Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Geneva Marathon promises to be a record-setting event, at least in terms of the number of runners involved. Organizers said Monday 9 May that 5,000 people are already registered to race, putting the 14-15 May event 60 percent ahead of last year’s inscriptions.
The marathon, which has Unicef as its partner, has a new route this year that will take it through 10 towns: Chêne-Bourg, Thônex, Choulex, Puplinge, Presinge, Gy, Jussy, Meinier, Collonge-Bellerive, Cologny, and Geneva. It will end at the Wilson Palace on the lakefront.
Five percent of inscription fees go to Unicef. The event features a marathon, half-marathon, Geneva runners and children’s races.
The new route was approved in mid-April by Swiss Athletics’ (Athletic Swiss Federation) and the IAAF (Athletics International Federation).
The United Nations agency for children affairs, Unicef, appealed for a ceasefire in Lybia saying at least 20 children had been killed in attacks by government forces.
Anthony Lake, Unicef’s Executive Director said at least 20 children have been killed and countless others have been injured in the city of Misrata in Libya.
“Reports of the use of cluster munitions are particularly alarming,” saysLake.
According to Unicef, the situation is also critical in Yemen, where at least 26 children have been killed and more than 800 have been injured since early February.
In Syria, Unicef reports,nine children were killed and many injured over the last few weeks.
Links: Unicef, GenevaLunch
Ann Veneman (photo, Unicef ©2011, Toutounji)
Update 14 April Vevey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ann Veneman, the former executive director of Unicef, the UN Children’s Fund, was elected Thursday 14 April to the board of Nestlé, one of 14 directors and four women on the board of directors.
Her bid for the board seat has provoked outcries from nutrition campaign groups, Reuters reports Wednesday evening in a lengthy background story filed by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva.
The news agency notes that Unicef is distancing itself from its former boss because of the company’s failure to fully respect the 1981 UN International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes to encourage breastfeeding.
Nestlé’s compliance with code: views differ
Nestlé’s spokesperson Robin Tickle told Reuters that Veneman’s presence on the board would help ensure the company’s full compliance with the code. But Unicef spokesperson Marixie Mercado told the news agency that “I can confirm that UNICEF does not take funding from Nestle. I can also confirm that Nestle violates the code.”
Veneman was Bush appointment as Agriculture Secretary
Veneman, a 61-year-old American lawyer, led Unicef from 2005 to 2010, and for four years before that she was the Secretary for the US Department of Agriculture, appointed by George W Bush. She already serves as a member of the Nestle Creating Shared Value Advisory Board.
When she left Unicef last year she was overseeing a budget of $4 billion and an organization that had seen strong growth since 1965, when its budget was $35 million.
Nestlé has been a target of protesters since the 1970s over its infant formula products and several organizations continue to encourage a boycott of the company’s products. The World Public Health Nutrition Association, WPHNA, noted in March when the announcement about her likely role on Nestlé’s board was made that “This news has shocked some in our profession, and has confirmed the cynical opinion of others.”
Boycott groups send Veneman open letter urging her to say no
Officials from BabyMilkAction and Geneva-based Ibfan, two of the main organizations behind Nestlé boycotts over infant formula, will attend the company’s annual general meeting in Lausanne Thursday. They have published an open letter to Ann Veneman, asking her not to take the board position “or at the very least to make it conditional on Nestlé agreeing to the Four Point Plan which was drawn up by the International Nestlé Boycott Committee and aims to save infant lives and lead ultimately to the end of the 20-country Nestlé boycott.
The four-point plan requires Nestlé to bring its marketing policies and practice into line with the international standards that UNICEF and WHO have championed for decades.”
History of the Nestlé boycott, wikipedia page and Nestlé page
But 1,000 women die a day: numbers must fall further, say UN agencies
Maternal health care, Sierre Leone (photo: UN / H Bigur)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Maternal deaths are falling worldwide, down by 34 percent since 1990, shows a new multi- agency report published 15 September. Some 358,000 women died during or from complications related to childbirth in 2008, down from 546,000 18 years earlier.
The fall is commendable, notes the World Health Organization (WHO), which is one of the author agencies, but the rate of decline is less than half of that needed to meet the Millennium Development Goal of a 75 percent reduction in maternal deaths between 1990 and 2015.
The report was published jointly by WHO, the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Bank.
