a few weeks ago I was walking around in
New York City in my neighborhood with my
daughter yada we walked by a homeless
man and he asked us for money I tried to
remember if I had changed my wallet and
I didn’t think I did so I just kept
walking I didn’t get far though because
yata stopped me
she asked PAH why did you ignore that
man and I said well I didn’t think I had
change so so I just kept going and she
wasn’t satisfied with that then she
asked well could you look in your wallet
so I did and I had a five dollar bill I
felt ashamed because the slightest of
inconvenience is taking a few seconds to
check my wallet had stopped me from
helping that man to yata who’s five
years old there’s only one possible
response when someone asks you for help
you help all kids have a superpower I
don’t mean the kind of power that comic
book heroes have powered fly or freeze
time I also don’t mean the kind of power
that parents dread like the power to
wake up at 6:00 a.m. every morning for
an entire childhood it’s the power to
help and it comes from a deep desire we
all have within us as grown-ups many of
us have lost touch with that desire but
if you give a young child the chance to
help they’ll take it and they’ll feel
great about it and if we can give an
entire generation of children the power
to help we can change society for the
better I grew up in Sri Lanka in the
midst of a civil war between the single
and Tamil communities I didn’t really
belong to either side because I had a
Tamil dad and a single Imam so in the
south of the country I had the wrong
last name and in the north of the
country I spoke the wrong language when
I was 10 civil rights broke out all over
the nation including in Colombo where my
family lived civilian mobs
we’re roaming the streets looking for
Tamil people and when they found them it
would beat them violently and in some
cases burn them alive it was brutal
my brother Rajan who is an incredibly
thoughtful kind brilliant human being
was 15 at the time he had gone to school
that morning when the riots broke out
before my parents had realized what was
happening and that was not a good day to
be a young man with a tamil sounding
name walking around the streets of
colombo we could have lost him that day
but we didn’t and we were among the
lucky ones I want my daughter to grow up
in a world where she doesn’t need to be
lucky to escape tragedy I want her to
grow up in a world where instead of
hating each other we help each other and
all kids do want to help it comes from a
deep deep desire they have to feel like
they matter to feel a sense of belonging
they want to feel important and there’s
nothing that helps a child feel
important than being given the chance to
help another child in need three years
ago the ventures team at UNICEF USA
working with an incredible group of
partners started to develop a new kind
of technology that could tap into that
desire kids have we called it a wearable
for good because it converted physical
activity into social impact we named a
venture UNICEF Kidpower because it gives
kids the power to literally save lives
with every step they take so here’s how
it works
kids get active with a UNICEF kid power
band and they earn points points unlock
funding from partners and parents and
fans and funds are used by UNICEF to
deliver ready-to-use packets of
therapeutic food to severely
malnourished children all around the
world so the more kids move the more
points they earn the more children they
help to separate
found that kids are joined kid power
move more they move a lot more like 55%
more because while the novelty of a new
tech gadget might last a week or two the
desire to do something that matters
never fades and it only grows over time
we heard about a nine-year-old in
Sacramento who had joined kid power and
then started insisting that her mom take
her for walks after school every day she
wanted to walk more because she wanted
to earn more points and unlock more
packets of food to help more children we
heard about a fifth grader in North
Carolina who started his own walking
Club because he wanted all his friends
to join in so that together they could
earn more points and unlock more packets
and help more children and these kids
aren’t just getting more active and
healthy they’re also becoming globally
aware with kid power they go on missions
which are virtual journeys to discover
new places including some of the very
communities that are benefiting from
their impact
they learn about Haiti and Burkina Faso
and Pakistan not as far away places to
fear or avoid but it’s fascinating
cultures to explore and understand and
that perspective will stay with them
forever
and inspire them to grow up to create a
more inclusive society that benefits
everyone and equally importantly these
kids are learning the value of helping
and their understanding their place in
their own communities and as agents of
change with the power to make a
difference and make the world a better
place we heard from a teacher in
California who had a few students in her
class from El Salvador and those
students hadn’t been aware that severe
malnutrition existed there so they went
home and talked their parents about it
and they found out that some of their
family members had also struggled with
hunger and those children felt powerful
because even though they were just
children they were able to make an
impact in their own community we heard
from a teacher in Georgia who had a
