UNICEF News

In the wake of Hurricane Irma, families flee the ravaged island of Barbuda ahead of the next storm

BARBUDA, 8 September 2017 – It’s in a bath of sunlight that Sasha Lewis boards the Excellee, the vessel that will bring her from her home, Barbuda, to nearby Antigua.

UNICEF News

Cash assistance helps Syrian children with disabilities to pursue their dreams

ALEPPO, Syrian Arab Republic, 14 September 2017 – Bashar is one of 2.8 million Syrian children forced to flee their homes because of the intense violence. For Bashar, life was already tough and being displaced added to his daily challenges.

UNICEF News

Antiguans and Barbudans unite to recover from Hurricane Irma’s destruction

ST JOHN’S, Antigua, 13 September 2017 – When Miranda finally ventured outside the morning after hurricane Irma hit Barbuda, she was met with a scene of absolute devastation. All around her were the remnants of the homes of her friends and families, scattered like litter by the vicious winds and rains that battered the Caribbean island.

UNICEF News

Executive Board begins with a focus on the new UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2018–2021

NEW YORK, United States of America, 7 February 2018 – The UNICEF Executive Board opened its first regular session yesterday, welcoming its new President for 2018, H.E. Mr. Tore Hattrem, the Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations, and the recently appointed UNICEF Executive Director, Ms. Henrietta H. Fore.

UNICEF News

South Sudan: How solar power fridges are helping save lives in world's least electrified country

AKOBO, South Sudan, 31 January 2018 – Vaccines save lives, but to be effective they need to be kept cool. In South Sudan, the least electrified country in the world, temperatures frequently exceed 40 degrees Celsius. Solar-powered refrigerators offer a solution, but fighting and hazardous roads mean transporting and installing them is anything but straightforward.

UNICEF News

Solar power keeps the water flowing in Malawi

BLANTYRE, Malawi, 24 January 2018 – It’s early morning at Namera Primary School, located in the countryside outside Malawi’s second city of Blantyre. Thirteen-year-old Lucy Chalire emerges from a classroom in her blue and yellow school uniform, smiling broadly after completing her end-of-year maths exam. Lucy attends school every day and is third in her class, but it wasn’t always this way.

UNICEF News

Preventing violence through sport in El Salvador

SAN MARCOS, San Salvador, El Salvador, 11 January 2018 – Seven-year-old Natividad Sánchez Ventura is the youngest of ten children, and their daily life is predictably chaotic.

UNICEF News

Mothers help tackle malnutrition in Timor-Leste

CAILACO, Timor-Leste, 5 January 2018 – In the tiny island nation of Timor-Leste, child malnutrition has become a critical public health problem. An estimated 50 per cent of children suffer from a form malnutrition called stunting – one of the highest rates in Asia. But most often, the problem isn’t lack of food – it’s lack of information.

UNICEF News

6 ways UNICEF helped change lives in 2017

Looking back on the humanitarian landscape of 2017, it can be easy to focus on the negative: conflicts that show no sign of relenting and with children under attack left with no safe place to go, natural hazards that destroyed millions of homes and lives. But amid the devastation, there are glimpses of hope.

UNICEF News

How mothers and community leaders tackled malnutrition in Mali

KOURY, Mali, 19 December 2017 – In 2014, the district of Yorosso in southern Mali was approaching a crisis of malnutrition. Nearly 1 out of 3 children were chronically malnourished, and just under 1 per cent suffered from severe acute malnutrition – a condition which can be life-threatening to children.

UNICEF News

How girls built a library in the Gaza Strip

DEIR AL BALAH CITY, State of Palestine, 18 December 2017 – There are one million children in Gaza, yet hardly any sports fields or playgrounds. And this lack of safe outside play areas especially affects girls. The beach is basically off limits, with terrible sewage pollution. Youth unemployment is over 60 per cent.

UNICEF News

How visiting nurses help prevent child deaths in Kazakhstan

KYZYLORDA, Kazakhstan, 14 December 2017 – Early spring seeps through grimy windows, lighting a small unkempt apartment. The place is so dirty that Bibinur begins to feel nauseated. She finds a clear spot to sit down with Almagul, who recently gave birth to a baby boy.

