to a seven-day-old baby dying from tetanus. TETANUS—a disease usually prevented and if not, cured by a $2 readily available serum here in the United States, but not in Sierra Leone. As I looked into the face of the baby’s Mom, I promised that I would do everything in my power to ensure that Americans come together and work until we can indeed reduce the 24,000 daily preventable deaths of children under the age of five, to zero."
- Caryl M. Stern, President and CEO, U.S. Fund for UNICEF

Volunteer Opportunities

© U.S. Fund for UNICEF

Volunteer/Interns from the University of Houston: Aydin, Business Major from Turkey, and Slava, Anthropology Major from Bulgaria

If you would like to volunteer to help raise money through Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF or other youth activities, please call 1.800.4UNICEF.

If you are interested in volunteering for local events, office or clerical work, or applying for internships, please contact Nathalie Herpin, Regional Development Coordinator at (713) 963-9390 or download the volunteer application and fax to (713) 963-8527.

Board of Directors

Advisory Council