Our Trick or Treat UNICEF drives are now among the most successful campaigns in the tri-state New York City area. During each of the past three years we raised over $20,000 for UNICEF. Last year our efforts almost made $25,000. This does not happen without the support of many, many volunteers.

We recently met with UNICEF USA’s New York City Community Fellow, Monica Olveira. She will help us get volunteers from local colleges and high schools.  Our big event is on October 26^th, the Saturday before Halloween.  We’ll be handing out UNICEF donation boxes and teaching our children about UNICEF’s life-saving work. This program will be in two shifts, and begin at 10 at the Grand Army Plaza farmer’s market. If we get more volunteers than needed there, we will expand our outreach to include the Central Library, then the museum and then the Botanic Garden and zoo entrances.  Hopefully, we will handout out 2,000 UNICEF boxes. Our goal is to make thousands of Brooklyn’s budding youths to be better global citizens and proud of their good work.

We also will need your help on Halloween afternoon. Here are the details.

• Saturday, October 26^th  at the Grand Army Plaza Farmers’ Market.
  • 1^st shift is 10 a.m. to noon
  • 2^nd shift is noon to 2 p.m.
  • Please email me at monroe.allison@gmail.com with your name and the shift you can work.

• Halloween, Thursday, October 31 
  • We will staff three tables along 7^th Ave. from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
  • The tables will be set up along 7^th Ave.
    • at Carroll St.
    • 6St.
    • and btw 11^th & 12^th Sts. 
  • Email me at monroe.allison@gmail.com with your name & preferred location.

The Brooklyn For Peace UNICEF Committee does more than help schools run Trick or Treat for UNICEF drives.   Our school programs include welcoming refugees and immigrants into the students’ neighborhood and schools, giving materials to schools to teach the United Nations seventeen initiatives for sustainable living, and advocating for the USA to adopt the U.N. sponsored Rights of the Child.

U.S. media often covers what is happening within the Security Council of the U.N., which is where all of the major decisions are made.  But often times we are not as aware of what is going on in the General Assembly.  Though the General Assembly has very little power, their work is outstanding and is becoming an eloquent voice for peace, justice and reconciliation.

U.S. foreign policy has been deplorable. Regime change has been our dominant tool.  Our Republicans destroyed the government of Iraq and our Democrats destroyed the government of Libya. Both were abysmal failures that have brought chaos to the Middle East and North Africa. It is imperative that we listen to what is being said in the United Nations General Assembly where all countries can have a voice in the ongoing conversation about how to improve our world and build a more peaceful and sustainable future.

Volunteers are needed for our 2018 Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign!
Here’s how you can participate: (Email unicef@brooklynpeace.org to sign up)

Please help! UNICEF is in desperate for more money. With the wars raging in Syria, Iraq and Yemen,  there are now more refugees (over 5 million) in the Mideast than there were in Europe at the end of World War II. The Saudi have put parts of Yemen into siege. The people in those areas are being starved and the infrastructure has collapsed, Sanitation systems have failed, and hundreds of people are getting infected with cholera every day. UNICEF is there to help people affected by recent disasters such as the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia.

Dear Volunteers,

A huge, “thank you” to everyone who helped on this year’s UNICEF campaigns. The Brooklyn for Peace UNICEF Committee, like all of the other BfP committees, found ourselves needing to do so much more with the election of Donald Trump as our president. Our tasks were no longer were just to put a spotlight on suffering and speaking truth to power. We needed to exponentially increase our efforts. Truth itself needed to be defended; and still does. We needed to seize power and get more involved in efforts that would lead to concrete and lasting results.

This Spring Jaki & Henry Florsheim expanded the Brooklyn for Peace welcoming immigrant and refugee poster campaign to include schools. The UNICEF Committee, who last year had Trick or Treat for UNICEF drives in eighteen schools, joined in this effort with marvelous results. Our efforts to help Brooklyn students to become better global citizens grew tremendously and our schools saw Brooklyn for Peace as an important educational resource.

One of our schools is P.S. 295 in Sunset Park. Many of its students’ parents are undocumented immigrants from Mexico and other Central American nations. Before visiting that school I wanted to do more than just give the school a few “Refugees and Immigrants Welcomed Here” posters; so I worked with Eric Shtob, who had contacts with ACLU to get a wallet-sized, folded instructional sheet in Spanish that would tell immigrants what to do and say that would keep them from incriminating themselves; if they were ever stopped by ICE. When I proudly showed this to the parent coordinator at P.S. 295 he smiled and said that NYC already gave him an equivalent, wallet-sized flyer. I am so grateful that we live in a sanctuary city that is proactively working on behalf of all its citizens.

Eleven years ago a horrible earthquake devastated Haiti. Haitians were allowed entry visas and work permits to live in the USA. The problem is that these special permits expire next year. These Haitians will lose their legal status and can be deported. In NYC there are over 5,200 of these immigrants, plus their families. The majority of these families live in Brooklyn. We should reach out to schools in the Haitian communities and try to protect these families as best as we can.

As always, our UNICEF collections were spectacular. We’ve counted the money collected from the UNICEF box handout events and our tables along 7th Ave. on Halloween and it totaled over one thousand dollars. This year twenty two schools participated in our Trick or Treat for UNICEF drives, which is four more schools than last year.
This would not have happened without you!!!!!
Thank you!!!!

Best wishes,
Monroe Allison
Brooklyn for Peace

Children have rights. They need a voice. This committee is designed to build awareness of children’s rights while raising money for children’s development, heath, protection and education. We reach out to schools, merchants and neighbors, encouraging their participation in the annual Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF.

unicef@brooklynpeace.org