Green Spool of Thread

UNICEF Offers Holiday Gifts Featuring Artisan Items from NOVICA

Additional gifts from partners such as IKEA, and greeting cards sold at Pier 1 Imports®, will help save and protect the world's most vulnerable children.

 

New York (June 24, 2014) - This holiday season the U.S. Fund for UNICEF has partnered with NOVICA to expand its offering of gifts that give back to children around the world. Each item purchased from the 'UNICEF Market' will benefit UNICEF's programs that provide lifesaving nutrition, medicine, education, clean water, emergency relief and more to children in need. This new array of handcrafted products will also support artisans in countries where UNICEF works, many of whom live in rural communities and did not have the means to sell their work on the international market. NOVICA has made this possible.

"I loved the idea of connecting local artisans to a 'UNICEF Market' where their products could be sold to benefit them, while also helping improve the lives of children all around the world," said Actress, UNICEF Ambassador and U.S. Fund for UNICEF National Board Member Téa Leoni. "From my travels with UNICEF, I know firsthand how much difference the organization makes for children around the world, and I'm proud to have helped bring the 'UNICEF Market' concept to life."

Starting in October, thousands of handcrafted creations will be available at the 'UNICEF Market', market.unicefusa.org. Gift offerings include hand-crafted jewelry, home accents and accessories such as quartz dangle earrings from Thailand ($18.49); a Mexican Talavera Ceramic Serving Bowl ($20.99); a Mohena Wood Mirror from the Andes ($52.99); and a Batik robe from the Bali and Java region ($67.99).

Also new this year is UNICHEF: Top Chefs Unite in Support of the World's Children, a collaboration of 40 world-class chefs assembled by U.S. Fund for UNICEF National Board Member Hilary Gumbel. UNICHEF's contributors were brought together to create an international culinary travelogue of recipes, personal photographs and remembrances. UNICEF Ambassador Marcus Samuelsson, David Chang, Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Lagasse, Sandra Lee, Cat Cora, Jamie Oliver, Giada De Laurentiis and Mario Batali, among others, are included in the collection. The author has chosen to donate 100 percent of the royalties that she would have received to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Beginning September 29, UNICHEF will be available for purchase at GlitteratiIncorporated.comAmazon.com, and at shop.unicefusa.org.

UNICEF Inspired Gifts, actual lifesaving items that go directly to help children in developing countries, are available again this year at www.inspiredgifts.org. Shoppers can purchase life-changing and lifesaving gifts in honor of a loved one such as Therapeutic Food, a peanut-based paste that provides quick, lifesaving nourishment to a child suffering from acute malnutrition ($67.50 can provide 10 malnourished children with lifesaving nutrition for 5 days); Oral Rehydration Salts, a simple solution of salts and minerals that can reverse the deadly loss of essential fluids due to dehydration ($46.75 can provide 500 packets); and a Winter Survival Pack, consisting of a blanket, set of clothes, 900 packets of micronutrient powder and 10,000 water purification tabs to help 1 child survive the winter ($159.42).

In addition, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF offers a variety of boxed holiday cards ($10 to $20) that can be purchased online beginning in August, and at Pier 1 Imports, IKEA, Barnes and Noble and select Hallmark Gold Crown stores starting in September. Individual holiday cards will be available as well beginning in November. For all UNICEF cards purchased in Pier 1 Imports and IKEA, the retailers will donate 100 percent of the purchase price of each holiday card pack. To shop online visit http://shop.unicefusa.org/.

"When purchasing your holiday gifts this year, we ask that you consider the most vulnerable children in the world," saidCaryl Stern, president and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. "Every gift you buy can help save children's lives."

Caryl Stern's memoir, I Believe In ZERO: Learning From the World's Children, (St. Martin's Press) will be released in paperback in October 2014. The book takes readers on journeys through Africa, South America, and South and East Asia to experience the lives of women and children in need. Each of the stories focuses on a particular location and weaves together background on the country and its history, an account of the humanitarian situation, and depictions of the people Stern meets on her travels. The book will be available at shop.unicefusa.org/ beginning October 7. The author has chosen to donate 100 percent of the royalties she would have received to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

UNICEF Partners

Pier 1 Imports®
Once again, the winning design of the annual Pier 1 Imports®/UNICEF greeting card contest from the year prior will be reproduced as an official UNICEF greeting card to be sold exclusively at Pier 1 Imports stores nationwide and on pier1.com during the 2014 holiday season. Last year's Grand Prize Winner was Robbie from California, who won for the theme "Joyous Celebration," and at four years old, he is one of the youngest winners since the contest's inception in 1992.One hundred percent of the sales price of all UNICEF cards sold at U.S. Pier 1 Imports stores will go to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

IKEA "Soft Toys for Education"
Education is a fundamental human right, and yet there are 57 million children not enrolled in elementary school globally. The IKEA Foundation's global "Soft Toys for Education" campaign has supported UNICEF for over a decade and has raised more than $90 million to help provide a quality education to 11 million children in 46 countries. From Nov. 9 to Jan. 3, for each purchase from the "Soft Toys for Education" collection at IKEA stores, the IKEA Foundation will donate one euro (approximately $1.35) to support UNICEF and Save the Children global education programs, including UNICEF's "Schools for Africa" initiative. The 2014 collection includes newcomers such as KATTUGGLA the soft toy owl and PIPHARE the soft toy rabbit. For more information, visit www.ikeafoundation.org.

K.I.N.D. (Kids in Need of Desks)
K.I.N.D: Kids in Need of Desks offers desks ($65 each) for children in schools in Malawi, where four out of five students do not have a desk or chair. In addition, the K.I.N.D. fund is providing scholarships for girls in Malawi. A donation of $177 delivers one year of education, including tuition, room and board, text books, transportation, a school uniform and learning supplies. These gifts are available for purchase at http://inspiredgifts.unicefusa.org/shop/schools.

Delta Air Lines
Through Delta's SkyWish program SkyMiles® members can donate their unused frequent flier miles to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF for travel in support of UNICEF's lifesaving work for children. As part of a long-standing partnership of over 10 years between the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and Delta, this is a simple way for SkyMiles® members to put their unused miles to good use this holiday season. For more information or to donate miles, visit www.delta.com/skywish

# # #

About UNICEF
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) works in more than 190 countries and territories to save and improve children's lives, providing health care and immunizations, clean water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief, and more. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF supports UNICEF's work through fundraising, advocacy, and education in the United States. Together, we are working toward the day when ZERO children die from preventable causes and every child has a safe and healthy childhood.

For additional information, please contact:
Marci Greenberg, U.S. Fund for UNICEF, (212) 922-2464, mgreenberg@unicefusa.org