Global Polio Eradication Initiative launches 2010-2012 Strategic Plan for interrupting polio worldwide

In Geneva, a broad range of stakeholders had formally launched the new Strategic Plan 2010-2012 for eradicating wild poliovirus.

Polio eradication sits at a critical juncture. Across Africa, 10 of the 15 previously polio-free countries re-infected in 2009 have successfully stopped their outbreaks. Key endemic countries are witnessing historic gains against the disease. Nowhere is progress more evident than Nigeria, where case numbers have plummeted by more than 99% – from 312 cases at this time last year, to three in 2010. In India, for the first time ever, the remaining endemic states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have not reported any wild poliovirus type 1 cases concurrently for more than six months.

This meeting in Geneva wass being held to build on the gains already made in 2010 and to galvanize new action on polio eradication. Last month, the World Health Assembly welcomed the new plan while expressing deep concern about the US $1.3 billion funding shortfall (out of a budget of US $2.6 billion) over the next three years. This financing shortfall is a serious risk to the eradication of polio – activities are already being cut back or postponed due to a lack of funds.

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Horn of Africa once again polio-free, UNICEF and polio partners announce

The Horn of Africa is again polio-free, with Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda having reported no wild poliovirus cases for more than a year. Today marks a step towards the achievement of a major objective of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative's new strategy – stopping polio in Africa.

The outbreak began in 2008, following the reappearance of wild poliovirus type 1 in the border area of southern Sudan and Ethiopia, and spread in early 2009 to the northern Sudanese city of Port Sudan, and to Kenya and Uganda. In total, 101 children were paralysed by polio in these four countries between 2 March 2008 and 30 July 2009. The cases in Port Sudan sparked particular international concern as it was from this area that, from 2004 to 2006, wild poliovirus type 1 spread to re-infect several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Yemen and Indonesia.

A series of multi-country immunization campaigns, combined with the scale-up of technical support, and strong political engagement by the affected countries proved to be the backbone of the successful outbreak response.


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International skating sensation Yuna Kim becomes international UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador

UNICEF is delighted to announce the appointment of the international skating sensation Yuna Kim as its newest Goodwill Ambassador. The 2010 Olympic gold winner, who has long been supportive of UNICEF’s work on behalf of the world’s children, was motivated to step up her engagement following the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

“I am honored to be chosen as an international UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador,” said Yuna Kim, who is currently training in Toronto. “I want to use my own positive experience to help the children of Haiti and the millions of vulnerable children around the world. Even in the hardest circumstances, dreams can give you the courage to live, and I hope I can share that message with children in need."

Ms. Kim, 19, was born in South Korea and began skating at the age of five. She won a gold medal at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver in women’s single skating and is ranked number one in the world by the International Skating Union (ISU). She is also the first female skater to pass the 200-point mark under the ISU judging system.

“Yuna Kim is not just a figure skating champion, she is a wonderful champion for children,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.

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UNICEF Spain Ambassador and NBA star Pau Gasol visits children in Ethiopia

Los Angeles Lakers basketball star and UNICEF Spain Ambassador Pau Gasol has just spent a week visiting UNICEF-supported education, nutrition and child protection programmes in Ethiopia – and sharing his time with children who live under very difficult conditions here.

“This trip has been the confirmation that many kids in the world, millions of kids, need our help,” he said. In the South Omo Bena Tsemay community in southern Ethiopia, Mr. Gasol witnessed the challenges that pastoral children face in their daily lives.

In the village of Buko, he visited the construction site of one school supported by Schools for Africa, an international fundraising campaign of UNICEF, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Hamburg Society for the Promotion of Democracy and International Law.

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UNICEF and partners open child-friendly spaces in Qinghai earthquake zone

In the aftermath of the April 2010 earthquake that struck Qinghai Province's Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, UNICEF and the National Working Committee on Children and Women (NWCCW) have combined to establish four child-friendly spaces to support the long-term recovery and well-being of earthquake-affected children and women.

Thousands of children in Jiegu town, near the epicentre of the earthquake, have already accessed services at the child-friendly spaces, which have been set up to the south and west and in the centre of the town.

The spaces offer children a complete package of community-based services, including psycho-social support, social work and structured play and recreation activities.

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Statement by UNICEF’s Executive Director on ongoing situation in southern Kyrgyzstan

The political situation in southern Kyrgyzstan has calmed down. But life for Kyrgyzstan’s children has not. As their stories vanish from the front page, we risk putting their safety on the back burner.

We cannot allow that to happen for the 100,000 children displaced by violence. We cannot allow that to happen for the 400,000 children who need to start school in September and yet find their schools damaged or destroyed.

Right now, UNICEF has raised about 40 per cent of the approximately $11.8 million these children need. To date, UNICEF has airlifted some 200 metric tonnes of UNICEF supplies into the region, provided water and sanitation kits to internally-displaced families and given essential material and child health materials to health care facilities.

