I well recall that night as a seventh grader, I decided to forgo the
usual Halloween festivities. Instead, I went door-to-door toting a small
cardboard box, collecting spare change for UNICEF. I knew the money was
going for a good cause -- to help disadvantaged children around the
world.
As early as 1980, UNICEF director Jim Grant championed simple yet
effective programs to promote child welfare. These strategies included
immunizations, promotion of breastfeeding, and training birth
attendants. Grant's initiative has been credited with saving the lives
of over 25 million children.
But in 1995, Grant tragically died, and radical feminist Carol Bellamy
took over. UNICEF was due for an ideological overhaul.
According to a recent report
from the International Organizations
Research Group, radical feminists began
to argue that female autonomy and empowerment is what really matters. As
Mary Racelis, former UNICEF senior policy advisor put it, these
activists believed that the organization needed "to focus on a woman's
own priorities...rather than decide for her that her children must come
first."
Note the false dichotomy in that statement. Apparently, feminists
believed that parenthood was incompatible with personal fulfillment.
There is no evidence that sending mom off to work in a factory is good
for junior. In fact,
research
shows the opposite, that children who
spend time in day care centers are more likely to be aggressive and
disobedient.
Some UNICEF officials resisted this reconfiguration of family roles.
But feminists countered with a blitzkrieg of sexist allegations, calling
UNICEF a "male-dominated organization" that perpetuated "male-defined
stereotypes".
Even breastfeeding came under fire. Feminists took issue with the
UNICEF breastfeeding campaign, denouncing the effort because it
portrayed women "as the human equivalent of milking cows."
Before long, the name-calling and bovine hysteria-mongering took over.
Once the new gender ideology became entrenched, Bellamy made Girls'
Education her number one priority. The 1998 UNICEF report Progress of
Nations gives this flimsy ideological justification: "Education can also
provide vocational skills, potentially increasing her economic power,
thus freeing her from dependence on her husband, father, or brother."
Now, UNICEF officials talk about the global "crisis" facing girls'
education. But throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, boys lag
behind girls in school enrollments. Apparently
this
gender gap has
escaped the attention of UNICEF officials.
While boys are merely neglected by current UNICEF programs, girls are
being subjected to an aggressive campaign to inculcate them with radical
feminist ideology.
According to the IORG
report, UNICEF
has set out to convince girls that being the primary caregiver for
children represents gender discrimination.
And under the cover of stopping AIDS, UNICEF provides financial
support to organizations that promote sexual experimentation by teenage
girls. For example, one
UNICEF-supported
website asks this titillating
question: "Hey, you know that tingly feeling that makes you think of sex
after you've seen someone cute?"
Who in their right mind believes that kind of message promotes
abstinence and sexual monogamy?
So Carol Bellamy has not merely reshuffled UNICEF's priorities.
Rather, Bellamy has put in place an anti-child agenda that:
1. Promotes a redefinition of the family that is no longer
child-centered,
2. Advocates the neglect of the educational needs of boys, and
3. Indoctrinates girls into radical feminist ideology.
So this Fall, when trick-or-treaters come knocking at your door, ask
yourself this question: Why is the United States government bankrolling
UNICEF's anti-child agenda to the tune of $216 million?
