UNICEF Boxes revisited ...

I got the following response from an old and cherished friend - I think his words say it all:

Yeah! Whenever we give out candy at halloween, it's always "Some for you, somefor you -- Oh, you have a unicef box, here's some money and here's extracandy for you."

Our kids don't fare quite so well on the collection side though -sometimes people snarl at them as they go to collect for Unicef.

It'll be sad indeed that we plow all kinds of money into increasingly packaged & fancy candy at halloween while simultaneously losing one of the few redeeming features to that candy festival.

It's a sad statement on the affairs of our world isn't it?

It would be nice to see the little orange boxes continue, and for those of us who care to work harder at informing people as to their value. I remember having a rant from the pulpit a couple of years ago when our sister churches gave out little anti-UNICEF tags to put into the boxes inlieu of pennies. The tags were from a pro-life organization that said UNICEF supported agencies and organizations were advocating the use of condoms in Africa ... hmm, let's see - Africa has a spiralling HIV/AIDS rate, and condoms are a proven and effective means of addressing that ... it isn't rocket science that to save lives we have to check our personal opinions at the door and be about saving lives BEFORE we preach our view of morality !!

I've witnessed first hand the good that the UN and UNICEF can do. It came back in 1989 when I was privileged to join a study tour to Israel, Jordan and Egypt from the University of Toronto. During our time there we spent a day in the Gaza Strip (this was during the first Intifada). Now, with all politics aside - the existence for many in the Gaza is simply abysmmal, but with Intifada raging, it went from bad to worse ... and many people were suffering. We were at an UNRWA compound when big white trucks were being loaded with food, water and supplies for the refugee camps that were under curfew. Those trucks meant life for the people ... the supplies came from a wide variety of sources, but first and foremost was the UN and UNICEF. In those days a jug of water and a bag of flour could mean life itself for a Palestinian family.

Such happenings occur all over the world ...

Such is the power of UNICEF. We can argue its efficacy later - today we need to commit to doing something that makes a positive difference in the world ... immunizations, food, medicine and a wide variety of other gifts are given to children all over the world on our behalf because of UNICEF and those ubiquitous orange boxes ... on that basis alone, don't we owe it to the children of the world to work diligently to save them ???

If your community is like ours, in the spring and fall our children are busy doing sales and fund raising for a wide variety of community and school projects. Money is needed for teams, for band trips, for school projects and so on - the list is very long, but all of the money is used to benefit children in the community. That's not a bad thing - but when and where do our children learn about helping those who are truly less fortunate then they??? The UNICEF boxes are one of the ways in which our loval school has a conversation about helping others ...

Hey UNICEF people: Keep the boxes and work harder at educating our communities about WHY they are important ??? I'll be one of the first to help ... and I'll follow my friends lead and tell kids that on Halloween there will be more candy for them if they show up at my door with a UNICEF box ... it's been said by wiser people then I, that if you want to change the future - start with the children. What kind of lesson are we teaching our children by neglecting a way in which they can help others rather then just raising money for the latest team, school or community project ... the Orange box is the one thing that moves beyond our immediate world: all the more reason to keep it !!!!!!!

Maybe a petition is in order ...
... hmmm, it's worth a thought ...