UNICEF and British Airways have been working in partnership for fifteen years on the Change for Good programme. To date, Change for Good has raised more than £26 million, helping to transform the lives of millions of children from 56 countries around the world.
British Airways customers can donate their unwanted foreign coins and notes at any time during a flight, using collection envelopes which can be found in their seatback pockets, headset packs or on request from the cabin crew. UNICEF collects and changes this money into positive help for children around the world.
Donations of coins and notes, including those now replaced by the Euro, can also be made on the ground at branches of Travelex Bureaux de Change at UK airports and at UNICEF UK’s headquarters in London.
Change for Good supports a range of UNICEF programmes around the world. For example, long term programmes, focusing on HIV/AIDS, have been funded in Ukraine, Tanzania and Ghana. In 2008, Change for Good funds were also used for emergency relief work in response to the Myanmar floods.
Over the past 10 years, the number of children affected by HIV in Ukraine has incresed by more than 200 per cent. Due to the high level of stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV in Ukraine, many children are abandoned by their families and forced to live in poor conditions in state orphanages. To counter this, Change for Good has donated £300,000 to a three-year programme, which provides improved care for abandoned children. Every year, UNICEF hopes to transfer at least 100 HIV-affected children from orphanages into a loving family environment that offers them a fuller childhood and a brighter future.
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