Global Action for Children

     

A day after the tragic earthquake in Haiti, it’s impossible for me to not begin this month’s newsletter expressing how heartbroken we are at GAC. We were relieved earlier today to learn that a former GAC staff member now working in Haiti is safe. But the situation for many other people in the Port-au-Prince region is dire.

Global Action for Children does not work on the ground in Haiti. But if you would like to aid the global efforts in this time of crisis, we encourage you to support our colleagues who are already working in Haiti to regrow the devastated communities: Partners in Health, US Fund for UNICEF, CARE, American Jewish World Service, Save the Children, and Doctors Without Borders. 

Here at GAC, we consider you part of the family. Your voices and support give us the strength we need to reach our goals for the world’s children. Because we’re in this mission together, I wanted to start 2010 with a short letter to let you in on a few things we’re looking forward to doing this year at GAC.

1. Meeting more and more of you - members of our GAC volunteer corps - and working with you locally to grow big results for kids globally. Wherever you live, we want to give you more ways to talk with your policymakers and hometown media about why it’s so important we invest in kids.
2. Unveiling new campaigns and impacting policies that support kids in poverty. GAC’s top priorities this year are to keep mothers and children alive and healthy, give kids worldwide a head start at school, and as always, support orphans and vulnerable children in their home communities. So be on the lookout for campaigns showcasing the value of vaccines, early childhood development, and how to best care for orphans and vulnerable children.
3. Bringing together people to fulfill our mission for children. We love that GAC’s partners are so diverse. In 2009, we worked with a jewelry-designer, libraries, a team of monster-makers, a clothing company, and the most popular kids’ radio station on the planet. Although our partners don’t have much else in common, they all want to do what they do best to support kids. So far this year moms and dads, doctors, filmmakers, and fashion bloggers from around the world have reached out to us and it’s not even February yet.

Thank you in advance for doing what you can to support GAC and children worldwide.

  Start little. Grow big.

   

   

From Washington, DC
              FP: As USAID awaits its fate, Clinton lays out new U.S. development agenda
January 6, 2010: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asserts the importance of development and says it deserves a seat at the big kids table beside defense and diplomacy.
GAC welcomes new USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah to the post
December 24, 2009: On day of Dr. Shah’s Senate confirmation, GAC Executive Director Kathleen Guy urges him to use his experience and take aim at the two chief child killers (pneumonia and diarrhea) with new life-saving vaccines. 

From the World
Seattle Times: Seattle woman builds a future for girls amid war in Afghanistan
January 2, 2010: The inspiring story of a volunteer from RESULTS (a GAC partner) determined to keep girls in school in Afghanistan.
UNICEF: Examples of ‘positive deviance’ in habits leading to malnutrition in West Bengal
January 11, 2010: Bharati Mandi walks to her local  ‘Angawadi’  - a government sponsored centre for mothers and children in India - each day with her four-month-old son Biswajit and her three-year-old daughter Shampa. Together with other mothers, she prepares herself a healthy mid-day meal of lentils, rice and vegetables.

 

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