UNICEF Day for Change

Hi everyone!

It has been another action packed week here at UNICEF on Campus as preparations have been underway for our exciting Day for Change fundraiser which takes place on Monday the 21^st of November. We have chosen this day as it corresponds with the UN’s Universal Children’s Day which takes place on November the 21^st.

This campaign is centred on children’s rights, in particular the right to be heard. Day for a change has been running for almost 20 years across the UK with the aim of asking people to make a change in their day and getting people to make a donation to UNICEF for making that change. The money raised will be going towards UNICEF’s Emergency Fund which is dedicated towards emergency relief operations around the world. When it becomes clear a humanitarian response is needed UNICEF use donations in the fund to ensure that children in distress are assisted as soon as possible.

For more information check out UNICEF’s Day for Change homepage at

http://www.unicef.org.uk/Get-Involved/Your-organisation/Schools/Day-for-Change-2012/

Here at Birmingham we will be shaking things up a bit and making a change in our day by dressing up as ....ANIMALS! We will be going to lectures and doing shout outs and bucket shaking outside the library throughout the day so please be generous and dig deep J

It won’t be hard to spot us just look for the people wearing animal onesies and crazy face paint!

We hope this campaign helps to raise the awareness of Birmingham UNICEF on Campus around the University so check out our Facebook event page at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=305197559490871&ref=ts and get involved!

Denying children's rights is wrong. Help us to put it right.

Love from

Birmingham UNICEF on Campus!

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UNICEF ON CAMPUS: A hello from me!

Hi all,

My name’s Megan Daly and I am a first year geography student at University of Birmingham. I love to travel, I love to talk (a bit too much I have been told!) and I love to write... quite fitting considering that I‘m the new blog writer for UNICEF on Campus here at Birmingham!

UNICEF is a charity that I am very passionate about. It is an honour to be able to convey my passion through this blog; informing you guys of everything UNICEF related and filling you in on what has been happening with our campus society every week- and what a busy bunch we are!

Each week our society seems to grow in numbers, so much so that I keep losing track of everyone’s names! It’s great to see so many people coming together who are committed to helping raise money for many of UNICEF’s worthwhile appeals, and helping to spread the word to as many people as possible. We are always looking for new members, so please come along to one of our weekly meetings to find out more!

As with any charity, the major challenge is raising funds and getting people to donate. Here at Birmingham we are always coming up with innovative and fun ways of raising money. This does sometimes mean making a fool out of ourselves and dressing up as animals to go to lectures, but it’s all in the name of charity so we don’t mind!

Over the past few weeks we have been busy bouncing around ideas for our video campaign for the Ivory Coast. We made best use of the many talents within our society, splitting ourselves into different groups ranging from PR to creativity, and have been collaborating to come up with a final idea. I am pleased to say that our last meeting culminated in us finalising the plans for the video, so stay tuned for more information coming your way soon!

Here at UNICEF it is not all work and no play: we also organise many social functions throughout the year so that everyone within the society gets to know each other a bit better. Upcoming events include our highly anticipated Xmas meal in a few weeks time. I personally cannot wait; did I mention crackers are involved?!

UNICEF’s On Campus societies are vital for UNICEF’s work with children worldwide and it is a privilege to be able to be a part of such a great team here at Birmingham! I’m really excited about the year ahead and hope you are too!

Megan x

:)

UNICEF on Campus: Week 2

Thanks for another fantastic week everyone. This week we had our second meeting and first social of the semester.

In the meeting we decided on the two UNICEF UK campaigns we are going to be primarily fundraising for this semester (The East Africa Children's Crisis and the Ivory Coast Appeal) and talked some more about the sponsored treks and sky diving challenges UNICEF UK offer, check out http://www.unicef.org.uk/Fundraise/Get-active/Skydive/ and http://www.unicef.org.uk/Fundraise/Get-active/Trekking/Namibia-trek/ for more info.

Then set out the schedule of events we are going to be running this semester:

13th October (next thursday!!) second social - kids super hero's themed fancy dress Vodbull http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=272755326088984

29th October -bucket shaking and face painting at the Halloween FAB (paperwork passed by the guild! More info will be released shortly ;) ) http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=218393038225319

Mid November - our version of UNICEF's Day for Change where volunteers are going to get sponsored to go to lectures in fancy dress and we'll be bucket shaking around campus (paperwork submitted, we're looking at working with UN society and running this event on Universal Children's Day on the 20th November :) )

December - Christmas fun run, date tbc

December - UNICEF Christmas dinner, date tbc

Before heading off for a rather nice curry at the Royal Orchid in Selly.

