This is a post by Pip Bennett, International Advocacy Intern at UNICEF NZ.
For over a month I have been interning at the UNICEF NZ office in Wellington. I have been working with Vicki, the Advocacy Manager – International.
Most of my time has been devoted to a new campaign called “Banging the Drum”. It is about raising awareness of the effects of the global economic crisis on children in the Pacific.
We have been working hard to get the message out. So far this has been working well, although it involves a huge amount of writing!
Last weekend we had a stall at the Newtown Fair. The advertised start time was 9.30am, however there were interested public walking among the stalls from around 9am. Although there were bad weather reports, Wellington managed a very warm fine day.
We couldn’t have done it without the volunteers, and we hope they had fun too! It was a good day, handing out information about the campaign, and enjoying the drumming from the Cook Island performance group, Atiu Mapu. There were even some excited passers-by who joined in by dancing, one woman with some Cook Island dancing, and a couple who did what seemed to be a kind of contemporary dance.
Throughout the day, we were lucky to get some beautiful pictures and videos of children enjoying the drummers, even of some giving it a go. These should be available on the UNICEF NZ website within the next week or so.
Vicki will be up at the Pasifika Festival on Saturday 13th March with a drummer. We would love some people to come bang the drum for children in the Pacific!
"I'm a UNICEF supporter, and I'd love you to join me."
Banging the Drum
This is a post by Pip Bennett, International Advocacy Intern at UNICEF NZ.
For over a month I have been interning at the UNICEF NZ office in Wellington. I have been working with Vicki, the Advocacy Manager – International.
Most of my time has been devoted to a new campaign called “Banging the Drum”. It is about raising awareness of the effects of the global economic crisis on children in the Pacific.
We have been working hard to get the message out. So far this has been working well, although it involves a huge amount of writing!
Last weekend we had a stall at the Newtown Fair. The advertised start time was 9.30am, however there were interested public walking among the stalls from around 9am. Although there were bad weather reports, Wellington managed a very warm fine day.
We couldn’t have done it without the volunteers, and we hope they had fun too! It was a good day, handing out information about the campaign, and enjoying the drumming from the Cook Island performance group, Atiu Mapu. There were even some excited passers-by who joined in by dancing, one woman with some Cook Island dancing, and a couple who did what seemed to be a kind of contemporary dance.
Throughout the day, we were lucky to get some beautiful pictures and videos of children enjoying the drummers, even of some giving it a go. These should be available on the UNICEF NZ website within the next week or so.
Vicki will be up at the Pasifika Festival on Saturday 13th March with a drummer. We would love some people to come bang the drum for children in the Pacific!