New student group raises funds and awareness for UNICEF

University professor Peter Singer of the Center for Human Values will speak tonight on the responsibility the United States has to help children in poverty in developing countries.

The audience will have the chance to discuss the practical ways the Princeton community can make a difference following the speech.

Tonight's lecture and discussion — to be held in McCosh 10 at 7:30 — mark the major kick-off event of the newly organized Princeton chapter of the U.S. fund for UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. Those who attend the lecture will also have the opportunity to purchase t-shirts and make donations in support of UNICEF's work.

In addition to presenting U.S. foreign aid statistics, Singer said he will offer his views on the moral obligation privileged citizens have in assisting those less fortunate.

"I will be talking about the ethical question of whether we can defend not helping people who are really poor, of not doing more than the typical Princeton student or the typical American does," he said.

Though only a few weeks old, P-UNICEF has already been active on campus. Last Thursday, a day long fund-raising campaign in Frist Campus Center collected more than $400 to assist the child victims of last month's earthquakes in northern Afghanistan.

Melanie Wachtell '04, a co-founder of P-UNICEF, said so far response to the group has been "very positive" and noted that 90 percent of the money donated to UNICEF goes directly toward helping the victims. She also expressed a sense of responsibility and optimism about what the group may be able to accomplish on campus.

Future plans for P-UNICEF include fund raising at Communiversity and establishing a "trick or treat for UNICEF" program in the community next fall. Leaders also plan to have donation tables set up in Frist whenever crises such as the Afghanistan earthquake occur.

Singer said he believes the initiative of P-UNICEF's student leaders deserves to be applauded.

"I think it is an excellent thing that these students have taken this initiative, and in my three years at Princeton, I haven't really before seen students take these sort of concrete steps," he said.

"Princeton is one of the most privileged places in the world. If we are not doing something to help people at the bottom of the pile, who will?"

Wachtell agreed with Singer's perspective. "I think, in general, the most important thing we can do is to at least try to reduce suffereing where it exists," she said. "It's an issue that can be ignored, but the fact is that millions of children are dying."

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Wachtell added, "While there are obviously obstacles and it's not an easy goal to accomplish, that is certainly no reason to not do our best to help."

Co-founder Field Kallop '04 conveyed a similar sentiment, recalling the information that first piqued her interest in the issue.

"Last year in my freshman seminar with Peter Singer, I read a statistic that said 30,000 people die every day from preventable diseases," Kallop said. "Since then, I have read a lot of other really frightening things, and I decided that we should try do something on campus to help."