EVENTS & OUTREACH
Join Yale UNICEF as we hold exciting new fundraising and advocacy events throughout the school year.
Here are some of our events you can look out for:
Arts for Healing
Year - Round
A connection with Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital, small groups of Yale UNICEF members volunteer in the Pediatric Emergency Waiting Room twice a month to provide arts and craft activities to patients and their families.
Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF
October - Early November
Yale UNICEF continues the tradition of Trick-or-Treating for UNICEF (collecting change instead of candy) on campus in a variety of ways. From dorm trick-or-treating to hosting Halloween parties to collecting change from local stores, we love to get into the spirit of Halloween and raise money for UNICEF at the same time.
Tap Project
March - April
Joining UNICEF's efforts to advocate for access to clean and safe water for all children, Yale UNICEF gets the word out about the Tap Project on campus. UNICEF has developed an app where for every 10 minutes you don't use your phone, a child is provided 1 day of clean water. Yale UNICEF has hosted "Anti-Study Breaks", during which we offer a quiet place for students to study during busy midterm season and not get distracted by their phones that are set aside to raise funds for UNICEF through the app.
Check out the app here: http://tap.unicefusa.org/
OUR TEAM
Meet the Yale UNICEF Board of 2024.
Daniela Macaya
Co-President
Year: Class of 2025
College: Morse
Hometown: San Jose, Costa Rica
Major: Environmental Studies
Why UNICEF: Previous experience working with UNICEF Costa Rica (published my children’s book on single-use plastic) and very interested in early environmental education.
Fun Fact: My favorite hobby is painting!
Gloria Kim
Co-President
Year: Class of 2026
College: Berkeley
Hometown: Buford, GA
Major: MCDB
Why UNICEF: I have taught in Syrian refugee camps in Turkey and Lebanon, and I became passionate about educational and medical access for Syrian refugees and North Korean defectors. I am also involved with Demos, THiNK, and Baram.
Fun Fact: I was born exactly on midnight, so I consider myself having two birthdays.
Angelica Sanchez
Co-President
Year: Class of 2025
College: Benjamin Franklin
Hometown: Weehawken, NJ
Major: E&EB & Education Studies
Why UNICEF: In the face of climate change, I am very passionate about ensuring that children have access to clean water, air, and a healthy world. I’m also very passionate about community involvement and have volunteered at the pediatric emergency room and worked at Calvin Hill Daycare for two years.
Fun Fact: I’ve tracked lions before!
Abigail Lopez Freire
Co-President
Year: Class of 2026
College: Berkeley
Hometown: PG County, MD
Major: MCDB
Why UNICEF: I am passionate about access to education and healthcare for all children. I specifically have a strong interest in education access for children of indigenous communities within the Andes Region. I’ve volunteered within the region, directed fundraising for the UNICEF chapter in highschool, and ran initiatives for access to books & education for youth at my local library system.
Fun Fact: While I was visiting family in Ecuador, we got stuck in 6 landslides!
Sabrina Guo
Vice-President
Year: Class of 2027
College: Ezra Stiles
Hometown: Long Island, NY
Major: Political Science
Why UNICEF: I'm passionate about journalism and legislative activism work (Kenya, Syria, Central America) — also performed in UNICEF World Children’s Day MV, spoken in 2021 UN Climate Change Conference, collaborated with various bodies of the UN, and learned about the power of storytelling.
Fun Fact: I have a tabby cat who looks like a little grey tiger — her name is Daisy!
Lauren Cho
Conference
Co-Director
Year: Class of 2026
College: Benjamin Franklin
Hometown: Seoul, South Korea
Major: Political Science & Data Science
Why UNICEF: I love service work and have been heavily involved in community service for families under the poverty line, disability centers, and refugee centers. At Yale, I want to use my experience and resources to help children in need around the world.
Fun Fact: I love music and I’ve been playing the violin for 15 years — but my favorite music genre is alt rock.
Eunice Oh
Conference
Co-Director
Year: Class of 2026
College: Ezra Stiles
Hometown: San Ramon, CA
Major: Global Affairs
Why UNICEF: I have been heavily involved in interpretation and translation work advocating for Korean adoptees, children living in group homes, and children of single parents struggling against not only financial burdens but also the social stigma of an unconventional household in Korea. Through Yale UNICEF, I am hoping to bring awareness to more childrens’ issues.
Fun Fact: The longest I’ve ever slept without getting up is 18 hours.
Bryant Li
Treasurer
Year: Class of 2027
College: Trumbull
Hometown: Houston, TX
Major: EP&E (& Music?)
Why UNICEF: I’m passionate about arts education and educational policy in underserved communities, and have raised over $40K for UNICEF initiatives through organizing benefit concerts. I’m also involved with research at Yale on socio-emotional learning and equitable school redistricting.
Fun Fact: Over the past 12 years, I’ve been to 12 music camps!
Amadie Gajanaike
Publicity Director
Year: Class of 2026
College: Ezra Stiles
Hometown: Colombo, Sri Lanka
Major: Electrical Engineering
Why UNICEF: I love being involved in public service, whether back home, in New Haven or beyond. I taught children who lost their families to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and am currently part of the Dwight Hall Student Executive Committee.
Fun Fact: I’m half-Australian!
