The Soliloquy of a Postage Stamp #27: Getting to be Fifty, The Golden Jubilee /Foaud Kronfol

A major UNICEF milestone, the 50th Anniversary in 1996, was celebrated by many countries issuing philatelic materials. Here we start a new series of some of the stamps and covers from my collection.

UNICEF continued its ground-breaking actions including the "Education for All" conference in Jomtien, Thailand, the "Baby-Friendly Hospital" movement, the" Vaccine Initiative" , a new Nutrition Strategy, the follow-up to the CRC with the Consultative Group on Child Rights. Work was started on Mid-Decade Goals with countries developing National Plans of Action to meet these goals. The new publication," Progress of Nations" complemented the SWOCR enabling comparisons on child related statistics. UNDP issued its first" Human Development Report" which supported many premises propounded by UNICEF.

A Multi-Donor External Evaluation brought out concerns in administrative and financial issues and the Executive Board requested a UNICEF-wide study on management which was carried out by the Booz-Allen & Hamilton firm in 1994. I had the privilage of working with their consultants for the entire period of the study.With Jim Grant's passing in January 1995, his successor Carol Bellamy started a management excellence exercise along lines recommended by the BA&H report.

On a personal note, I had decided to take early retirement on the fiftieth anniversary of the UN in 1995. In hind sight I believe I made a tactical error and should have waited another year in order to retire on UNICEF's 50th Anniversary !

One of the original Leeward islands that became a Crown Colony and finally independent in 1981,the Caribbean island of Antigua & Barbuda issued this very attractive souvenir sheet for the UNICEF anniversary. It shows a painting of four children having a good time while embracing each other. The stamp is one of three issued as a set for this occasion.The UNICEF acronym surrounds the face of the Asian girl and at the bottom is the official logo adopted for UNICEF@50.

Another amusing stamp was issued by Ascension Island.This tiny island of 35 square miles and a population of about 1,500,is part of the British Crown Colony of St. Helena.It has one post office in Georgetown the capital. This stamp is one of a series issued to commemorate UNICEF for its 50th anniversary.The designs all have Santa Claus in various situations..riding a satellite dish, playing golf, on the beach, on a ship, and this one where he is riding on top of a TriStar airplane, together with a deer and with toys all around the plane . Quite original as a motif !! As with all UK colony issues it has the efigy of Queen Elizabeth II in one corner.

Here we see a black "proof" of a stamp from Austria (this is part of the printing process before the stamp is finally issued). It shows a drawing of three children of different ethnicity together with an inscription about UNICEF@50.

This semi-postal stamp from Belgium was issued in 1996. It shows a group of children from different ethnicities holding hands in front of the globe. The child in the centre wears a white shirt with UNICEF and the number 50 on it.

From Brazil we have this square stamp issued in 1996 to commemorate UNICEF@50 but also the national campaign to fight the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. The drawing shows a child within a dotted circle with black trousers, on which is printed a red heart with a white cross on it.It was designed and drawn by Celia and Luciana Matsunaga.

The Canadian Postal Service issued these stamps for Christmas 1996 and to also commemorate UNICEF@50. The three stamp set shows typical winter scenes including a boy on snow shoes and a girl in a sled; Santa Claus on skis delivering toys to a child also on skis; and a young pair ice skating. All three stamps, (45, 52,& 90 cents) have a small inscription of UNICEF on them. The first two stamps have an attached tag with the UNICEF@50 logo and the dates 1946 and 1996.

Here we have an interesting souvenir sheet from the Central African Republic. There are two themes on the sheet; the United Nations which shows different exploits in space technology plus the UN logo, and UNICEF where the official logo is next to three stamps representing food/nutrition, childhood immunization and growth monitoring. Interesting fact..there is no UNICEF@50 logo on the sheet.

Another souvenir sheet from the Central African Republic shows a three stamp issue commemorating UNICEF.The stamps show the UN Building, a newborn child and the first UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Danny Kaye. In last week's Soliloquy where I showed movie actors like Marlene Dietrich and Audrey Hepburn, I had forgotten this sheet with Danny Kaye which would have been better among that group.

The Central African Republic has also issued this second souvenir sheet to commemorate UNICEF@50. Here there is one stamp with the face of a young child, the UNICEF logo, the UN building and the famous statue donated by Russia, of a man converting arms to ploughshares.

From the republic of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa we have this stamp issued for UNICEF@50 which shows a seated mother holding her child.

This is a post card from the republic of Ireland that was issued to commemorate UNICEF@50. It shows a colorful stamp of seven children holding hands and dancing in a circle. The prominent logo of UNICEF and the Fiftieth anniversary sign take up a good space of the card.

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