UNICEF News

Surviving HIV: Preventing mother-to-child transmission in Burundi

MURAMVYA, Burundi, 7 December 2017 – “I started to feel quite sick,” says 40-year-old Darlene*, describing a period in her life a few years ago. “After going to a health centre, I was referred to a hospital where I was hospitalized for several weeks. I did not know why I was weak, until they asked me to do HIV test. I was diagnosed as living with HIV,” she says.

UNICEF News

The search for Lesotho’s most vulnerable families

HA TŠEPO, Lesotho, 28 November 2017 – A cloud of yellow dust blows into the group sitting on the ground at the village centre. Toddlers run, legs wobbly, to bury their faces in the open arms of their mothers, as the women pull down kerchiefs to protect their eyes. But community mobilizer Tlaleng Maimane keeps talking.

UNICEF News

The heroes keeping the water flowing for families in eastern Ukraine

LUHANSK, Ukraine, 21 November 2017 – Inna Krasnyakova was born, raised and married in the small village of Artema, in Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine. In June 2014, she was at work, operating a water pumping unit at the Petrovskaya pumping station, when conflict broke out.

UNICEF News

How toilets are saving lives and money in Afghanistan

NILI, Afghanistan, 18 November 2017 – For 23-year-old Fatima, it took the death of one child to spark a simple but transformational change, to convince the whole village to start using toilets and improve the health of many young lives.

UNICEF News

A warmer winter for refugee children in Serbia

DIVLJANA, Serbia, 14 November 2017 – As you watch 8-year-old Aya Rekani playing with her friends among the fallen leaves, it’s difficult to imagine how different her life was just a year ago.

UNICEF News

Making childbirth safer in South Sudan

AWEIL, South Sudan, 9 November 2017 – Arek Yel Deng had given birth before but she had never experienced such pain. Her labour lasted a week and the pain was so severe she thought she was going to die.

UNICEF News

Mothers fight malnutrition in Burkina Faso, one child at a time

YAKO, Burkina Faso, 8 November 2017 – In Yako, in Burkina Faso’s Northern Province, Awa slowly approaches the group of women, her twin toddlers draped one in front and one behind.

UNICEF News

Striving for uninterrupted learning for every child in Mali

MOPTI, Mali, 7 November 2017 – “We fled because of the conflict,” says Aminata Haidara. She was only 10 when her family escaped from their hometown, Gao, in 2013.

UNICEF News

Investing in better care during babies' first days is saving lives in Kyrgyzstan

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, 3 November 2017 – “She is the daughter I dreamed to have,” says Nargiza. “When I reach into the incubator, I touch her hands, her legs, to give her my love.” Inside the incubator rests little Omurkal – Nargiza’s first child – who was born at 30 weeks.

UNICEF News

Mobile medical teams provide a lifeline for children in Yemen

SANA’A, Yemen, 16 October 2017 – “He is very weak and cannot even walk anymore. He’s lost so much weight.” Muhammad, 50, is desperate when he reaches the mobile medical team. He came on foot, carrying his feather-light son, Yahya, 4, in his arms. Muhammad has seen other children in his village die from malnutrition and he’s terrified the same fate awaits his son.

UNICEF News

Hurricane Maria aftermath: Children's education on hold in Dominica

DOMINICA, 13 October, 2017 – Deltin Eugene, 16, stares at the chalkboard at the front of what used to be his classroom at the Goodwill Secondary School. The only words written there are “Friday 15 September 2017”. It was the last day he and more than 18,000 other students in Dominica went to school.

UNICEF News

Stolen childhood: Gang violence in El Salvador

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, 24 November 2017 – Tears roll down her face. Through the sobbing, she describes how her family has suffered at the hands of one of the world’s deadliest street gangs. She pauses for a minute, catches her breath and wipes her tears.

UNICEF News

Rohingya crisis

Rohingya crisis: Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar to southern Bangladesh since August 2017. Nearly 60 percent of them are children.