Time to get your red noses on! Help get our children healthy and ready for the future.

It is that time of the year again, and we need your help to get our most vulnerable children out of poverty. The Red Nose Day campaign is in full swing, and here at UnidosUS we are ready to raise awareness for children who need our help the most. Join our #UnidosNoseHeroes effort this 2019, making this great cause tremendously fun!

Did you know that in the United States almost 13 million children—nearly one in five—live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold? That’s why Red Nose Day started in the United States four years ago, to end child poverty, one nose at a time.

In these four years, they’ve raised nearly $150 million, and part of those funds have helped support UnidosUS’s Healthy and Ready for the Future initiative, which provides oral and behavioral health care services for Latino children, especially those from migrant and seasonal farmworker families, across rural America.

UnidosUS launched this year’s campaign with our President and CEO Janet Murguía and a group of our supporters wearing their Everyday Heroes Red Noses to start creating awareness and continue supporting Healthy and Ready for the Future.

Preventing health issues, school absenteeism, and more

Through this initiative, we are creating meaningful access to oral and primary health care services, as well as fostering positive social and emotional well-being among children by partnering with eight of our Affiliates that work in 125 communities across six states: Clínicas de la Salud del Pueblo (Coachella, California); Chicanos Por La Causa (Phoenix, Arizona); Sea Mar Community Health Centers (Seattle, Washington); El Concilio (Modesto, California); Su Clínica (Harlingen, Texas); Redlands Christian Migrant Association (RCMA, Florida); Centro de la Familia Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah); and Inspire Development Centers (Sunnyside, Washington).

Creating good oral care habits is crucial for the healthy development of a child: cavities can impact a child’s health, development, and learning, which can result in higher school absenteeism and lower self-esteem. This is the issue Healthy and Ready for the Future is tackling, ensuring that children that live in poverty have access to oral health care, since they have higher rates of tooth decay, putting those of migrant and seasonal farmworkers (of which 76% are Latino)—who live below the federal poverty line at twice the national rate (30% versus 15%)—at greater risk.

Our Affiliates participated in a training this past February, where they shared best practices and strengthened connections. UnidosUS incorporated a social and emotional well-being component into the initiative this year. Therefore, this training introduced participants to a trauma-informed framework and practices for early childhood programs. This month, they are getting together again to continue this peer-learning and also learn about ways to amplify the Red Nose Day campaign.

If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t miss our inspiring video highlighting the work of our Affiliates through this campaign:

How you can help

Very easy: get your noses on! Purchase your Red Nose at Walgreens during the five-week campaign that started on April 22, take a picture with it, and post it on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram tagging @WeAreUnidosUS and @RedNoseDayUSA, and using the hashtags #UnidosNoseHeroes and #RedNoseDay.

When you do this you will be entered into a raffle and we will pick a winner at random on Red Nose Day (May 23) to win one of our exclusive swag bags with: a UnidosUS pen, a beanie or a hat, a mug, a Moleskine notepad, and a USB drive.

What’s special about this year is that Red Nose Day has created five different noses! And you will get them all in the swag bag if you win the raffle. Each is a different kind of hero: Red, Rusty, Scarlet, Rojo, and Ruby. Collect all of them, wear them on your fingers, and post a fun picture to continue creating awareness.

And don’t forget to tag us to enter the raffle! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at @WeAreUnidosUS, and use the hashtags #UnidosNoseHeroes, #RedNoseDay, #NosesOn, and #HeroHighFive.