The Soliloquy of a Postage Stamp #7: Fouad Kronfol

From Children & Mothers to Astronauts and Dictators, the Many Ways to Commemorate UNICEF

This week we feature stamps and covers celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of UNICEF in 1961

The 1960's ushered the era of UN Development Decades. UNICEF followed suit by expanding both geographically and into other areas of assistance in addition to health. New concepts were adopted by the Executive Board: the whole child; country approach; planning for children; advocacy; multi-sectoral objectives; survey of basic needs. Programme support was extended to new areas; education; pre-vocational preparation; social welfare, the urban child; milk conservation and weaning food plants; Distribution of surplus protein rich foods and dried milk continued, but with the creation of World Food Programme in 1961, this activity was reduced.

Notable events preceding this milestone were the 1959 Declaration of Child Rights, UNICEF adopting the new mother and child logo, the first Management Study by Lawrence Michelmore in 1960. As its work and reputation grew many newly independent developing countries began issuing stamps to commemorate UNICEF. The 15th Anniversary was the first important milestone celebrated by many countries.

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The UN Postal Administration issued a 3-stamp set to honour UNICEF's 15th Anniversary. The stamps depict a bird feeding its three chicks in a nest with the UNICEF logo. It was designed by Minoru Hisano of Japan and was issued on 4 December 1961. Three different cachets of First Day Covers are shown below.

A nurse is weighing an infant at a health centre in Tuma, Ghana, with a bloc of four 4 cent stamps that have a 1961 "tag" with the UN wreath.

An Asian child at a feeding centre assisted by UNICEF with two of the 3 cent stamps.

Two nurses are bottle-feeding five young infants (this was before the UNICEF/WHO code !), 

and the UNICEF logo.

An attractive "souvenir sheet" from Togo reproduces partially a 6-stamp series celebrating the 15th Anniversary of UNICEF. One stamp shows exclusively the mother and child logo while each of the other five shows 3 kids from different countries holding hands. A small UNICEF logo is in the corner of each stamp.

This 3-stamp set from Turkey celebrates the 15th Anniversary (1946-1961). Each stamp shows a different activity assisted by UNICEF; malaria eradication; MCH; and child feeding.

The Directorate of Posts in the Republic of China (Taiwan) made this commemorative issue of two stamps for the Fifteenth Anniversary of UNICEF. Each stamp depicts the UN wreath logo with a child receiving milk. Note there is no UNICEF logo on the stamps.The issue was dated 1962 (on reverse).

An interesting First Day Cover from Haiti. The cachet shows the UN Building in NY. The three stamps show the President- for- Life, Duvallier with an inscription on each stamp "Hommage a l'UNICEF". Each stamp has a surcharge of 0.50 Gourde which was to help needy children.

A colorful two stamp set from the Maldive Islands celebrates UNICEF. These are part of an eight stamp set with each stamp depicting 4 children from different countries holding hands (similar in design to the Togo issues) with the UNICEF logo in the top left hand corner of the stamps.

An unusual cover with a UN stamp commemorating the World Refugee Year (1959-1960) is stamped with a UNICEF logo indicating "Fifteen Years of Child Protection". The cachet describes the NY and UN welcome for three of seven US astronauts (Alan Shephard, Gus Grissom and John Glenn) with a fascimile of their signatures.It also shows the NASA space capsule in which they orbited the earth during their historic Project Mercury programme. The post mark is dated 1 March 1962 and is issued at the UN in NY.

From Yugoslavia we have a very non-traditional image for UNICEF's Fifteenth Anniversary. This stamp shows a statue of a mother playing with her child entitled "Joys of Motherhood" by Frano Krsinic..

 

A decorative FDC from Poland on UNICEF's 15th Anniversary shows three stamps (vaccination, different children,bottle feeding).The post mark is an ellipse with UNICEF marked in the centre. The cachet reproduces the stamp designs in different formats. The cover was sent by registered mail from Warsaw to Winnipeg, Canada. On reverse is another regular postage stamp; the letter was posted on 11 December 1961, UNICEF Anniversary and received on 4 January 1962.

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