UNICEF's tap project - Essay Example

UNICEF'S TAP PROJECT United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund was created in 1946 as a part of the UN to help the European childrenwho suffered the aftermath of the Second World War. Its role was to provide them with shelter, clothing, food, education and proper health care. UNICEF also fights for the protection of children's rights and to facilitate them with opportunities that help the children explore their potential and fully exploit it. UNICEF currently is spread in 115 countries with 200 offices all over. It has initiated many projects dealing with child development and sustainability, resource availability, gender inequality, education, HIV/AIDS, policy development and complete child protection. One of the projects that UNICEF launched is called the Tap Project. Water is one of the most critical resources needed for survival; although, we know that water is falling short for the population of the world, we are still taking the resource for granted. Efforts have been made to preserve water but with increasing population it is becoming extremely difficult for people around the world to reduce usage. Also, 5000 children die every single day due to water-borne diseases; which means there is a strict need for regulating the quality of water being provided. UNICEF has been making sure that there is access to safe drinking water and sanitation in schools and communities and at the same time promoting hygiene practices in 90 other countries. With the help of the efforts made by UNICEF, 1.2 billion people have been blessed with clean drinking water from 1990 to 2004. (http://www.unicef.org/index.php) Whenever a project is launched, there is always a need for a planner or a person who can rationally evaluate it. There are several ways of critically analyzing a project, one of which is Jung's Public Health Program Evaluation Grid. Since UNICEF's Tap Project is a public health project, it is best to use an evaluation process that deals with this subject. There are six areas that are examined by this evaluation grid - cultural competency, quality assessment and improvement, program oversight, program intervention strategies, program background/overview and the program administration (Jung, 2006). One easy way is to carry out surveys by passing out questionnaires for participants and people managing the project. Another way is to gather information from the managerial department - making arduous efforts can collect information on financial accounts, marketing techniques, goals achieved. They should judge the success by seeing the increment in the number of participant restaurants or companies. Also, they should see how many goals and objectives formed initially have been achieved over the course of existence of the Tap project. Program Background/Overview - The Tap Project is a non-profit and non-governmental effort for primary prevention of the people from contaminated water and unhygienic living conditions. The benefactors are poor people and children of the countries participating in this project who would otherwise not have sanitary facilities or even access to clean drinking water. The lack of these two causes many diseases, the most common ones of which are cholera, diarrhea and typhoid. The major global partners of this project are American Express, Droga5, Esquire, Turner Broadcasting, OpenTable.com, Water & Sanitation Rotarian Action Group (WASRAG), Sundance Channel, Eco-mmunity and the Empire State Building (Tap Project, n.d). These are the stakeholders of the project who volunteer for such projects for popularity and advertisement. By sponsorships, their names will be become common among the population - this is exactly what a good company needs in order to gain the confidence of the consumers. If the stakeholder is an NGO, they would be interested in rise up to new heights and earn awards for their hardwork for the community. If it is a manufacturing company, participating in this project will help them to increase awareness of their product - this is a medium for them to advertise their project; people learning about this project will learn about their product and strong devotees of the Tap project will endorse the product and even consume it to some extent. Program Administration - The Tap Project has very clear objectives of making clean drinking water and hygienic sanitation a norm. The Tap Project from UNICEF has support from the participant countries' health sector. It has also collaborated with numerous restaurants throughout the world - the restaurants charge $1 for the tap water that they would normally get free of cost. For each dollar donated, a child will have clean water to drink for 30 days. Some restaurants out of the 2,350 taking part in New Zealand are: Arizona Bar and Grill, White Restaurant (Hilton Hotel), Tiffany's and Heritage Hotel. (Tap Project, n.d) Project Intervention Strategies - The Tap Project was launched or say is run in collaboration with the celebrations of the World Water Week. It is during this week that the restaurants charge for clean water and the money that is raised is then used for the poor children's drinking water. The World Water Day is on the 22nd of March, but the whole week (16th - 22nd) is used for the promotion of the Tap Project. Every year the number of cities and restaurants participating keeps augmenting. Quality Assessment & Improvement - During 1955, 210 out of every 1000 children would die before the age of five due to problems including water shortage and contamination. This number has decreased to being 79 out of 1000 recently. It is a fact that 3 million more children survived in 2000 compared to 1990 - this is an 11 percent reduction in under-five mortality rates. (Global Child Survival and Health - a 50 year progress report from UNICEF Canada, n.d) Cultural Competency - The Tap project is definitely an effort towards a better community and society to live in. It is an attempt towards the provision of basic necessities and rights of a civilian such as clean drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilities. The Tap project reduces health disparities - earlier, only the rich were able to take proper health care by consuming clean water for drinking and sanitation due to the high costs; but with advent of this project, now the poor and adversity stricken people are blessed with this service. This reduces the gap between the quality of life of the poor and rich. The Tap Project is being support by a diverse group of partners who are all working towards the welfare of the society and mostly the ones who cannot afford better living standards. This project has collaborated with these partners for not only support for also funds - the money from the restaurants may not always be enough. In the future, however, it is expected that once the number of restaurants keeps expanding along with the expansion of awareness of this project, external funding will not be needed. However, it has been seen that such non-profit projects always need aid to be successful in their objectives. After deep evaluation of this project using the Jung's evaluation grid, it can be concluded that this project despite being extremely successful and popular will not be able to continue without external funding. It will need support from various companies, especially its partners to thrive. Therefore, this project has a long way to go to become self-sufficient. There is easy access for participation in this project such as going to restaurants that are volunteers or by simply visiting the website and donating online. Access, therefore, is not at all difficult; devoted people can easily participate in this project. Conclusion The analysis and critical evaluation of this project is completely positive. It is a very generous effort towards making the lives of poor children qualitative. The Tap Project has big names involved with it - big companies partnering and thousands of popular restaurants volunteering for raising money by implementing the policies in their everyday business. UNICEF has been a very successful and strong branch of the UN; with the support of such a devoted organization, The Tap Project is sure to reach heights. Works Cited 1. Jung, B. (2006), Public Health Program Evaluation Grid. Accessed from 2. UNICEF (2008), Unite for Children. Accessed from < http://www.unicef.org/index.php> 3. The Tap Project, 2008. Accessed from 4. Global Child Survival and Health - a 50 year progress report from UNICEF Canada, (n.d). Accessed from Read More