UN – United Nations

Gender-Based Violence Shouldn’t Be Every Day Life

Imagine if your children couldn’t walk to school without fear of life-threatening violence. Imagine if you feared for your safety every night because there were no lights on your street. Imagine if you were brutally attacked for simply trying to feed your family. This is the harsh reality of every day life for millions of women and girls around the world. The tragic story of Malala Yousafzai, a 14 year-old girl from Pakistan, has been […]

Gender-Based Violence Shouldn’t Be Every Day Life Read More »

Violence Against Women: How You Can Stop It

Authored by: Helena Minchew and Jacob Tobia In Haiti, a 17-year-old girl reports being attacked and raped by six men in a temporary camp after the 2010 earthquake displaced her from her home. In Nepal, a woman is told to go “put on her silk sari,” by her mother-in-law so that she may be scorched in “punishment” for giving birth to girls and not boys. Silk, the mother-in-law says, will burn faster. These are just

Violence Against Women: How You Can Stop It Read More »

Help Us “Get out the Give!”

Just a few years ago, we all witnessed the birth of a new day that changed the way people think about holiday shopping: Cyber Monday. Today I am writing about something I think can be an even bigger game changer, #GivingTuesday. The United Nations Foundation builds partnerships to support innovative campaigns and initiatives that help the UN address the world’s most pressing problems. We believe that, in a world where social media and mobile phones

Help Us “Get out the Give!” Read More »

Showing our Jean-Orosity on #GivingTuesday

Today, the UN Foundation and more than 2,000 partners across the country are making history by launching #GivingTuesday—a movement to celebrate giving and encourage more, better and smarter giving during the Holiday Season. The UN Foundation family is taking part in this new tradition by showing our jean-orosity! Everyone who donates $10 or more to their favorite charity in honor of #GivingTuesday is allowed to wear jeans to work today. We don’t have casual Fridays,

Showing our Jean-Orosity on #GivingTuesday Read More »

Common Sense: Integrated SRH/HIV Services

Imagine a life where you live on less than two dollars a day.  You have been saving for months to afford a trip to the health clinic. With your payment in hand, you walk three hours to get to the nearest clinic, carrying your young children with you. When you finally arrive, you want to be able to receive information and testing for HIV and also pick up contraception to prevent pregnancy, but you’re told

Common Sense: Integrated SRH/HIV Services Read More »

Happy International Volunteer Day! | unfoundation.org

Today, the UN and the world are recognizing a group of people who deserve our thanks: volunteers! Every year, more than 7500 volunteers join the United Nations on the ground for projects promoting development, peace, and sustainability. These volunteers, most from developing countries, work in more than 130 countries. Today, on International Volunteer Day (IVD) 2012, the world is thanking both UN and worldwide volunteers for their selfless dedication to causes they believe in and

Happy International Volunteer Day! | unfoundation.org Read More »

Honoring Human rights | unfoundation.org

If 2011 showed the desire and determination of citizens to have basic human rights in their societies, then 2012 demonstrated that there is no easy path toward obtaining these rights. Last year brought us the energy of the Arab Spring, with citizens in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya all pushing their governments to open up and make human rights and self-determination a priority. This year, with renewed tension in Egypt and a continuing humanitarian and

Honoring Human rights | unfoundation.org Read More »

Lutherans Take the Fight Against Malaria to Capitol Hill

“So, now we can just walk into the office?” That’s what Rogath Lewis Mollel of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) said to me as we made our way into the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill. I responded with a surprised “yes.” Rogath was amazed with the amount of access he and the average U.S. citizen have to our elected officials in Washington, DC. As an American it’s easy to take for

Lutherans Take the Fight Against Malaria to Capitol Hill Read More »

Twice as Nice | unfoundation.org

‘Tis the season for giving! Girl Up is collaborating with Dell and Crowdrise on an exciting giving campaign that highlights the goals of the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network: women’s & girls’ empowerment. Today Dell is launching the Dell x Crowdrise Match Campaign  to benefit Girl Up and two other organizations (I am that Girl and the Tory Burch Foundation). Dell is working with Crowdrise , the online fundraising platform, to match the first $25,000 of

Twice as Nice | unfoundation.org Read More »