Commitment for A Better Life

The UNICEF Street Children Aid Project

Worldwide, more than 100 million children between the ages of 5 and 18 live and work on the streets. UNICEF Switzerland wants to protect these people, disadvantaged at such a young age, and to help improve their prospects for the future with concrete projects – a huge task which Nationale Suisse is also becoming involved in.

The street children scrape together a living with simple services – such as polishing shoes and cleaning cars – or by begging. They have no protection from violence, exploitation and abuse, nor do they have access to educational or health facilities. UNICEF concentrates its aid work on protecting these children and implements programs which correspond to the different conditions in which they live.

The Nationale Suisse CEO in Russia

For example, the proceedings of a week of action organised by UNICEF Switzerland, which was also supported by Nationale Suisse and its employees, are flowing into three target projects in the Russian cities of Moscow and Tver. The street children there are faced with an additional fight for survival every winter, simply because of the merciless cold. The Nationale Suisse CEO, Dr. Hans Künzle, journeyed to Russia repeatedly in December 2009, to get a personal impression of the UNICEF projects and the progress they were making. His visits to the “Krasnoselsky Social Shelter” in Moscow and the rehabilitation centre in Tver affected him deeply; even more so when he saw that “it is often very young children who already have to survive on the streets and whose daily lives are overshadowed by violence and drugs”.

You will find more infomation about Dr. Künzle’s trip to Russia in the following film (in German):