The United Nations founded the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), in December 1946. Initially, the organization was established to offer aid to war victims after World War II in the United Kingdom. The name, however, later changed to United Nations Children Fund after becoming a member of the United Nations. Its headquarters are in New York but the organization has numerous offices and national committees in different parts of the world (UNICEF, 2005).
UNICEF aims to conduct original research in order to monitor the changing situations of children, highlight the chronic and continuing gaps in child-related data and expand efforts to fill these gaps, influence policy decisions in favor of children. Its primary focus areas include child survival and development, basic free and compulsory education and gender equality; prevention of children from HIV AIDS including the elimination of transmission of the disease from parent to child, supporting orphans who have lost one or both parents to Aids, protection of children from violence, exploitation, and abuse. Policy analysis to understand and conditions in which the children and women live around the world in turn to develop new policy approaches and actions for children and women all over the world (Rodriguez, 2011).
UNICEF is one of the international organizations aimed at detecting and removing obstacles that threaten the physical and mental development of children as well as women as their mothers. The organization, since its establishment, has always been a reliable organization that has always provided aid to children in distress due to natural calamities and even those caused by man. The problems and distress that the children face vary from time to time and have since increased affecting many aspects of the children’s lives. UNICEF’s major dedication to children in emergencies is a human imperative. It, therefore, ensures a reliable, timely response in emergencies (Rodriguez, 2011).
In its role to fulfill its main obligation for children caught up in crises, UNICEF ensures that children caught up in armed conflict and natural calamities for instance drought, floods and earthquakes have the same rights and needs as those in stable countries. The organization ensures that those affected by calamities get help in the most caring way while ensuring the comfort of their working personnel. They also enhance good relations with the state by incorporating services offered by the state. In their aid to children, they also offer help to children by having the children’s interest at heart (Rushefsky & Patel, 2008).
The organization ensures that detailed research has been done by creating awareness on what affects children and look for a viable solution to the problem. The approach is best applied as it is usually accepted as what other humanitarian organizations could have put in place (Rushefsky & Patel, 2008). UNICEF also plays a key role in managing all its sectors.
They also have operating systems that have been put in place and capital for the fast delivery of technical assistance and supplies. Finally, they ensure that humanitarian reaction mechanisms thwart and limit the rate at which women and children are exposed to exploitation, violence, and abuse, and HIV AIDS is in operation. UNICEF works together with international and local partners such as governments, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, and civil society to meet these commitments (UNICEF, 2005).
These particular partnerships are essential for ensuring an all-inclusive and efficient delivery of charitable assistance. UNICEF has therefore played a crucial role in filling in the gaps of disparities in healthcare among children based on their socioeconomic status. Their focus is dealing with young child survival and development as the first right of the child. This ensures that essential actions are taken at each phase of the life cycle of the child. This prevents neonatal and young child death and maternal deaths (UNICEF, 2005).
Poverty is closely associated with gender and ethnicity especially for female heads of households. Moreover, child poverty is a serious problem in rich countries such as the United States of America. The proportion of children living in poverty has risen in a majority of the world’s developed countries over the past decade and the increase has resulted in poor health and higher mortality rates among these populations (Harrington & Estes, 2008).
To remedy the problems of poor health status that are directly related to disadvantage and inequality, a number of social policies need to be addressed. Education achievements, access to health services, and income support for those who are poor are all important ways to improve the health of the population, particularly children (Harrington & Estes, 2008).
Strategies should be laid to help offer reliable healthcare to all children without bias. However, most people in the United States are not in a position to afford health insurance and good health care. This has posed a major challenge in the United States and the problem is attributed to high rates of unemployment and a high percentage of low-income earners. The majority of those who do not have health insurances are children and this has created a wide gap leading to health disparities in America (Harrington & Estes, 2008).
The federal and the state have failed to notice this growing and worrying problem in the health care system. People who lack health insurance usually do not get appropriate health care. However, the establishment of Medicaid has played a key role in the lives of many Americans especially children. In spite of its gains, it still fails to cover the majority of the poor for whom it was designed to help because of underfunding. Despite its limitation, the Medicaid program and the variations in benefits found across states, Medicaid, and health insurance, in general, are critical factors in reducing the racial and ethnic disparities in health care in the United States (Harrington & Estes, 2008).
Socioeconomic standing whether valued by income, education, or profession is a critical forecaster of variants in health. They argue that Americans with low socioeconomic status have more illness than people with high socioeconomic status; that in American society all the indicators of socioeconomic status are strongly patterned by race and finally that racial difference in socioeconomic status contributes to racial difference in health (Rushefsky & Patel, 2008).
In brief, the discrimination in health care systems has seen children from low-income families get inappropriate healthcare. Inequity in the dissemination of revenue is highly associated with self-rated health and this has an adversative impact on children’s health (Rushefsky & Patel). People from low-income families and low socioeconomic status often suffer great risks in their health and in most cases; they end up suffering from a terminal illness (Rushefsky & Patel, 2008).
References
Harrington, C, Estes, C (2008). Health Policy: Crisis and Reform in the US Health Care Delivery System. Jones and Burlett Publishers
Patel, Rushefsky, M (2008). An Ebk Health Care in America: Separate and Unequal. M. E Sharpe
Rodriguez, J (2011). Slavery in the Modern World: A History of Political, Social and Economic Oppression. ABC-CLIO
UNICEF, (2005). Emergency Field Handbook: A Guide for UNICEF Staff. United Nations