This is how you show your loved ones you care

How long is it before all the chocolates in the heart-shaped box are gone? What do you do with the giant teddy bear your boyfriend gave you for Valentine's day?

This Valentine's Day, how about showing your loved-one you care with a present that will live on past the 14th of February. Stuck for ideas? We've bundled together three critical gifts for children to make it easy for you.

Food

Peanut butter might seem like an odd choice for a romantic gift, but there is so much more than meets the eye with this simple breakfast spread. It can save the lives of millions of children suffering from malnutrition around the world.

We call it Plumpy’Nut® – a high-energy peanut paste that contains sugar, vegetable oil, skimmed milk powder and enriched vitamins and minerals.

Only a few sachets a day for six to eight weeks can be all it takes to save a child’s life. In times when food is scarce Plumpy’Nut® is a true hero.

Mary Abu holds her daughter Sony at the Al Sabbah Children's hospital in Juba, South Sudan. ©UNICEF/UN0232177/Njiokiktjien VII Photo

Meet Sony. Sony is only one-year-old and is malnourished. She lives in South Sudan where conflict and underdevelopment have left children malnourished and vulnerable to disease.

She is being fed Plumpy’Nut® by a UNICEF health worker so that she can get stronger and healthier.

Sony with her mother, Mary, at the Al Sabbah Children's hospital in Juba, South Sudan. © UNICEF/UN0232178/Njiokiktjien VII Photo

Give the gift of food

Education

While health and nutrition, safe drinking water and sanitation care for the most urgent needs for children caught in the middle of disaster, UNICEF also plans for a deeper response to help children recover from the trauma they have endured.

How? We provide children with supplies, like a school-in-a-box, to get children back into the classroom as soon as possible. Through our experience in working in humanitarian crises, we know that the chance to learn is particularly vital for children who have been caught in the middle of a natural disaster.

It is a safe place where they can learn, play, heal psychological wounds, access medical help and regain hope for a better future.

A school-in-a-box contains books, pencils, erasers, scissors and even a wind-up solar radio and blackboard and is a portable way to ensure children continue to learn during times of crisis.

Give the gift of education

Young children in Alotau, Milne Bay Province explore the contents of a School in a Box kit that UNICEF distributed. © UNICEF/UN0260351/Chambers

Vaccines

Belmar carried her four-month-old son for two and a half hours to a UNICEF supported health centre on the border of Colombia and Venezuela to be vaccinated against deadly diseases like rotavirus.

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are hosting millions of Venezuelan migrants and refugees with a growing number of migrants continuing to cross dangerous rural paths or trails and rivers to get to Colombian sites.

UNICEF continues to work on the ground to provide vaccination, health treatment and nutritional screening for migrant children and mothers without access to regular care.

"This is very important so that he won't get sick," Belmar says.
"To have him healthy and to have him warm - that's all that matters to me."

Sahid receives one of the four vaccines (rotavirus, polio, the pentavalent, and neumococus) at a health centre supported by UNICEF. © UNICEF/UN0303658/Arcos

In 2019, the Pacific region was hit with the re-emergence of measles with outbreaks declared in Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and American Samoa and cases reported in Kiribati.

UNICEF and the Government of Samoa commenced a mass immunisation campaign in Samoa for those ages between six months and 60-years-old. The campaign resulted in 95 per cent vaccination coverage to reduce the risk of further outbreak.

Three-year-old Janele is one of the many children who received a measles vaccination during the UNICEF-supported campaign.

Give the gift of health

Nurse Manager James administers a measles vaccination to three-year-old Janele, at Poutasi District Hospital on the island of Upolu in Samoa, during a UNICEF-supported National Vaccination Campaign in response to the current measles outbreak in the Pacific region. © UNICEF/UNI234110/Stephen

Can't decided? You don't have to!

You can choose a UNICEF Bestseller Bundle. Each bundle includes measles vaccinations for children, a school-in-a-box to get children back in the classroom and learning and sachets of therapeutic food to bring a child back from malnutrition.

How does it work?

Purchase a UNICEF Bestseller Bundle.
A personalised card will be sent to your loved one telling them about the life-saving impact they're having on children.
Real supplies will be dispatched from a UNICEF warehouse to wherever they're needed most.

There's no better way to show someone how much you appreciate everything they've done for you. Buy a Bestseller Bundle instantly to make someone's day and forever change the lives of vulnerable children.

Give a bestseller Bundle