INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S DAY OF BROADCASTING- 7 MARCH 2010

ALL RIGHTS ALL CHILDREN

Greetings from UNICEF.

I’m writing to you about our International Children’s Day of Broadcasting Initiative and to encourage your station to participate.You may be acquainted (or have participated) in the InternationalChildren’s Day of Broadcasting (ICDB) initiative. Launched in 1991, ICDBis an annual event where broadcasters around the world air specialprogramming by, for and about children.

In my time here at UNICEF, I haveseen so many unique interpretations of the ICDB mission and it isencouraging to see the great work that stations produce in honor ofUNICEF’s goal of getting young people on their air, both physically and insubject matter.The next ICDB will take place 7 March 2010 with the theme All Rights AllChildren.

It’s the 20th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child anda time to take stock of the rights that children have and deserve. Inessence, every aspect of a child or young person’s life is somehow relatedto one or more of the rights afforded to children.

Since the theme is sobroad, we’re hoping that is will encourage more participation andcreativity.In the past few years, we’ve been pushing the child participation aspect ofthe ICDB – getting kids to present the programs and to help in theproduction process.

We’ve had some wonderful successes with news magazine,game and variety shows.

But we still also welcome traditional programmingthat highlights the theme and presents programs for young people. There’sroom for everything on the ICDB.There are many options of what can be done during the day:

· Produce a special talk show that is hosted by youth and features short reports on different child’s rights issues

· Tailor an episode of an already existing show to focus on any issue that related to child rights

· Air interstitials that highlight the ICDB

· Donate a program that relates to child rights to the ICDB compilation that can be aired free-of-charge by broadcasters around the world

· Create a kids news show featuring reports by young people about issues they face and larger world news

· Feature children’s perspectives on adult shows or other shows airing on that dayThere are many different possibilities to embrace the ICDB – whether it’sslightly shaping a product you already have or creating a new platform forkids.

Whatever you can do to participate in this event, UNICEF would bevery grateful to have your support.

UNICEF also awards the International Children’s Day of Broadcasting Awardsto the radio and television broadcasters that best support and implementthe mission of the ICDB. Nominees are invited to New York in November forthe Awards Ceremony and associated broadcasting conference.

This year theICDB Awards went to Citizen TV (Kenya) and Rádio Justiça (Brazil).

Please contact me (kcirillo@unicef.org / +1.212.326.7506) if you have anyquestions or are interested in donating a program.

I also invite you to visit www.unicef.org/icdb for more background and links to past ICDBs and winning programs.We would love to have your station’s support for UNICEF’s effort to “Tune in to Kids” and hope that you can be part of this exciting day.

Best,

Karen Cirillo