Adolescence

protection for communities made vulnerable by externalshocks such as drought. Evaluations of the initiativehave found that around 15 per cent of the cash transfersare used for education, and parents report keepingtheir children in school longer as a result. A programmecomponent dedicated to building classrooms ensuresthat increased school attendance does not result in overcrowding.18Similarly, Liberia’s Economic Empowerment ofAdolescent Girls and Young Women (EPAG) Project, acollaborative effort between the Ministry of Gender andDevelopment, the World Bank, the Nike Foundation andthe Government of Denmark, provides skills training forwage employment, combined with job placement assistance;at the same time it facilitates business developmentservices and links to microcredit for young womenentrepreneurs. 19Inequity is also a major barrier to the fulfillment of adolescentrights outlined in the Convention on the Rights of theChild and the Convention on the Elimination of All Formsof Discrimination against Women. The importance ofequal access to education was discussed earlier, but equalrights to health, employment, juvenile justice, religion,culture and identity are also imperative to the positivedevelopment of young people.Adolescents today are healthier, better protected, bettereducated and more connected than ever. However, millionsCOUNTRY: United StatesThe Campus InitiativeAdvocating for children’s rights at colleges and universitiesStudents at the UNICEFCampus Initiative Summit inJune 2010. More than 140students gathered on thelawn at Columbia Universityto stake 24,000 flags in theshape of a zero as a symbolicrepresentation of thedaily number of preventablechild deaths, and theircommitment to help makethat number zero.On more than 100 college campuses across theUnited States, students are choosing to play a powerfulrole in helping the world’s children survive. TheCampus Initiative, run by the US Fund for UNICEF, isa rapidly growing grass-roots movement of dynamiccollege students who champion the organization’smission. The goal of the program, which began in1988, is to build global citizens who will generatefunding, attention and political will to help combatpreventable child deaths.Education, advocacy and fund-raising are at the heartof the UNICEF Campus Initiative’s work. Studentsinitiate and conduct a wide range of activities thatinclude advocating for child survival by contactingelected officials, writing campus newspaper editorialsabout UNICEF’s work and partnering with localchildren’s organizations for service projects. Duringthe 2009–2010 academic year, 2,033 active members– defined as those attending at least 50 per cent ofplanned campus activities – undertook 358 eventsbetween August and December 2009.The US National Committee and a student-ledCampus Initiative National Council provide supportfor campus clubs across the country. This team ofstaff and volunteers also sets the agenda by creatingnational goals and plans, and it implements theCampus Initiative Summit each year. The nationwidegathering enables club members and campus leadersto learn from each other and share best practices.The summit also provides leadership opportunitiesas well as skill-building and knowledge-buildingworkshops, and it motivates campus members tostay engaged with UNICEF.Keeping pace with the advancing digital age is pivotalfor the Campus Initiative, as members of youngergenerations become more and more technologicallysavvy. To connect with individuals aged 19–24, wemust provide them with the organizing tools theyhave come to expect in other areas of their onlineexperience. Advocacy expertise and mobilization isanother area of growth for the Campus Initiative.Students have shown time and time again thatthey will use their political muscle when they aremotivated and supported.A lifetime of service and commitment to children canbe fostered among all of levels of supporters, butespecially among college students. Adolescents andyoung people can and should be an integral part ofthe solution to ending the preventable deaths of children,alleviating child poverty, fighting child exploitationand forced labour, combating HIV and AIDS,ensuring access to quality education and providingopportunities for the world’s children.See References, page 78.Investing in Adolescents73