Service Organisations

Girl Guides and Prime Minister Helen Clark at the launch of the UNICEF NZ 'Strong Women for Strong Women' campaign.

(C)UNICEFNZ

Service organisations support UNICEF's goals through advocacy and fundraising.

Partnerships with organisations that have an interest in children extend our reach into society through their leadership roles in the community. As community leaders, they play a key role in strengthening our voice for children to governments, the media and their own extensive constituencies. Such partnerships are crucial to UNICEF's ability to promote the rights and needs of children around the world. Our partners also assist with practical help in the provision of financial support and volunteers.

We would like to thank all of our partners for their enduring support.

Our current partners include:

	Guides New Zealand In 2003 WAGGGS (the World Association of Girls Guides and Girl Scouts) formed an international alliance with UNICEF to promote the interests and rights of children and youth. As a result of the international partnership, UNICEF NZ and Guides New Zealand agreed to work together on a number of initiatives. Some of these include: Rights and Responsibilities: Human rights as they apply to young people as members of a global community are the focus of this initiative that falls under six broad headings: The right to be me; The right to be heard; The right to be happy; The right to work together; The right to learn and The right to live in peace. These rights are consistent with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the international treaty that guides UNICEF's work. UNICEF NZ has been pleased to assist in the development of these learning modules and to talk to Guide leaders about children's rights. Strong Women Campaign: UNICEF had a three year campaign entitled "Strong Women for Strong Women" which the Guides supported. The purpose of the campaign was to highlight the disparities girls and women experience in developing countries. In support of the campaign and to understand what life is like for girls in developing countries, Guides were invited to participate in a project that described what it is like for a girl growing up in a developing country. Laura Duynhoven and Paula Booth who prepared the best project materials, experienced a developing country first hand when they were hosted by UNICEF on a field visit to the Solomon Islands in July 2005. While there they there they visited UNICEF projects concerned with health, life skills training, education and met with fellow guides. Other campaign support has included raising funds to buy bikes to help rural girls in Ghana attend school, and a fundraising walk in 2006. UNICEF is pleased to partner with Guides New Zealand to jointly promote understanding and the interests of girls in NZ and around the world. For more information about Guides in New Zealand, visit their website.
	Inner Wheel Inner Wheel is the sister organisation of Rotary International and works closely with its members. Internationally, Inner Wheel's Social Project for 2006 - 2009 is to support UNICEF's Girls' Education programmes. Here in New Zealand, Inner Wheel are raising funds for a UNICEF Water and Sanitation Project in Laos, which is enabling girls to go to school, instead of having to walk for kilometers every day to collect water from distant streams. For more information about Inner Wheel New Zealand, please visit their website.
	Rotary International Rotary International is one of the world's largest volunteer service organisations, with 1.2 million members in 162 countries. The PolioPlus program, which started in 1985, is the most ambitious programme in Rotary's history. Glenn Estess, President of Rotary International, and Carol Bellamy, ex-Executive Director of UNICEF, said that their groundbreaking partnership, which has brought polio to the brink of eradication, proves that the public and private sectors can unite to deliver incredible results for children. Rotary and UNICEF, along with the World Health Organization and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are the spearheading partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. The Initiative is the world's largest ever public health endeavour, and has slashed polio cases by more than 99 per cent since its launch in 1988. With only six countries yet to stop the virus, polio is tantalizingly close to becoming the first disease of the 21st century to be eradicated. Through Rotary International, the fight against polio has been largely driven by volunteers, over 20 million of them, mostly in developing countries. Rotarians around the world have also donated over $500 million to polio eradication and advocated with governments to give more. Never before have individuals and the influence of the private sector played such a core role in a global public health effort. As well as mobilizing half a billion dollars, Rotary's network of volunteers have worked hand-in-hand with UNICEF teams in many of the world's poorest countries to guide strategy and bring the polio vaccine to the poorest children who could otherwise slip beyond help. 'With so much at stake, we cannot come this close to ending polio and not finish successfully', said Estess. 'Thanks to the strength of our unique partnerships with UN agencies like UNICEF, I am confident that we can overcome these current challenges, and ultimately lead the way for other private-public collaborations to achieve major health objectives in the future.' Wellington Rotary Club have purchased and shipped 5,000 reading books to establish libraries in the 27 schools in Isabel Province in the Solomon Islands. At present the children have text books supplied by NZAID but no reading books. Dr Wryne Bennett UNICEF's education officer in Isabel said "These children really need reading books to take home. Rotary Wellington's provision of chilfren's books will do so much to improve their ability to learn in the class room and their appreciation of the value of education." UNICEF is grateful to Rotary Club Wellington for their support to these children. For more information visit their website.
	Scouting New Zealand In April of 2005 UNICEF and the World Organisation of the Scout Movement signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to promote the rights and opportunities of young people. UNICEF and Scouts have a long history of collaboration on campaigns and projects for the elimination of polio, oral rehydration therapy, sanitary latrines, life-skills based education, girls' education and fighting HIV/AIDS. This agreement focuses on promoting meaningful participation of children and young people in decision making in their communities and on a global level. There are a number of priority areas, including the Scouts Gift for Peace project, the Alliance of Youth CEOs, and the use of internet technology to connect children and youth around the world through the website "Voices of Youth". Other planned events included the "World Programme for Youth Action" (September 2005) and the World Scouts Centenary Celebrations in 2007. For more information about the Scout Movement in New Zealand, please visit their website.
	Soroptimist International Soroptimist International is a worldwide organization for women in management and professions, working through service projects to advance human rights and the status of women. Soroptimists New Zealand invited our International Development Officer Belinda Gorman to talk at their National Conference in March 2007, about the prevention of HIV/AIDS and care of children affected by it in Papua New Guinea. For more information about Soroptimist clubs in New Zealand, please visit their website.