People Holding UNICEF Supplies

Watch: UNICEF USA's CEO on Why 28 Million Children Need Your Help Now

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Caryl M. Stern, President and CEO of U.S. Fund for UNICEF, explains how children worldwide are under direct attack — with their lives, hopes and futures hanging in the balance.

 

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The needs of refugee and migrant children have never been greater. Worldwide, 28 million children have been driven from their homes by violence and conflict.

 

 

One in four of the world’s children lives in a country suffering from conflict or disaster. From Syria to Yemen and Iraq, from South Sudan to Nigeria, children are under direct attack.

 

They are being killed and injured in their homes, in schools, in hospitals and on playgrounds. Their futures hang in the balance.

 

Today, UNICEF is launching the 2017 Humanitarian Action for Children appeal for $3.3 billion to provide humanitarian aid to 81 million people. This includes children in 48 countries.

 

Nearly half of our appeal — $1.4 billion — will help children and families caught up in the murderous Syrian conflict, soon to enter its seventh year.

 

UNICEF’s other goals in 2017 range from providing 19 million people with safe water to reaching 3.1 million children at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition.

Girl Sitting on a Fallen Tree

After the cyclone which struck Fiji in February 2016, 4-year-old Livini sits on a fallen coconut tree. UNICEF helped rebuild schools and provide psychosocial services for children in the aftermath of the most powerful storm ever to hit this island nation.  © UNICEF/UN012462/Sokhin

 

In the first ten months of 2016, as a result of UNICEF’s support:

 

- 13.6 million people had access to safe water;
- 9.4 million children were vaccinated against measles;
- 6.4 million children accessed some form of education; and
- 2.2 million children were treated for severe acute malnutrition.

 

Now more than ever, children need your support. They may be displaced within their own countries, migrants fleeing dire poverty or climate change, or refugees crossing borders, often without their parents. 

 

But most importantly — no matter where children come from, no matter what their faith or ethnicity, no matter who they are or where they live — they are all childrenfirst.

 

UNICEF and the U.S. Fund for UNICEF are fiercely committed to saving children's lives and helping to ensure their futures.  Won't you join us in this lifesaving work?
 

 

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Banner Photo: During a distribution of emergency supplies for newly displaced families in Hajjaj Silo Transit Camp in Iraq, a mother picks up a UNICEF hygiene kit. UNICEF and its partners have distributed food, water and hygiene supplies to more than 839,860 children and their families in Iraq since October 2016.
© UNICEF/UN037837/Khuzaie