Southwestern Regional Office

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

Dr. Monica Williams, Regional Managing Director, Ext. 23
Karen Turney, Deputy Director, Ext. 24
Daley Webster, Development Coordinator, Ext. 21

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

Recent Events

UNICEF's World Ball Gala 2012

The UNICEF World Ball was held at the Hilton America's in Houston on Saturday, March 31, 2012. The evening was a one-of-a-kind world chic celebration dinner of UNICEF's work in over 150 countries, as well as a tribute to the outstanding humanitarian leaders who make our work possible, including Nidhika and Pershant Mehta who were honored with the Spirit of Compassion award.

Event co-Chairs Susan and Dan Boggio and Rosemarie and Matt Johnson helped to make this beautiful event a success. Leading up to the event and throughout the evening, The UNICEF World Ball raised approximately $485,000 to support lifesaving programs around the world.

This year's event featured fabulous entertainment and dancing, a gourmet dinner, and live and silent auctions offering extraordinary items from around the world.

The UNICEF Experience Dallas

Doc Strange Photography

The Emergency Relief exhibit at The UNICEF Experience.

The UNICEF Experience premiered on February 24, 2012 at The Goss-Michael Foundation in Dallas, Texas. A truly unique event, the UNICEF Experience showcased UNICEF's lifesaving work through interactive exhibits, allowing guests to experience what vulnerable children in developing countries face just to survive. With nearly 300 guests, the event surpassed its goal and raised nearly $80,000 that evening for UNICEF Inspired Gifts that are sent directly to the field including first aid kits, emergency tents, and water pumps to children around the world. To quote a guest, "It is great to be able to buy things for people in need rather than something else for myself."

Read more about this successful event on our Field Notes blog.

Dallas Water Walk

© Norry Niven

Participants in the 2012 Dallas Water Walk.

Dallas hosted its first UNICEF Tap Project Water Walk on Saturday, March 3, 2012. This UNICEF Tap Project community event sought to raise awareness of and support for the world water crisis. The event raised more than $7,000 to support the 2012 campaign beneficiaries—Togo, Vietnam, Mauritania, and Cameroon.

The Water Walk was held at a local park with a quarter-mile walking path. Walkers chose a weighted jug to carry on the path. Education was a key component of the walk. Signs with facts about water lined the route, and volunteers handed out stamps that introduced walkers to UNICEF and the work they do. Education tents were also set up, with interactive displays and videos on UNICEF and the Tap Project. Children were able to make a "drop in the bucket" by adding coins to canisters representing water in wells around Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

Surviving Disaster: Faces of Triumph
Saving Children: A Speaker Series

Ms. Anupama Rao Singh, UNICEF Regional Director for East Asia and the Pacific, launched the second year of the Speaker Series in Dallas-Fort Worth on September 22, 2011.

Ms. Singh described UNICEF’s unique role as a first responder in emergencies. Since UNICEF is already on the ground in more than 150 countries and has well-established relationships, UNICEF is able to be on the frontlines of, and prepared for both man-made and natural disasters. From the tsunami that devastated Indonesia to Cyclone Nargis which had a disastrous effect on Myanmar (Burma), Ms. Singh has led UNICEF’s Regional Office for East Asia and the Pacific (EAPRO) through dire emergencies affecting Asia. These natural disasters, and others, have taken a toll on the entire region. Ms. Singh shared her unique perspective on UNICEF’s ability to assist countries through emergencies and UNICEF’s role in the region in the years after an emergency, helping to “build back better” for children and their families.

Special Projects

Transforming Education in Togo

With a lead gift from an anonymous donor, UNICEF Togo is implementing a comprehensive plan designed to reach Togo's most underserved children with access to quality education. Because of a lack of pre-primary education in Togo and the value it adds to a child’s future, UNICEF will construct, equip, and nurture 35 child-friendly preschools over the next five years. Early childhood education is one of the best ways to prepare children, parents and communities to play their respective roles to ensure greater access, retention and success in children's future education. It also has additional benefits to the household including promotion of girls education by releasing older girls form the responsibilities of taking care of younger siblings at home during school hours and by giving mothers time for income generating activities.

This lead donor has made a generous contribution to help fund more than half of the full project’s cost of $1.1 million and challenged the U.S. Fund for UNICEF donor family to help fund the balance. To date, we have raised more that $985,000 for this project. We invite you to help us raise the remaining balance of $114,000. If you are interested in learning more about or participating in this transformational initiative please contact Karen Turney at kturney@unicefusa.org.

Field Visits

Nepal Field Visit

© U.S. Fund for UNICEF

Visit with school children in Nepal

In January 2012, Southwest Regional Board members Joyce Goss and Selwyn Rayzor had the opportunity to visit UNICEF's lifesaving programs in Nepal. To quote them both, the trip was "inspiring." They visited a women’s federation and with child clubs in Pragatinagar Village, where UNICEF is helping create a child-friendly village. In the village of Phulbari, they met with members of a women's cooperative which UNICEF is supporting to integrate all community-related services, including health and immunizations, education, nutrition, child protection, and water and sanitation. This village is the first in Chitwan to be free of open defecation, important progress in improving the health of the community.

Other visits included health centers, a birthing center, primary schools, early childhood development centers, and non-traditional education centers for child workers, and a radio "infotainment" program run by children to encourage safe behavior on HIV/AIDS and life skills.

Upon return, Selwyn remarked that she was impressed by UNICEF's wide reach, both at the local (village) level and at the national (policy) level, which has an exponential and unparalleled impact on children in Nepal and all over the world.

Volunteer Opportunities

Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF

© Ann Holmes

Students at St. John’s celebrating Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF

The John Cooper School is an independent, non-sectarian, co-educational, college preparatory day school located in The Woodlands, Texas, a planned community of 80,000 plus located approximately 35 miles north of Houston. The School’s mission is to provide a challenging education to a diverse group of select students, enabling them to become creative thinkers, responsible citizens and leaders, and lifetime learners. 

For nine years The John Cooper School has been participating in Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. Recently, the school has been awarded both Ambassador and Emissary school status for their contributions. In 2010, an alumni parent volunteered to match the funds collected by the school, up to $5,000. 

Lower School students each used a TOT box to collect independently with family and friends. In the Middle School the advisories had a challenge competition between themselves to raise money. As well, many students went trick-or-treating on their own with their TOT boxes to bolster their advisory’s funds. In the Upper School, the four grade levels competed through their English classes, with the winning class receiving a dress down day. All the funds are coordinated and submitted through the Upper School.

How You Can Help

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 or register online as a volunteer.

If you are interested in volunteering for local events, office or clerical work, or applying for internships, please contact Daley Webster, Regional Development Coordinator at 713.963.9390 or download the volunteer application and fax to 713.963.8527.

 Board of Directors