When we celebrated International Girls in ICT Day a year ago, we were at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, expecting it to be a short-term “blip”. For many of us, online meetings – complete with “you’re on mute” – were still a novelty. As the pandemic loomed over us, digital connectivity was enabling learning to continue… Read more →←
The pandemic has created the biggest upheaval across our societies in living memory. Millions of children and young people have had their education disrupted and if learning losses are not addressed now, it will limit the choice and opportunity for this generation of children and young people – the opportunity to learn, to pursue a… Read more →←
Recently, news outlets across the world announced: Finland ranked happiest country in the world – again. This information is based on the World Happiness Report 2021 which uses data from the Gallup World Survey. But is it true? Similar to the 1950s household surveys that questioned only the male breadwinner and projected his feelings… Read more →←
How can we positively impact the self-perception of millions of adolescents in Brazil? I confess that Dove’s call for proposals aimed at strengthening adolescents’ self-esteem and body confidence as part of the Skills4Girls initiative gave me butterflies. The challenge seemed harder considering my country’s racial and ethnic… Read more →←
About two years ago, I was meeting a group of adolescent girls and boys in Aravan, a rural area in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan, to talk about their lives, their plans and visions for the future. Something that struck me was that girls were very keen on continuing education, learning new skills and building a professional career. They… Read more →←
A Joint Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore and ICC Secretary General John Denton. The first weeks of 2021 have resembled a split-screen moment for many of us: the roll out of proven vaccines sparking hope that the worst of the pandemic could soon be over, while fresh waves of infection and viral mutations raise… Read more →←
The word unprecedented will always be associated with 2020. For months on end, it was repeated on TV, in newspapers and by friends and family to describe the pandemic and its effects on people in every corner of the world. As the head of the Medical Devices Unit in UNICEF Supply Division, 2021 is shaping up to be another unprecedented… Read more →←
One year ago, when the scale of the challenges ahead of a pre-COVID-19 South Africa was not clear, a group of inspiring people came together in Salt River, Cape Town, to meet with the local community. The annual International Public Art Festival was coming up in February 2020, and NGO partners Progress and Bazart, as well as Tuba Films… Read more →←
It is August in Nigeria, the rainy season. The Borno camp has pools of water scattered around and children are kicking at the water. Their laughter ripples through the air. Community volunteers and mobilizers are seated under a tent next to the camp clinic. Their phones are out as they wait to voice their experiences using short… Read more →←
Twenty-five tiny newborns were crammed three and four to a bed. The only sink was filled with dirty water with no soap in sight. An empty bottle of hand sanitizer hung from a string on the door. The scene before me in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a major hospital in Ethiopia wasn’t the worst I had seen, but it was no less… Read more →←
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