Originally published on the CGS blog on October 30, 2013.
What kid doesn’t love Halloween–a day of dressing up and getting free candy? Unfortunately, kids around the world who have to worry about things like poverty, malnutrition, unsafe drinking water, and malaria aren’t lucky enough to enjoy days like this.
Every day, 18,000 children under the age of five die from preventable causes such as these. UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, is striving for world where that number is zero. UNICEF workers provide children with access to food, medical care, and education while fighting child abuse and exploitation. UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories around the world and has helped reduce the number of daily child deaths by 17,000 since 1990.
A lot of people incorporate charity into a fun holiday tradition by trick-or-treating for UNICEF. Children and families go door-to-collecting donations, while schools and clubs can organize events to benefit the important work UNICEF is doing.
When this idea was first celebrated in 1950, the inaugural trick-or-treaters raised a total of 17 dollars. Now the program brings in millions every year. In the words of Howard Zinn, “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”
