The Foundation has worked with Unicef, the world’s leading children’s charity, since 2008, donating over £775,000 in that period to support a variety of causes including education, health and emergency relief and reaching over 2 million children.

2023 Unicef UK’s Children’s Emergency Fund

On World Children’s Day, the Rangers Charity Foundation pledged its donation for the 2023/24 season of £25,000 to UNICEF UK’s Children’s Emergency Fund to help provide rapid assistance to children and their families around the world.

The Children’s Emergency Fund had by this point of the season already been used by UNICEF to help children and families affected by the earthquake in Morocco in September; to provide continued support to millions of children displaced by the war in Ukraine; and to provide urgent assistance in the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the wider State of Palestine.

When a conflict breaks out or a disaster strikes, children are the first to suffer from the impacts. Children can lose their schools, their homes and their families. In some cases, they may lose access to water, food and shelter at the same time.

UNICEF and partners work around the clock to help children and families affected by emergencies. They provide access to vital services such as temporary schools and clinics, therapeutic food and psycho-social support as well as safe drinking water, life-saving medical supplies, medicines and vaccines.

With a presence in 190 countries, UNICEF is uniquely placed to rapidly reach children and families with the care and protection they need that could save their lives. Our donation of £25,000 could provide enough ready-to-use therapeutic food to help treat 625 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition or 641 families with an emergency water and hygiene kit.

2022 Continued support for global vaccination, ensuring children can access education

On World Children’s Day, the Rangers Charity Foundation pledged £25,000 to the UNICEF UK to help support the biggest vaccine drive in history and ensure children access their right to education and are protected from harm, no matter where they live.

World Children’s Day is a global day of action for children which aims to raise awareness and funds to address the most pressing issues facing children.  This donation could help to provide 9,294 people with 2 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in places like Uganda, Columbia or Cambodia. Protecting health workers, social workers and teachers in this way means easing pressure on overwhelmed

Gordon Glick, Deputy Executive Director of Partnerships at the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) said:

“Delivering COVID-19 vaccines around the world is the biggest health and logistics operation in history but thanks to the support of partners like the Rangers Charity Foundation, we are able to work towards bringing the pandemic to an end for everyone, everywhere. Vaccinating health workers and social workers will help ease the pressure on struggling services and save the lives of millions of children, parents and caregivers. This is the best way to ensure that every child around the world survives and thrives. Thank you Rangers Charity Foundation, for your ongoing support.”

2021 Supporting global vaccination efforts

In season 2020/21, the Foundation announced a further £12,500 donation to the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) during World Immuisation Week. The donation will contribute towards UNICEF’s mission to support the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines within countries globally. World Immunisation Week – celebrated every year in the last week of April – aims to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.

Our donation could help deliver 9,268 vaccine doses to health workers in countries like Malawi.

Connal Cochrane, Rangers Charity Foundation Director said:

“ We are immensely proud of our long-standing partnership with UNICEF whose global reach has been invaluable in this unprecedented global pandemic. We know we are fortunate to live in a country where the majority of adults have now been offered their first vaccination but things will only return to being more ‘normal’ when that is the case in many more countries.

“I would like to thank all of our supporters who take on personal challenges, volunteer, donate and do so much to help all the charities we support every season.  It is thanks to their commitment that we have been able to help UNICEF make sure health workers are vaccinated all over the world.”

2020: Responding to Covid

For season 2019/20, the Foundation redirected its funding to help Unicef deal with the ongoing issues associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The funds could provide as many as 15,000 health care professionals with respiratory masks to help keep them safe at work or supply medical equipment and hygiene kits or even develop learning resources to help educate vulnerable people about the virus and tackle misinformation.

Rangers Legend, Michael Mols, commented: “As Ambassador for the UNICEF partnership, it makes me exceptionally proud to see how the Foundation has reacted to this crisis and adapted this year’s donation. The need is immediate.

“COVID-19 does not discriminate and all over the globe people are suffering – including young children who are being placed in unimaginable situations.“

2018: Celebrating 10 Years of Helping Children

During season 2018/19, the Foundation and Rangers FC celebrated a decade of partnership with UNICEF. Over the course of the season, the Foundation raised £25,000 which helped up to 400 school children and 200 nursery children receive an education in an emergency situation by buying ten temporary school tents, ten school kits and ten childhood development kits, hundreds of school bags, footballs and skipping ropes, as well as continuing to support the Children’s Emergency Fund.

2016: Protecting Children In Emergencies

Rangers Legend Michael Mols launched the Foundation’s global initiative with Unicef in 2016 which aims to help keep children safe in emergencies by focusing on Unicef UK’s Children’s Emergency Fund, which exists to allow the charity to respond immediately when children are in danger.

For 70 years, Unicef has been a leader for children in emergencies and today responds to hundreds of humanitarian emergencies every year. When a disaster strikes, children are the hardest hit – and they make up more than half of those affected.   Many emergencies don’t reach the headlines, but children’s lives are still at stake.  Children’s worlds are turned upside down.  Many lose families, their homes, their schools, even their lives.

Unicef UK’s Children’s Emergency Fund enables Unicef to provide a rapid response for children affected by emergencies, whenever and wherever they hit.  This means that Unicef is able to respond immediately with funds to help children, without having to wait to launch a public appeal.  The Fund is vital for Unicef to help children caught up in emergencies that may not have attracted wide attention or where interest has waned.

Michael Mols, who is Rangers Unicef Partnership Champion, commented: “Every child is precious and every child deserves an education and protection from violence, exploitation and abuse.  Children are the future.”

2012 – 2015: One in a Million

In 2012, the Foundation announced an ambitious campaign with Unicef to fund one million vaccines at a cost of £300,000.  The ‘One In A Million’ initiative, so named because we believe every child is one in a million and deserving of a happy and healthy future, has since protected some of the world’s most vulnerable children in developing nations from a range of deadly but preventable diseases such as measles, polio and typhoid.

The impact of this significant contribution cannot be underestimated in terms of its effect on children’s health.  Every day 4,000 children die and many more fall ill from diseases that could be prevented by a simple vaccination.

UNICEF is the world’s largest distributor of vaccines to the developing world, immunising one in three of the world’s children in over 190 countries. UNICEF reaches children with vaccines wherever they live, operating in emergency situations, conflict zones and remote rural locations, and we are proud to help them achieve their goal of protecting every child, everywhere.

2009 – 2011: Health in West Africa 

The Foundation raised £200,000 over 2 years to renovate 7 health centres and equip a further 6 in Togo, West Africa, ensuring mothers and children had access to good quality health services in the poorest areas where children die daily from preventable diseases and illness.

The funding also assisted with training health care professionals, providing transport, installing water and sanitation facilities and funding communication materials to educate the local communities on how to keep their children healthy.

The health centres provide water and sanitation facilities and therapeutic feeding services for severely malnourished children.  It is estimated that 1,500 people living close to the health facilities are now benefitting on a daily basis from the clean water point and sanitation and over 100,000 children have been able to access quality health care services, giving them the chance of a brighter, healthier future.

2008: Scoring for Education

The Foundation helped score a goal for children’s education when we supported Unicef’s girls’ education programme in India in season 2008/09. Around the world there are approximately 93 million primary age children missing out on school and a disproportionate number of these children are girls.

The Foundation raised £100,000 towards this project and made a huge difference to young girls’ lives in India, give them a chance to access education – a life changing opportunity that every child has a right to.

The funds paid for books, teaching and classroom materials, campaigning to help young girls complete primary school, training for teachers and improving water and sanitation facilities within schools.

For further information on Unicef you can visit their website by clicking here.