Pregnant women still die from four major causes, according to the report: severe bleeding after childbirth, infections, hypertensive disorders, and unsafe abortions. About 1,000 women died due to these complications every day in 2008. Of these, 570 lived in sub-Saharan Africa, 300 in South Asia and five in high-income countries.
(video) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – International organizations based in Geneva continue to send out urgent messages about the desperate state of humanitarian affairs in Pakistan, where more than 20 million people have been affected by flooding, and the rains continue to worsen the situation. Swiss Solidarity (La Chaîne du Bonheur in French), for its part, is holding a major fundraising appeal today, 18 August, to raise money for several aid groups who are working in Pakistan. Donations can be made by phone, 0800 87 07 07, or online.
Also making urgent appeals because current funds won’t cover the cost of the most basic food, water, shelter and medical care needs in Pakistan:
WHO is providing an overview of the developing health crises in Pakistan. UNHCR is running several human interest stories on their flickr pages, including one about a family that doesn’t even have enough food to break the Ramadan fast that is just starting.
Geneva Marathon and Unicef join forces in 2010
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The first Geneva Marathon for Unicef has raised CHF25,000 for the United Nations children’s organization, the group announced Tuesday 11 May. The money was raised by donating 5 percent of adults’ registration fees and all of children’s fees.
The marathon was given a fresh lease on life in 2010 through the new long-term partnership and charitable goals, with two new races added to increase the popularity of the event. The city and organizers would like to see the Geneva Marathon become one of the world’s top 15 marathons. This is probably the last year in which the full race involves running the same loop twice, with plans underway for a new 42.195km course.
Good crowd to watch charity race
Runners on the Mont-Blanc bridge in 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva is gearing up for its annual marathon but this year’s competition is unlike any of its previous versions. For starters, three more courses have been added, two for children and one for women only. In addition, participants will have another incentive for running: raising funds for Unicef’s water projects.
Benjamin Chandelier, director of the Geneva marathon, said to GenevaLunch that the partnership with Unicef, which begins this year, will help the intergovernmental organization raise funds to buy water pumps for communities-in-need around the world.
“The organizing committee has decided to transfer 5 percent of the registration fees to Unicef, plus the whole amount of the registration fees for the children’s races,” he says.
In turn, Unicef will help the marathon by “setting up a progressive and ambitious development plan, and by promoting Geneva and its marathon in bordering countries.”
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Unicef, the UN children’s fund, will have a new executive director 1 May: Anthony Lake, a US citizen, who replaces Anne Veneman, also a US citizen. Lake, 70, is professor of Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, USA. He has held several top US diplomatic positions, working under Henry Kissinger, President Jimmy Carter and for President Bill Clinton as his national security advisor. He also served as Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisor during his presidential campaign.
He has served on the board of Unicef USA. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment Tuesday 16 March in New York.
“The head of UNICEF has always been an American, largely because the United States is the largest contributor to the agency, which is active in 190 countries,” according to the New York Times.
Links to other sites: New York Times, People’s Daily, Unicef announcement
Geneva UN and Red Cross groups work on sanitation, health problems
Installing a water reservoir in the women's prison at Petion-Ville. (photo: ©2010 ICRC/M. Kokic/ht-e-00577)
Work for cash, UNDP programme, Haiti 2010 (photo: ©2010 UNDP on flickr)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The arrest of 10 Americans accompanying a busload of children being illegally carried out of Haiti and into the Dominican Republic 30 January by a US religious organization has raised fears that children may be separated from members of their family who survived the 12 January earthquake in the country. Two Geneva-based groups, the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) and the Geneva office of Unicef, are active in the fight to ensure that children do not become victims of a new Haitian disaster, child trafficking, whether they are orphans or not.
The arrests come as fears are reportedly rising among Haitians of the ancient loup-garou, similar to a werewolf but a predator of children’s spirits, according to the Washington Post.
ICRC’s tracing service, usually deployed in times of conflict, is working closely with the Haitian Red Cross to re-establish family links. Working with lists provided by hospitals and first aid stations, the workers collate information to get families back together. ICRC says almost 1,500 people have been able to make “safe and well” phone calls. So far, it has a list of 25,600 names on its site www.icrc.org/familylinks.
The UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) concentrates on reuniting children with their families.
Haiti earthquake, the aftermath (Photo: Matthew Marek/American Red Cross)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Several organizations based in Switzerland are spearheading much of the relief effort in Haiti, and they are appealing to the public for funds. Aid has begun pouring into the country, more than 30 hours after the 7.0 scale earthquake that ravaged the capital, Port-au-Prince.
