In Niger, it is not uncommon to hear that if a menstruating woman touches sowing seeds, the harvest will not be abundant; that a woman must not braid her sister during menstruation, otherwise she will induce hair loss; that menstruation is a woman’s business and a man must not talk about it — the numerous rumors about menstrual… Read more →←
Topic: Big picture
When you sip your next green tea, you might stop for a minute to take in the aroma of the leaves, revel in the steamy warmth, perhaps appreciate the energising taste. Chances are you won’t be thinking about a small family in the hills of Rwanda. They are indeed related but not the way you might think. This is a story of parenting and… Read more →←
On the International Day of the Girl, we sat down with Lucy Wanjiku, HIV activist and mother, to hear about her experience as a young woman living with HIV in Kenya. She shared her hopes, dreams and fears for the future of girls in sub-Saharan Africa. What challenges did you face as a teenage girl in Kenya? What are you doing to address… Read more →←
Married at the age of 14, Mariam Keita dropped out of school and later became a young mother to two girls. Determined not to become another statistic, she set out to complete her education and prove young women in Guinea can be vital contributors to the country’s economic development. Women and girls must participate in the development… Read more →←
UNICEF’s Back to School programme in Venezuela improves the living conditions of students, but none of this would be possible without the support of teachers. Two stories connected by love of the profession. Lilibeth Aular and Laura Albarrán both awake with the first rays of dawn, shortly before 6 am. One lives in Baruta, near… Read more →←
Several months ago, I had an emergency Caesarean. It was close to midnight. I was lying down at the hospital, half conscious from the contractions. My midwife had been listening regularly to the heartbeat of the baby in my belly, but this time she was not happy with what she heard. Within minutes, I was rushed to the operating theatre.… Read more →←
In Madagascar, as in too many other countries at the moment, there is a lot of false information and rumor associated with vaccines. Among the ones we hear most often are: “If the country is polio free, why are you doing another vaccination campaign?” “We know that the vaccines are really a way for the government to prevent us from… Read more →←
Online bullying is a growing global concern. UNICEF wanted to better understand the experiences of children and young people online, so we asked more than 170,000 young people (between 13 and 24) in over 30 countries to speak up about their experiences. One in three told us that they’ve been cyberbullied and 71 per cent told us that… Read more →←
Eighteen-year-old Rizka Raisa Fatimah Ramli is the winner of UNICEF’s and Comics Uniting Nations’ End Violence in Schools Superhero Comic Contest. Her winning concept is a 15-year-old superhero named Cipta, who turns drawings into real-life objects that she uses to stop school violence. Rizka’s drawing was selected as a… Read more →←
At a family gathering last weekend, it was interesting to see how the older generation heaped praise on my son-in-law for changing my 9-week-old grandson’s nappy, taking him for a walk in the pram, and soothing him on the rare occasion that he cried. He is really good at it. But so is my daughter. And she received no such praise. As we… Read more →←