UNICEF USA at Afropunk 2018
This past weekend, UNICEF USA was at Afropunk, the music festival celebrating the African spirit, culture, and individual expression featuring Erykah Badu, Tyler the Creator, Janelle Monae and more. Festival attendees stopped by the UNICEF USA booth on Activism Row to show their support for UNICEF’s Children on the Move Campaign and work to protect the 50 million refugee and migrant children around the world including child refugees at camps in Kenya, Bangladesh, and at U.S. borders. Visitors to the booth were able to share messages of hope and inspiration as well as send letters to their Congressional representatives to support the Keep Families Together Act to protect the welfare of children crossing U.S. borders.
Meet Some of Our Supporters
Saturday kicked off with a surprise meeting with Hollywood film director Ava Duvernay, who connected with Zuhirah Khaldun-Diarra, UNICEF USA’s Marketing Director, and learned more about our Children On the Move Campaign. So proud to see Ava sporting our #AChildIsAChild tote bag!
Zuhirah’s daughters, always ardent supporters of UNICEF and sporting their afros, shared rainbow and heart messages of love for children on the move.
Read more about what Afropunk means to Zuhirah, our Marketing Director at UNICEF USA: “… Been An Afro Since Birth” .
Nigerian-American film actress and start of the acclaimed webseries An African City, Esosa E, also stopped by and grabbed a few poses with Semhar Araia, our Managing Director of Diaspora and Multicultural Partnerships at UNICEF USA.
Seeing UNICEF USA’s booth at AfroPunk, Esosa shared her thoughts with us:
“As a member of the diaspora who straddles between the African continent and the US, I believe in building bridges. The more we can foster dialogue, start conversations, and create opportunities for small daily changes, the more impact we can have. It is important and essential that organizations like UNICEF making an impact in Africa and globally remain accessible and offer a platform for all those who care deeply about the continent and the fate of its children.”
South African artist Sho Madjozi, also said hello and caught up with our team. She is pictured here with Semhar Araia, our head of diaspora partnerships at UNICEF USA.
Sisters Erica and Mikaela dropped by to show support. Erica just returned from Zambia, where she served as a Peace Corps volunteer.
Lameeka, who works in behavioral health, took time to learn about UNICEF’s work and showed her support for our campaign, noting how important it was to protect children from traumatic experiences.
Malique from the Bronx stopped by with his 5-month old daughter, Emme.
Behavior specialist Tynisha brought her 4-year old daughter, Elijah, to learn more about UNICEF.
Thanks so much to everyone who came by to show support for UNICEF’s work to protect refugee and migrant children around the world!
HOW TO HELP
There are many ways to make a difference
War, famine, poverty, natural disasters — threats to the world's children keep coming. But UNICEF won't stop working to keep children healthy and safe.
UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories — more places than any other children's organization. UNICEF has the world's largest humanitarian warehouse and, when disaster strikes, can get supplies almost anywhere within 72 hours. Constantly innovating, always advocating for a better world for children, UNICEF works to ensure that every child can grow up healthy, educated, protected and respected.
Would you like to help give all children the opportunity to reach their full potential? There are many ways to get involved.