If you live in the Lake Geneva area and you would like to contribute to funds going to Haiti, here is a GenevaLunch selection of key groups, with fund appeals and explanations about their work in the area on their web sites:
London, England (GenevaLunch) – Some of the most famous clothes from the haute couture wardrobe of actress Audrey Hepburn were sold for £270,000 at an auction in London Tuesday 8 December. Hepburn, who died and was buried in 1992 in Tolochenaz, Vaud, in Switzerland, where she spent much of her adult life, was one of the first Unicef Goodwill ambassadors. Half the money will go to the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund and Unicef for their joint venture, “All Children in School” Unicef education project.
The clothes, sold by Kerry Taylor auctions, were from 1953 to the late 1960s.
People of Waziristan leave home again © 2009 Tariq Saeed/IRIN
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Thousands of people displaced by the two-week old conflict in South Waziristan, in Pakistan’s northwest, are arriving in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) districts of Tank and Dera Ismail Khan, sometimes fleeing the fighting by difficult, dangerous and expensive routes.
Their escape from the middle of a war zone, access to and from which is tightly controlled by the Pakistan military, is recounted in an article by Irin News. A local newpaper, Dawn, reports 20 October on a family, 12 of whose members were killed by a bomb while fleeing.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says about 125,000 people have fled since hostilities began, joining the 81,000 who had already left since August. Most find accommodation with friends and family, following Pashtun tribal customs of hospitality. The UN children’s agency, Unicef, says most of the displaced are women and children.
Unicef poster
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Revised estimates of the global trade in small arms show that it increased 28 percent between 2000 and 2006, the latest year figures are available, an annual survey of small arms published by Geneva’s Graduate Institute shows. The value of official transfers of small arms, ammunition, parts and accessories is estimated to be in excess of the previous estimate of $4 billion.
Illicit trade is possibly $100 million.
[with UN TV video] Geneva, Switzerland and Bonn, Germany (GenevaLunch) – Eighteen United Nations and non-UN aid agencies 8 June issued a joint statement arguing for “humanitarian impacts” to be included in the new climate change protocol. A December meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark of ministers from around the world will seek to replace the Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997. A new agreement must “set out a workable approach to help the world counter the impacts of extreme weather events and environmental degradation on vulnerable communities,” the Inter-Agency Standing Committee argues.
Ten villages in Niger have agreed, after months of discussion and reflection with the help of Unicef, to renounce genital cutting for the village’s girls. The practice has fallen dramatically in recent years, now done on only 2 percent of the country’s girls, but in western Niger it is still common. The decision will allow Unicef to step up its work in another 10 villages, the UN organization says.
Mia Farrow visits DR Congo for Unicef (© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-1294/Olivier Asselin Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2008)
Mia Farrow, a Unicef ambassador, has written a lengthy commentary on the CNN website describing the impact on daily lives of the continuing fighting in the DR Congo, following her recent visit to several areas. “The impact of the violence is evident everywhere and it cannot be overstated. No institutional structure is in place. All ordinary ways of life have been disrupted.”
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Unicef Friday intensified its urgent appeals for funds to help stop the spread of cholera in Zimbabwe, noting that 2,000 people have fallen sick in the past week.
Photo: Measles Initiative
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Deaths due to measles fell significantly, 76% between 2000 and 2007, the World Health Organization reported Thursday, largely due to “intensified vaccination campaigns including several countries with hard-to-reach areas.” in what the organization calls the Eastern Mediterranean region, which includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and Somalia, a remarkable 90% drop in deaths due to measles was registered, from 96,000 to 10,000 in seven years.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – This is global handwashing day.That might sounds a bit light, when you consider that yesterday was World Diabetes Day, surely of greater concern, and other Big Disease days will be upon us soon – but this overlooks the fact that an estimated 5,000 children die every day from water-borne diseases.
Lausanne, Switzerland (20 Minutes, Fre) – The city of Lausanne was a strange sight early Friday, with thousands of those small blue-faced white-capped fellows called Schtroumpfs, about 15cm high, here there and everywhere – free for the taking. Read more…
Unicef’s latest report on child deaths around the world says that 9.2 million children under the age of five died in 2007, an overall 28% drop since 1990 – but deaths are being under-reported, particularly in the poorest parts of the world, the UN agency said. And many of these countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia, will not meet the 2015 Millennium goal of reducing this number by two-thirds from the 1990 level. BBC and Unicef report
