UNICEF Inspired Gifts promise to deliver your gift to children that need it.

So far in 2009, around the world, $3,200,000 of Inspired Gifts have been purchased, which translates to a huge amount of vaccinations, school books and other important supplies for UNICEF’s work. This week we received a report showing what has happened to all of the wonderful purchases made this year so far.

You might be interested to learn that Kiwi’s have purchased 2800 doses of Polio vaccine and 1500 measles vaccines, as well as HIV/Aids test kits for 1100 mothers to be. But it’s not just health care – we have also supplied biscuits, therapeutic milk to fill hungry tummies, and thousands of pencils to give children the basic tools to learn.

In 2009 gifts have been given to children in countries all around the world, including Afghanistan, Yemen, North Korea, Nepal and DR Congo.

In Niger, we have delivered 16,000 Inspired Gifts mosquito nets, some of which are likely to have been  donated by New Zealanders. Across Niger, community facilitators like Bassira Rabey go from door-to-door in their rural villages to make sure that families, especially women, are maintaining a proper environment to improve their children’s health, including making use of the donated nets.

“Since I started these activities in the village, I have already seen major changes in behaviours,” said Ms. Rabey. “When I first visit them and tell them about these practices, they do not always cooperate. But after a couple of visits, they start understanding and seeing the benefits for their children’s health.”

The community facilitators focus on four major health interventions including the use of insecticide-treated bed nets by pregnant women, and by children under the age of five.  The challenges are vast -  one in five children in Niger dies before reaching his or her fifth birthday, but simple interventions like sleeping under a mosquito net make a huge difference.

Thank you for your support!