Sahra Wahedi
Community
Outreach Director
Year: Class of 2027
College: Pierson
Hometown: Queens, NY
Major: Computer Science
Why UNICEF: As an Afghan-American, I am passionate about ensuring education equity, gender equality, and safe well-being for all children globally. I’ve taught coding to middle school students in Fair Haven and fundraised for displaced children in Afghanistan. Also, I’ve been involved with Trick or Treat for UNICEF.
Fun Fact: When I was a kid, I had three parakeets!
Thien Dao
Advocacy
Events Director
Year: Class of 2027
College: Timothy Dwight
Hometown: Vietnam / NC
Major: Econ and History
Why UNICEF: Growing up in Vietnam, I came into contact with the incredible work that UNICEF does as its recipient. This experience motivated me to establish a UNICEF club during high school once I immigrated here to America, which was instrumental in cultivating my interest in children's rights. As I embark on my journey at Yale, I wanted a place that would allow me to pursue this passion further, and I saw Yale UNICEF to be the perfect place that would help me achieve this goal.
Fun Fact: I had 3 guinea pigs and 2 pigs as a pet when I was in elementary school.
Antonia Baudoin
Fundraising Director
Year: Class of 2027
College: Benjamin Franklin
Hometown: Cape Charles, VA
Major: Film & Media & Global Affairs
Why UNICEF: As a young Latina and Native women, I am
passionate about aiding marginalized communities. In the past, I have tutored children in cooperation with my area’s refugee relief program, worked at a local food pantry and school, and produced a short documentary addressing the inequity that immigrant families face.
Fun Fact: I love water sports! I like to fish, jetski, kayak, paddleboard, surf, and wakesurf.
SPRING 2024 CONFERENCE
The Spring 2024 Yale UNICEF Conference will focus on how the lives of children are being impacted by international crises, such as those in Ukraine, Gaza, and Syria. Our goal is to raise awareness of children’s rights and welfare during these times of conflict, which is particularly pertinent given our position of privilege as university students with the resources and voices for advocacy.
Over two days (April 18th and 19th) we will have various guest speakers come to share their knowledge and experiences in children’s rights, international relations, and human rights advocacy. These speakers are all experts in their field, coming from the larger UNICEF organization and diverse areas of academia (such as immigration studies, legal practice, child development, and political science).
The conference will primarily be held in discussion-panel style, with time for Q&A afterward (refreshments provided)! Finally, there will be the opportunity to donate to UNICEF and its efforts to bring aid to children facing international conflicts.
Speaker Line-Up:
Directors of Another Kind Of Girl Collective
Kim Miller, Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, Vietnam
Brigid Kennedy Pfister, UNICEF Senior Advisor – Child Protection in Humanitarian Action
Ann Marie Wilcock, UNICEF Staff Member
PAST CONFERENCES
Check out previous conferences that Yale UNICEF has hosted in the past.
2019
Speakers:
- Joanna Rubinstein, President and CEO of World Childhood Foundation USA
2018
Speakers:
- William Casey King, Director of the Capstone Program and a lecturer at Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs
- Zoë Root, Policy Counsel at the Justice Programs Office
- Yvette Young, Licensed Professional Counselor
- Victoria Curbelo, U.S. Fund for UNICEF (UNICEF USA), Fair Trade USA, the International Rescue Committee, and Jabalna
- Sarala Nagala, Visiting Clinical Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School
- Kirsten Bechtel, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at Yale School of Medicine
- Jillian Gilchrest, Director of Health Professional Outreach for the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence
- Raymond Bechard, Author, Producer and Human Rights Advocate
- Norma Flores Lopez, Governance and Development/Collaboration Manager at East Coast Migrant Head Start Project
- Wendy Bowersox, FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children Squad
- Erin Williamson, US Survivor Care Program Director for Love146.
2013
Speakers:
- Dr. Nicholas Alipui, Former UNICEF Director of Programmes
- Dr. Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, Yale School of Public Health Professor
- Dr. James Leckman, Yale School of Medicine Professor
- Mick Hirsch, refugee trauma specialist
- Othman Shibly, dentist and humanitarian
- Maya Prabhu, Yale psychiatry professor and refugee mental health specialist
- Claudia Connor, President, the International Institute of Connecticut
- Jennifer Nagda,lawyer at the Young Center & University of Pennsylvania professor
- Selcuk Sirin, NYU Applied Psychology Professor
- Chris George, Director of IRIS
2015
Speakers:
- Richard Skolnik, Professor of Global Health at Yale University
- Deidre Moskoff, Humphrey Fellow (South Africa) at Syracuse University
- Rami Nakhla, Syrian Activist and Yale World Fellow
- Andrew Beer, Board of Directors for UNICEF USA
2014
Speakers:
- Dr. Stephanie Goins, Executive Program Director of Love146
- Dr. Monzer Yazji, Founding Member of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organizations
- Dr. Ehsan Hoque, Founder and Executive Director of Distressed Children and Infants International
2013
Speakers:
- Ishmael Beah, Founder of the Ishmael Beah Foundation
- Nicholas Rees, Policy Analysis Specialist at UNICEF New York HQs
- Joanne Goldblum, Founder and Executive Director of National Diaper Bank Network
- Cheryl Perera, Founder and President of One Child Network and Support Systems Inc.
- Dr. Joan Kaufman, Director of Child and Adolescent Research and Education (C.A.R.E) at Yale School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry
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Click the button below to donate to UNICEF USA's Every Child Fund. Want to find other ways to donate to UNICEF's humanitarian relief? Learn more here.
