Bebo’s life was cut short by war, but her voice will continue to be heard In the dark month of January 2018, intensifying fighting in Syria reportedly killed 59 children. In early February, dozens of children have reportedly been killed and many more injured by extreme and intensifying violence in several parts of Syria – and the… Read more →←
Topic: Children in emergencies
I have been living in the Netherlands for a little over two years now. Because I had to flee from Syria, I regularly get questions like: “How is the situation in Syria?”, “What do you think of the Netherlands?”, or “What are the differences between the two countries?” But every time I try to answer, more… Read more →←
“That child could have been dead by morning,” UNICEF Health Officer Christopher Otti Ajumara tells me. “If we hadn’t come here today, he could have died.” We are in Ajuong Thok in northern South Sudan, having just visited the home of Lina, 20, a mother of three. Her nine month old son, Mapir, became ill with malaria five days… Read more →←
Half a million people. In one month. It’s the world’s fastest developing refugee emergency and children are at the heart of it – 60 per cent of the 519,000 Rohingya refugees now in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, are children. But beyond the astonishing numbers are heartbreaking individual children’s stories. Of loss, suffering,… Read more →←
“We all want to go to school,” 11-year old Fatima* tells me, talking on behalf of all eight girls in the wooden hut. After listening to the horror of their stories, it’s not an answer I necessarily expected. I’m in a displaced persons camp, on the outskirts of Maiduguri town, Borno’s state capital, in northeast Nigeria. A… Read more →←
What’s the situation? A humanitarian crisis of near biblical proportions. Since 25 August, 515,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar to Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. They tell stories of villages being burned, family members being executed, children killed, women raped. It’s truly a children’s emergency. A staggering 60% of new… Read more →←
“Mommy, don’t cry,” says four-year-old Adriana Joseph, with tears welling in her eyes, as the overflowing river rushes dangerously under their feet and into their house. “The hurricane will calm down,” she adds trying to comfort her mum. But her mother, Abigail Walsh, broke down in tears. It was 8pm and Hurricane Maria had… Read more →←
In Grand Turk Island, the capital island of the Turks and Caicos, 14-year-old Danessa Estime writes rap lyrics in her notebook about the night Hurricane Irma battered the island: “Wake up, wake up! But 5:32? Why the hell am I waking up at 5:32? Ma, what’s going on? What do you want me to do? Did something happen to be up at 5:32? She… Read more →←
When I lost all my family at the age of 15 I decided to leave the Gambia. Since I didn’t have any money to buy a bus ticket I left by foot, walking for hours towards the border of Senegal. I had to cross five countries during my travels: Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Libya. The entire journey took me seven months. All in all,… Read more →←
I will always remember that night in December 2013. My family had had dinner and spent some time discussing the events of the day before heading to bed. About 30 minutes later, I heard gunshots. I thought they were the usual gunshots that I often heard in Juba but these continued throughout the night. At some point, my father gathered us… Read more →←
