Weekly Update

1. Reunions - Many thanks to Jim Mayrides who has contributed digitized copies of the photo collection made over the years by Jose and Brenda Miranda. These include albums of reunions from 1990 through 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2004 through 2007. We have added all these to the Reunions collection. You can see the entire collection of 170 photos here.


We have also divided the photos by year. As you can see from the list, thanks to this collection, we have now filled in most of the 'missing' years. Still missing are only 2002 in San Francisco, 2003 in New Orleans and 2012 in Jaipur.


If you have photos of the reunions of the three 'still missing' years or for any reunions before 1990, please let us know. Ditto if you have additional photos for the years already included.


2. Faces of UNICEF's Past - we appealed for photos of 'us at work' during our UNICEF days. In response, Horst Cerni kindly contributed his wonderful collection of snapshots made during his work with UNICEF's many celebrities. Some great memories - click here Many thanks, Horst.


3. Attacks in Sri Lanka - UNICEF announced that 45 children were among the many killed. It is still not clear how many children were among those injured.
Fortunately, there were no deaths or injuries to UNICEF or XUNICEF members. We checked with and heard back immediately from Tim Sutton, the UNICEF Representative and Hanaa Singer who is the UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka. Here is Hanaa's message.


Nimal and Tilaka Hettiaratchy, however, remain in mourning over the loss of their sister-in-law and her daughter. XUNICEF members responded quickly with messages of sympathy and concern to Nimal and other colleagues living in Sri Lanka. You can see many of these messages here. Nimal sent thanks on behalf of the family for the many messages of condolence and sympathy:


4. Amal Clooney - If you haven't seen or heard her powerful intervention on sexual violence in war at the Security Council earlier this week, we have it for you here. Mrs. Clooney called for justice for Yazidi women victims of rape and enslavement by ISIS, but more broadly called for the Security Council to act strongly against rape as a weapon of war in all conflicts. Sadly, the US subsequently succeeded in gutting the resolution sponsored by Germany and supported by most of the Council. The US objection was over the call for 'provision of comprehensive health care for victims of rape', a term they argued would extend to abortion. Russia and China also opposed the resolution on other grounds.


5. Journeying to Paradise - Horst Cerni announced publication of his new book - click here We look forward to reviewing the book in our June quarterly newsletter. Meanwhile, congratulations Horst.


5. #VaccinesWork - UNICEF kicked off World Immunization Week (24 to 30 April) with the #VaccinesWork campaign on social media. Click here. The campaign aims to encourage 'vaccine hesitant' parents to vaccinate their children. Today UNICEF announced that some 2.1 million children are missing their first measles shot each year, and the US heads the list of developed countries whose children missed that crucial first dose.


Please note that every mention of that hashtag (#VaccinesWork) in Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media earns UNICEF $1. More important, as UNICEF retirees, please urge your neighbors, community groups and news media to push for full immunization.


6. Other news this week - included the initial trials in Ghana, Malawi and Kenya of the world's first malaria vaccine, RTS,S, Human Rights Watch criticism of the SG, and Mozambique's suffering of a second blow - this time from Cyclone Kenneth.


7. Finally - an appeal from us at News & Views - we need your articles, rants, raves, photos, poems, and stories for the June edition of the Newsletter. You will have seen Nuzhat's plea a few days ago for stories to include in 'Life After UNICEF'. Start writing please. The newsletter depends on you the members. Thanks.


PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS UPDATE OR OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS BY COPYING ALL MEMBERS. WRITE INSTEAD DIRECTLY TO US AT xunicef.news.views@unicef.org. THANKS.