student in her class
who was homeless and living in a shelter
she didn’t have a smartphone but she
kept a little notebook where she kept a
tally of every packet of therapeutic
food she unlocked and every night she
would share that with her family in the
shelter can you imagine the sense of
empowerment that child felt because even
though she didn’t have a home she was
able to help another child in need we
saw a local news clip out of Iowa when
an entire school had joined Kidpower and
when one of their classrooms had
unlocked their hundred and fiftieth the
packet of therapeutic food that’s one
full course of treatment that’s enough
to save one life they screamed so loudly
that the entire school heard and one kid
kept saying we just saved a kid we just
saved a kid and we heard about a group
of fifth graders in Oregon who had loved
helping children around the world with
kid power but decided they wanted to do
more so they organized a food drive all
by themselves and they filled up an
entire Subaru with food and they had a
parent drive it over to the local food
bank kid power is not just an idea it’s
real it’s been proven to work in
underserved communities in schools
without playgrounds in classrooms
without computers for students who don’t
have a smartphone in just three years
kid power has become one of the largest
EdTech programs across US Elementary
School’s it’s in 16 hundred cities and
towns in 49 states kid power
also has shown that it’s desirable among
affluent communities two years ago we
launched kid power as a consumer product
at retail and it was an instant hit last
year it was named one of x 25 best
inventions and it’s now become one of
the best-selling kids wearables ever
brought to market by tapping into kids
intrinsic motivation versus relying on
rewards or entertainment or technology
kid power succeeding where many others
have failed so far we had all
a half a million kids who’ve joined
Kidpower together they walked over a
hundred billion steps and they’ve
unlocked enough packets of therapeutic
food to deliver full courses of
treatment to 52,000 severely
malnourished children that’s fifty two
thousand lives that have been saved by
all these kids from all walks of life
from all across the country who have
come together to make a difference there
are two billion children in the world
today that’s two billion heroes with the
power to help imagine the kind of world
we could be living in if we could tap
into that power and unleash that power
within every child that’s the kind of
world that I want my daughter Jana to
grow up in and I think it’s the kind of
world that we all want from our children
so next time you see a child ask her for
help and watch what happens
thank you
[Applause]
New York City in my neighborhood with my
daughter yada we walked by a homeless
man and he asked us for money I tried to
remember if I had changed my wallet and
I didn’t think I did so I just kept
walking I didn’t get far though because
yata stopped me
she asked PAH why did you ignore that
man and I said well I didn’t think I had
change so so I just kept going and she
wasn’t satisfied with that then she
asked well could you look in your wallet
so I did and I had a five dollar bill I
felt ashamed because the slightest of
inconvenience is taking a few seconds to
check my wallet had stopped me from
helping that man to yata who’s five
years old there’s only one possible
response when someone asks you for help
you help all kids have a superpower I
don’t mean the kind of power that comic
book heroes have powered fly or freeze
time I also don’t mean the kind of power
that parents dread like the power to
wake up at 6:00 a.m. every morning for
an entire childhood it’s the power to
help and it comes from a deep desire we
all have within us as grown-ups many of
us have lost touch with that desire but
if you give a young child the chance to
help they’ll take it and they’ll feel
great about it and if we can give an
entire generation of children the power
to help we can change society for the
better I grew up in Sri Lanka in the
midst of a civil war between the single
and Tamil communities I didn’t really
belong to either side because I had a
Tamil dad and a single Imam so in the
south of the country I had the wrong
last name and in the north of the
country I spoke the wrong language when
I was 10 civil rights broke out all over
the nation including in Colombo where my
family lived civilian mobs
we’re roaming the streets looking for
Tamil people and when they found them it
would beat them violently and in some
cases burn them alive it was brutal
my brother Rajan who is an incredibly
thoughtful kind brilliant human being
was 15 at the time he had gone to school
that morning when the riots broke out
before my parents had realized what was
happening and that was not a good day to
be a young man with a tamil sounding
name walking around the streets of
colombo we could have lost him that day
but we didn’t and we were among the
lucky ones I want my daughter to grow up
in a world where she doesn’t need to be
lucky to escape tragedy I want her to
grow up in a world where instead of
hating each other we help each other and
all kids do want to help it comes from a
deep deep desire they have to feel like
they matter to feel a sense of belonging
they want to feel important and there’s
nothing that helps a child feel
important than being given the chance to
help another child in need three years
ago the ventures team at UNICEF USA
