On 1 March 2018, I lost a dear friend and colleague, Dr. Onyedikachi Izuogu (Kachi), a doctor who was killed on duty with two other aid workers in a tragic incident in Rann, Borno State in north-east Nigeria. Dr. Kachi was a friend and a colleague whose values of dedication, service and sacrifice were shining lights in the dark alleys of… Read more →←
Sarah and Makene were wearing the same clothes. The same red gloves. The same little socks. They are bright, friendly seven-year old, girls. Makene is from Cote d’Ivoire and Sarah from Guinea. “We are new friends,” they said in unison. Yet what brought them together, here in the detention center of Tarik al-Matar in Tripoli, is a… Read more →←
Whenever I am in a courtroom I remember the old legal quote: “the trial itself is a punishment.” Whether you are an accused, a witness or an injured person, being party to a trial is a stress that in many cases reaches the level of punishment. This principle is true for children whose emotions are particularly tender and susceptible.… Read more →←
In the Data and Analytics Section of UNICEF, we produce many reports based on the in-depth database we maintain here in HQ. However, in March, we launched a flagship report: Progress for Every Child in the SDG Era. The report looks across all 232 SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) indicators, identifies the 44 that refer directly to… Read more →←
As the car pulled into Adra industrial zone on the outskirts of Damascus, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see. In four collective shelters, over 5,400 people were crowded together in three abandoned schools, while an estimated 13,000 people sought shelter nearby in a former institute for electrical studies. The… Read more →←
There’s a buzz of excitement as hundreds of Congolese refugees look for seats on the minibuses that will take them further inside Zambia. As the 246 refugees take their places, conversations with friends and family continue through open bus windows – the Congolese hold hands and chat, while staff from UNHCR count numbers. The people… Read more →←
100 unopened texts. I turned to my friend who was reading the conversation, and that’s when I realized something wasn’t right. I slammed my laptop shut and asked what was going on while simultaneously reading through the missed messages. There were texts asking us to send Jaime Guttenberg’s number to anyone we knew in the… Read more →←
An innovative approach to finding fresh water underground in drought-affected areas in Ethiopia. If you happen to drive by it, the steel pipe standing at attention in the middle of the desert doesn’t look very impressive. Yet, this pipe and the borehole beneath it currently form UNICEF Ethiopia’s most innovative and exciting project… Read more →←
When a child has access to clean drinking water close to home, they have a chance to go to school, to learn, to play with their friends and to have a childhood. Yet today, around 2.1 billion people don’t have access to safe water. Many children spend hours every day walking to collect water, sometimes missing out on a chance to go to… Read more →←
“Two triplets were born in our district maternal wards this year,” says Nemat Abdullayev, a neonatologist from Gurlan, a remote town in northwestern Uzbekistan, with an air of satisfaction. “Both cases were premature births — the babies were 31 and 32 weeks old. Fortunately, they survived and left the hospital fully… Read more →←
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