XUNICEF News and Views

Like her many friends and colleagues, we at News & Views remember Ute fondly and will miss her greatly. Ute retired in 2002 after serving in Mauritania and Croatia as Representative, and earlier duty stations in Abidjan and New York.  Many of us will remember Ute fondly from countries and field trips where we worked with her, from XUNICEF reunions, and from the many articles and comments she contributed to News & Views.   Ute may have retired from UNICEF, but she never stopped working for children and for child rights in Germany and elsewhere. She had a particularly close relationship with Christine Langen who heads the UNICEF volunteer Group in Lörrach in southwestern Germany.  The Lörrach group has been one of UNICEF"s most innovative teams for awareness-raising and fundraising anywhere.  In two of our favorite articles posted by Ute, Lörrach's 'kids gruppe sang these two lovely songs promoting the rights of children everywhere.  Don't miss wat...

With great sadness we pass along the news of the death of Ute Deseniss-Gros. May she rest in eternal peace.

Ute Deseniss-Gros (middle) attending the inauguration of the Human-Rights and Child-Rights Path On 10. Dec. 2018 the first plaque of the Human-Rights-and Child-Rights Path was mounted at the Mayors Office in Lörrach, representing the first Article. This marked the beginning of the installation of plaques of all Human and Child-Rights in the town. The Mayor and other officials, the local press, local  politicians of the regional Parliament, the local head of Amnesty International and Christine Langen, the head of the local UNICEF working group had gathered for the ceremony, together with the local UNICEF group and the interested public.

Christine Langen, head of the UNICEF Lörrach Group, with die Kids Gruppe Since my retirement mid 2002 I have been cooperating with the UNICEF Groups in Weil-Lörrach. I continue to do so even after I moved to Berlin for health reason. In Berlin, I am near to my two sons and their families.

Sleep proved impossible for me. Heavy firing went on through the night. As I was in a war zone, perhaps this seems not so surprising. The surprise came in the morning when I learned that the shooting had only been a celebration in honor of a Coptic saint. It was only my third day in Croatia. I had arrived in Zagreb as the new head of Croatia office in the middle of December 1994 and soon after found myself on the road to Knin, the headquarters of the self-declared Republic of the Serbian Krajina. The trip from Zagreb to Knin was only 300 kms but took us over 6 hours, due to heavy snow and constant stops at checkpoints.

Children of the World ———- at home in Lörrach. A project of the volunteers for UNICEF in  Lörrach, Gemany. For the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (21 March), the group has put together a remarkable Foto Exhibition About Children of the World, of children living in the town of Lörrach. The Foto Exhibition portrays 55 children from 25 nations. Eight photographers took part.

Editors Note:  Be sure to watch the lovely and heart-warming video below. Ute has asked that we include this story as her Christmas present to us all. The kids are wonderful - and we hope they will lead UNICEF for their generation. From Ute Deseniss-Gros We all keep in mind that implementation of the CRC needs to take two directions:

The Berlin Philharmonic have performed their EUROPE Concert on May 1st each year since 1991 - each year place in a different country. This year it was supposed to be in Israel/Tel Aviv. But due to Corona it had to be cancelled. Instead, the Philharmonic under its conductor Kirill Petrenko played its concert under very special conditions. The musicians had to observe the requested distance, the concert hall was totally empty and only very few could play. The concert was opened by our President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and was broadcast in 80 countries. The audience were invited to  send contributions to UNICEF.   According to the German UNICEF Nat. Com  all contributions added up to  200.000 € . On the program : Gustav Mahler's Symphonie Nr. 4 G-Dur arranged for Chamber ensemble by Erwin Stein „Fratres" by Arvo Pärt, „Ramifications für Streicher" by György Ligeti „Adagio für Streicher" by Samuel Barber All the best, stay well, Ute ___________________ Ute Deseni...

Dear All Here is the new campaign by  UNICEF Germany has therefore together with the German Red Cross, the Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe and Caritas International. The newest is to make the heart, with the thumb and the index, see below. Good luck, stay patient and calm, …….. hugs Ute The # TeamMenschheit gesture symbolizes a heart formed from the thumb and forefinger. The hand signal originally comes from Korea and is known there as "Korean Heart" - it symbolizes love, friendship and hope. UNICEF Germany has therefore together with the German Red Cross, the Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe and Caritas International launched the #TeamMenschheit campaign. The initiative expressly calls other organizations, institutions, companies and Individuals to participate. Who? We - that's all of us. Everybody can participate. We are a movement in the face of focuses on global problems and people and humanity. The #TeamMenschheit campaign was initiated by the large German aid organizations  - ...

My Annual Choir Experience Ute Deseniss-Gros Rümmingen, Germany On Sunday night, 26 January 2020, over 400 people were attending our Epiphany concert in the 500 year old Laurentius Church at Binzen. As our conductor gently directed her baton to end the orchestra’s tones, the last word and musical notes were still resounding in the air. Then absolute silence filled the church. The longer the silence lasted, the more the audience absorbed the music which carried them off to another sphere. These few seconds were magical, and as always in such moments, I was exceedingly happy.

Credit: Gianni Murzi Dr. Mikayel Alexsanyan Memoir by Ute Deseniss-Gros In the second half of September 1994 I arrived on a Tuesday morning for a mission for UNICEF HQ in Yerevan/Armenian. At that time I was a team member in the Program Support Communication Section (PSC) under Tony Hewett. The Section was part of the Inter-sectoral Cluster under the Leadership of Mrs. Ramaswamy Padmini. The objective of the mission was to train Armenian Government Officials in “Participatory Communication methods”. I had left NY Sunday night. The flight connection was via Paris, where I continued the next evening in a Russian plane, which was totally overbooked since people were also sitting on stairs downwards to the cargo department. In the middle of the plane a gas cooker did heat up during the whole flight water for tea and coffee and the soup. Nearly everybody smoked. But we arrived safely around by 4 a clock in the morning. Outside it was entirely dark, hardly any light, you could barely see wh...

Lörrach Germany is fortunate to have an active UNICEF Working Group.  The Group is headed by Christine Langen.  The programme of the Group includes a major benefit dinner event this Friday (18 October) titled    „Essen für Freunde"  to raise funds for UNICEF's work in Yemen. Ute Desiness-Gros, Christine Langen and her sister The group also plans a Writing Competition on the theme of 30 years of Children's Rights for later this year.

Wolfgang Dietz Mayor of Weil, Germany Weil is the first city in Germany to have won the Child Friendly City Certificate.  This achievement is thanks to the work of the Superior Mayor of Weil, Wolfgang Dietz, and his wife, Christine, who worked with the Nonnenweiher School.  

See announcement From 15 to 18 October the International Child Friendly City Summit is taking place in the city of Cologne. The Summit has been organized by UNICEF and Cologne.  Forty different countries will participate.