Tagged: emergency response

A man in PPE stands among children in a slum in Mumbai India.

Together, we shall overcome

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Day after day our screens are filled with harrowing images of hospitals overrun, lines of people waiting desperately for a hospital bed or oxygen for a loved one. As the number of cases keeps climbing, the threat inches ever closer to home, family members, colleagues, friends, and neighbours. I feel so helpless right now. Helpless at my… Read more →←
A covid-19 patient hooked up to an oxygen tank

12 months on, the eerily familiar sounds of the pandemic

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March 2020. India had recently completed a massive vaccination campaign of more than 300 million children against measles and rubella – two potentially life-threatening diseases. I was posted to New York for a health communications assignment which involved sharing my experiences from the public health communication drive that had… Read more →←
Group photo of jubilant women with their fists in the air

If you want to save the world, be your own superhero!

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Story also available in: العربية
When I signed up to be part of UNICEF’s Emergency Response Team, I felt a wave of excitement and euphoria to dedicate myself to a mandate I genuinely believe in: supporting women and children in conflict areas and emergencies. Some of my close family and friends questioned such a career direction as it involved taking risks and putting… Read more →←
A girl child wearing an organe life jacket sits in the centre of a boat and surrounded by adults.

Kerala: Returning to loss after the floods

Children in emergencies

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Story also available in: Français
After an arduous nine-hour journey, I finally reach Kozhikode (Calicut) after an arduous journey of nine hours. The journey has been heart-wrenching. About 2000 children are cramped into relief camps along with their parents and caregivers who have lost their valuables to incessant rain and floods. Tomorrow — day two — should be even… Read more →←
Little girl standing in front of an open gate

Water on the front line near Mosul

Children in emergencies

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Story also available in: Français
Al Houd, south of Mosul , was retaken by Iraqi security forces last week. Two days later, UNICEF sent a mission to deliver clean water and hygiene kits to the town’s 1,500 families. UNICEF Chief of Communication Sharon Behn Nogueira was there. The sky was filled with ominous black clouds from oil fields that were set on fire by ISIL… Read more →←
Smiling boy stands in front of a building

Fighting cholera in Haiti after Hurricane Matthew

Children in emergencies

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Seven hours on the road, or rather on a rocky trail that renders one grateful for a solid back and stomach, to Pestel. All along our way to the town, one of the areas where a significant increase in diarrhea cases has been registered over the past week, we pass destroyed houses and trees. People in front of their homes, stranded. Some… Read more →←
A man in a crowd dances on a table./

Last time out of Ebola quarantine in Sierra Leone?

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I have a vivid memory of the first time I heard predictions of a “bumpy road” to zero Ebola cases. It was December 2014 and I was up-country in the town of Kenema (south-east Sierra Leone) close to the place where Ebola was first recorded in the country. We were listening to the radio in a dusty hotel courtyard as we prepared for a… Read more →←
A group of young mem listen as someone speaks into a microphone

The day after the end of the outbreak

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Story also available in: Français
With the World Health Organization declaration on Saturday that the 18-month Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone was officially over, it was a poignant weekend. On Sunday morning, when the champagne glasses hadn’t yet been cleaned, the crowds were still dispersing from the overnight beach parties, and the church congregations were dancing… Read more →←
A child at the Child Friendly Space.

Education cannot wait, even during emergencies

Children in emergencies

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Story also available in: Français 中文 العربية
Quick thinking by head teacher Abdul Kamara saved Kroo Bay Community Primary School’s children from disaster. Moments before the deluge, 150 students and the school’s eight teachers were inside, busy with the day’s lessons. “I was inside and I could see the rain coming down heavy,” said Abdul. “I went out to see how the water… Read more →←

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