working with an incredible group of
partners started to develop a new kind
of technology that could tap into that
desire kids have we called it a wearable
for good because it converted physical
activity into social impact we named a
venture UNICEF Kidpower because it gives
kids the power to literally save lives
with every step they take so here’s how
it works
kids get active with a UNICEF kid power
band and they earn points points unlock
funding from partners and parents and
fans and funds are used by UNICEF to
deliver ready-to-use packets of
therapeutic food to severely
malnourished children all around the
world so the more kids move the more
points they earn the more children they
help to separate
found that kids are joined kid power
move more they move a lot more like 55%
more because while the novelty of a new
tech gadget might last a week or two the
desire to do something that matters
never fades and it only grows over time
we heard about a nine-year-old in
Sacramento who had joined kid power and
then started insisting that her mom take
her for walks after school every day she
wanted to walk more because she wanted
to earn more points and unlock more
packets of food to help more children we
heard about a fifth grader in North
Carolina who started his own walking
Club because he wanted all his friends
to join in so that together they could
earn more points and unlock more packets
and help more children and these kids
aren’t just getting more active and
healthy they’re also becoming globally
aware with kid power they go on missions
which are virtual journeys to discover
new places including some of the very
communities that are benefiting from
their impact
they learn about Haiti and Burkina Faso
and Pakistan not as far away places to
fear or avoid but it’s fascinating
cultures to explore and understand and
that perspective will stay with them
forever
and inspire them to grow up to create a
more inclusive society that benefits
everyone and equally importantly these
kids are learning the value of helping
and their understanding their place in
their own communities and as agents of
change with the power to make a
difference and make the world a better
place we heard from a teacher in
California who had a few students in her
class from El Salvador and those
students hadn’t been aware that severe
malnutrition existed there so they went
home and talked their parents about it
and they found out that some of their
family members had also struggled with
hunger and those children felt powerful
because even though they were just
children they were able to make an
impact in their own community we heard
from a teacher in Georgia who had a
student in her class
who was homeless and living in a shelter
she didn’t have a smartphone but she
kept a little notebook where she kept a
tally of every packet of therapeutic
food she unlocked and every night she
would share that with her family in the
shelter can you imagine the sense of
empowerment that child felt because even
though she didn’t have a home she was
able to help another child in need we
saw a local news clip out of Iowa when
an entire school had joined Kidpower and
when one of their classrooms had
unlocked their hundred and fiftieth the
packet of therapeutic food that’s one
full course of treatment that’s enough
to save one life they screamed so loudly
that the entire school heard and one kid
kept saying we just saved a kid we just
saved a kid and we heard about a group
of fifth graders in Oregon who had loved
helping children around the world with
kid power but decided they wanted to do
more so they organized a food drive all
by themselves and they filled up an
entire Subaru with food and they had a
parent drive it over to the local food
bank kid power is not just an idea it’s
real it’s been proven to work in
underserved communities in schools
without playgrounds in classrooms
without computers for students who don’t
have a smartphone in just three years
kid power has become one of the largest
EdTech programs across US Elementary
School’s it’s in 16 hundred cities and
towns in 49 states kid power
also has shown that it’s desirable among
affluent communities two years ago we
launched kid power as a consumer product
at retail and it was an instant hit last
year it was named one of x 25 best
inventions and it’s now become one of
the best-selling kids wearables ever
brought to market by tapping into kids
intrinsic motivation versus relying on
rewards or entertainment or technology
kid power succeeding where many others
have failed so far we had all
a half a million kids who’ve joined
Kidpower together they walked over a
hundred billion steps and they’ve
unlocked enough packets of therapeutic
food to deliver full courses of
treatment to 52,000 severely
malnourished children that’s fifty two
thousand lives that have been saved by
all these kids from all walks of life
from all across the country who have
come together to make a difference there
are two billion children in the world
today that’s two billion heroes with the
power to help imagine the kind of world
we could be living in if we could tap
into that power and unleash that power
within every child that’s the kind of
world that I want my daughter Jana to
grow up in and I think it’s the kind of
world that we all want from our children
so next time you see a child ask her for
help and watch what happens
thank you
[Applause]
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