At the young age of eight I joined my neighborhood friends to roam the neighborhood “after” the streetlights came on, wearing hand made costumes and store bought plastic masks to celebrate our most coveted day of the year - Halloween.
We reveled in the cornucopia of sugar overload, grimaced at the occasional apple and rejoiced whenever the treasured nickel or dime was dropped into our old pillowcases.
However that Halloween would be different for me, instead of a pillow case, I carried a little can cylinder bearing the label “UNICEF.”
I had no idea when I yelled “Trick or Treat for UNICEF” that I was was fundraising under a much bigger and substantially more important organization called “The United Nations.” It would be years later before I fully understood the positive impacts the U.N. had on the world.
Today, however, inclusion and cooperation with other countries appears to be threatened under our new “nationalist” president and house republicans. Now more than ever, It is vitally important that Americans fully understand the values and occasional shortcomings of the United Nations to appreciate why we must never abandon it. Read:
As the US Threatens to Cut UN Funding, Here's What the UN Actually Does
By James O'Hare — Global Citizen
“In recent weeks, the United Nations has suffered threats from various parts of the US government — a bill in the House of Representatives calls for the US to sever all ties with the UN. Another bill, in the Senate, threatened to slash UN funding.
With all these attacks on the UN, we decided to take a look at the history of this global organization and its broad impact around the world.
The League of Nations folded after World War I and international treaties like the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which outlawed war as a tool of international policy, were unenforceable. But after World War II, international efforts aimed at establishing a world order for peace stuck with the creation of the United Nations.
Formed in 1945 and headquartered in New York City, the organization works to “take action on the issues confronting humanity in the 21st century, such as peace and security, climate change, sustainable development, human rights, disarmament, terrorism, humanitarian and health emergencies, gender equality, governance, food production, and more.”
The UN is affiliated with numerous organizations that work to support its goals of a safer, healthier, and more just world.
The World Health Organization, for instance, has been at the forefront in the global effort to eradicate polio amid greater efforts to respond quickly and effectively to malnutrition and outbreaks in disease.
The World Food Programme meanwhile, aims to feed 80 million people in 80 different countries and works to develop food security so that famished areas can achieve self-sufficiency.
Arguably the most-needed UN affiliate right now is the UN Refugee Agency. UNHCR provides clean water, sanitation, food and shelter to 16.1 million refugees who have been forcibly displaced from their homes.”
Read in entirety:
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/united-nations-explainer/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=global&utm_campaign=general-content&linkId=34852829