Unicef Meets Leader

By Emma Burnham

Every day, 22,000 children around the world die of preventable causes, said Kul Gautam, former deputy executive director of Unicef (the United Nations Children’s Fund), who was in town on September 21 for Dartmouth’s 242nd convocation. He spoke before a group of about 40 members of “D4U,” Dartmouth’s newly launched organization to promote Unicef, as well as several members of the HHS Unicef Club.

Gautam radiated passion for Unicef, exhorting the crowd to consider the plight of children who live in poverty around the world—children who suffer from malaria, malnutrition, abuse, infection, unclean water, and limited access to education.

Although small in stature, he had a commanding and riveting presence; both the Dartmouth and Hanover High students listened with rapt attention as he spoke for more than 40 minutes. He began by describing the role of Unicef—a United Nations organization that promotes the welfare of children—as providing protection, education, nutrition and vaccinations to needy children worldwide.

He challenged the audience by asking a key question: “Why Unicef?” With so many worthwhile causes to choose from, why should we pick children’s survival as the most important?

Alhough most of the audience members were students who did not yet have children, Gautam convinced us that we would regard saving the lives of our own children as our highest priority.

“Imagine,” he said, “being the parent of a child who is starving to death; imagine how you would feel if you could not meet that child’s basic food needs; imagine having a child turn into a skeleton before your eyes…”

Unicef believes no child should die from preventable causes, he said. Treating and preventing deadly diseases such as malaria, malnutrition, and AIDS is possible, and we should do everything in our power to get vaccinations and other resources to those who need them the most.

Then Gautam addressed an important question that he had been asked in the past: Why, when the world’s population is spinning out of control, should we save children? Wouldn’t saving lives ultimately exacerbate overpopulation and reduce resources and the quality of life for everyone? But he pointed out that when people have healthy kids and expect them to survive, the need for more children goes down, and the reproduction rate decreases. By saving children, Gautam asserted, we will create a better quality of life for everyone. He also pointed to the value of education: better-educated societies have fewer children, which is just one reason why giving children access to an education is important.

One of the most effective ways to build support for Unicef, he stated, is to persuade people in power to back the cause, because if you can get one leader on board, then others will follow suit. He spoke about the 1990 World Summit for Children, a summit to which all the heads of State in the world were invited. Each leader would slowly make their way into the convention via a formal motorcade. The problem was that no one wanted to be first in the lineup: no other leaders would see their motorcade, and then they would then have to wait several hours for everyone else to arrive. The summit organizers, however, had a brilliant idea: to ask a well known, powerful leader to arrive first. Eventually, Margaret Thatcher—then prime minister of Great Britain and a top world leader—agreed to be first in the motorcade. Suddenly everyone wanted to be second in line, and the problem was solved. The summit was a great success, with 71 Heads of State and Government and 88 other senior officials in attendance—the largest gathering of world leaders in history.

Another example of people coming together to help children occurred during the Salvadoran Civil War, a conflict fought in the 1980s and early 1990s between the government of El Salvador and left-wing guerrillas. Unicef needed to provide vaccinations to children on both sides, and the only way to do so was to have a cease-fire. Unicef convinced both sides to participate, and during designated days of nonviolence known as “days of tranquility,” Unicef was able to vaccinate many children from both parties. According to Gautam, not only did this benefit the children, it also encouraged the two factions to cooperate and eventually helped bring about the end of the war.

When Gautam finished, the crowd clapped enthusiastically, and everyone had broad smiles on their faces. Many students went to shake hands with him and to thank him for his wonderful and inspirational speech. Indeed, the enthusiasm in the room speaks to the potential for the continued growth of Unicef. Between Dartmouth, Hanover High, and the many people in our community who support Unicef, we have the potential to have real impact around the world and help reduce the needless suffering of millions of children. Please support Unicef and the Hanover High Unicef Club by attending our meetings on Mondays during activity period in Ms. Murray’s room.