Thanks to everyone who came along! It was great to meet so many new UNICEF on Campusers but if you missed it, don't worry we've got our second UNICEF on Campus social on thursday featuring fancy dress vodbull :D

Vodbull not your thing? Don't worry, we're planning a few more other socials before the UNICEF Christmas dinner from a kids style tea party to exploring some of the off broad street venues of Birmingham and the ever popular post meeting drinks at Joes.

Our next meeting is on tuesday, 11th October, 7:30pm in the Mandella room (upstairs in the guild), hopefully see lots of you there!

UNICEF on Campus

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UNICEF on Campus: Week 1

What a great first week! First of all a big thank-you to everyone who came and helped out at the Bake Sale for the East Africa Children's Crisis on Monday. It was great to see a mix of UNICEF on Campus regulars and some brand new members too and we managed to raise a pretty awesome £142.73. Brilliant.

Then there was our very first UNICEF on Campus society meeting on Tuesday. The turnout was absolutely brilliant and after some brief presentations from the council members we split the room into groups and opened up the discussion on 'what big events would you like us to run this year?' to the new members. We had some really interesting and innovative event, fundraising and awareness raising ideas come through from sky diving with UNICEF UK http://www.unicef.org.uk/Fundraise/Get-active/Skydive/ to running charity football leagues, a t-shirt design competition (and subsequent t-shirt sales) and all sorts of pub quiz/bingo/live music related events on campus. The council members are now going to create a shortlist, produce a short plan on how each event would work in practice and, in the next meeting, will present them to the members who are gonna vote on what they want us to do. We'll also be selecting which UNICEF UK campaigns we're fundraising for this semester so, if you're interested in helping organise and event or are passionate about a particular campaign this is the meeting to come to!

See you guys on tuesday 4th October at 6pm in the Guild Chambers! *btw if you like the look of UNICEF on campus you can also hang around after the meeting and come along to our very first social, a good old curry night at the Royal Orchid http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=253254864709778 *

UNICEF on Campus

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UNICEF on Campus at the Societies Fair

Thanks to everyone who came to the societies fair on Thursday, we had a really successful day signing up over 300 new people to the mailing list! We're all looking forward to seeing some new faces at the next few meetings and socials and catching up with the regular UNICEF on Campusers too!

Don't forget first event is the Bake Sale for the East Africa Children's Crisis on Monday, if you fancy helping out or baking a cake give us a shout at UNICEFonCampus.uob@gmail.com or message on fb, or if not feel free to just drop by and say hello :)

See you guys over the next couple of weeks!

UNICEF on Campus
University of Birmingham

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A Word on the Children's Crisis in East Africa

Right now children in East Africa are dying. A prolonged drought coupled with soaring food prices and conflict in places such as Somalia has resulted in a crippling food shortage across the region, with Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya being the worst affected. In some parts of the region an estimated 250 children are dying everyday and an estimated 2 million are acutely malnourished. On top of this, the continuing conflict in Somalia is forcing thousands of refugees across the border to overcrowded refugee camps in Kenya where living conditions are increasingly dire.

These kids need our help. At UNICEF on Campus University of Birmingham we can't change the situation ourselves, but we can help UNICEF by providing their initiatives and projects with a small portion of the funding they need to continue doing the amazing job they do. This coming semester we are going to be sending a portion of the money we raise directly to UNICEF's East Africa Children's Crisis Appeal. Our first event specifically aimed at raising money for this worthy cause is the UNICEF on Campus Bake Sale for the East Africa Children's Crisis Appeal taking place on the first day of the semester: Monday 26th September, from 10am-4pm.

If you are interested in volunteering to help out with the sale either through baking or helping run the event on the day either leave us a comment on our facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=375566171448) or email the Campaign's Secretary (Henrietta Brealey) at unicefoncampus.uob@gmail.com. Want to help but haven't got the time/can't bake? You can still show your support by clicking attend on our facebook event (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=153687224718649) and inviting your friends :)

Thanks for reading

UNICEF on Campus University of Birmingham
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Brand New Blog

Welcome to UNICEF on Campus University of Birmingham's brand new blog! This is the place to find out info on UNICEF on Campus society events and the UNICEF campaigns we are supporting.

You can also find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=375566171448
and Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/unicefuob

See you in September!

UNICEF on Campus UofB
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