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UNICEF photojournalist Marta Ramoneda documents recovery efforts in Haiti

It has been six months since a devastating earthquake killed over 220,000 people and disrupted the lives of millions more in Haiti. UNICEF freelance photographer Marta Ramoneda recently returned from a two-week trip to the Caribbean nation, where she documented the recovery efforts now under way there.



The situation is still very difficult for many of the earthquake survivors Ms. Ramoneda met. About 1.6 million people are still living in makeshift settlements, and hundreds of thousands have migrated away from the quake-affected areas.

Among the images that affected Ms. Ramoneda the most, she recalled, were the living conditions faced by displaced people during the rainy season.

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Dr. Priscilla Akwara and team receive award at XVIII International AIDS Conference

When UNICEF statistics expert Dr. Priscilla Akwara looked at the usual ways of assessing a child’s vulnerability in the face of HIV and AIDS, what she saw wasn’t true to her own experience. And so, collaborating with nine co-authors, she became a detective, combing through data to find out which factors can reliably be seen to make a child vulnerable.

The conclusions reached by Dr. Akwara and her co-authors have led to a prestigious award given at the XVIII International AIDS Conference, which is under way this week in Vienna, Austria.

In a ceremony at the conference today, the International AIDS Society (IAS) and the Coalition on Children Affected by AIDS (CCABA) honoured Dr. Akwara and her team with the IAS/CCABA Prize for Excellence in Research Related to the Needs of Children Affected by AIDS.

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'Hermano' production company partners with UNICEF on violence prevention in Venezuela

The UNICEF-supported film, ‘Hermano’ – which last month won the Grand Prix for Best Film at the International Film Festival in Moscow, as well as the audience and critics’ prizes – will now be used to help spur conversations about violence prevention in Venezuela’s poor urban communities.

UNICEF and the film’s production company, AyB Producciones, plan to screen ‘Hermano’ in many of these areas. The screenings and associated discussion forums will be part of an Urban Communities Violence Prevention Model that UNICEF Venezuela is developing in some neighbourhoods in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.

These activities aim to promote the development of life skills and ensure the right to education among urban children and adolescents – and to help create protective environments for them at the family level, as well as in their schools and communities.

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UNICEF at Vienna International AIDS Conference: Children and Young People in Focus at AIDS 2010 Conference

UNICEF experts in HIV and AIDS, gathered from over 35 countries, said that the just concluded International AIDS Conference re-affirmed the critical importance of preventing mother to child transmission of HIV. However stigma is still a major factor in keeping women and young people from accessing the services they need.

The number of children born with the virus every year is around 400,000. AIDS 2010 made the goal of effective elimination of HIV in newborns a worldwide priority. UNICEF makes effective elimination of Mother to Child Transmission a primary focus of its work, Executive Director Tony Lake told the conference.

“We have the evidence and we have the momentum that we need to have,” said Jimmy Kolker, chief of HIV and AIDS, UNICEF. “The next wave of response should be shaped by reaching those hardest to reach so that coverage and follow up can be truly universal. Mother and child health and survival depend on it.” The success of PMTCT depends in good part on focusing on difficult and sensitive issues, such as drug use in pregnant women with HIV.

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African Youth Forum issues call to action for leaders at Uganda summit

A group of more than 100 young people from across Africa are ready to deliver a clear message to leaders of the countries in the African Union, who will be attending the 2010 AU Summit in Kampala, the Ugandan capital.




The youth delegates, representing 40 countries in Africa, gathered here in Entebbe this week for the first-ever African Youth Forum (AYF). They've just finished writing a call to action that two of them will deliver to the continent’s Heads of State early next week.

The young leaders worked together over the three-day meeting to produce their collective recommendations with regard to maternal, infant and child health, the main focus areas of the AU Summit. They also tackled such topics as gender-based violence and the role of poverty in child mortality.

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FIFA World Cup 2010 champion Sergio Ramos of Spain inspires children in Senegal

Just days after becoming a champion as a member of the victorious Spanish national football team at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Sergio Ramos chose to spend his time off the field visiting UNICEF projects in Senegal.


“This week was one of the most special weeks of my life,” he said. “Two of my dreams came true: I won the World Cup, and I was able to travel to Africa and interact with children there.”

In Pout, a village about 60 km from Dakar, Mr. Ramos saw community health programmes that focus on improving the nutrition of mothers and their young children. And at a health post in the village of Keur Seydou, he held and weighed a newborn baby girl named Fatou.

Routine weight check-ups are just one part of the process that helps monitor the growth of local children to detect signs of under-nutrition. Such local health interventions are important in a country where 17 per cent of children under five years of age are chronically undernourished.

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Call centre responds to needs of separated children in Haitian quake zone

“Hello, Separated Children Call Centre, how can I help you?” an operator asked. “Where exactly did you say the child is currently? He is at the health Centre? Did the child come by himself or was he brought in by someone? Thank you for calling – we will dispatch two case workers who will arrive at the centre in 30 minutes.”

The Separated Children Call Centre was set up immediately following the 12 January earthquake in Haiti in order to address the situation of children separated from their families. The emergency made it is imperative to identify, register and document both unaccompanied and separated children as quickly as possible.

UNICEF jointly leads this effort with its partners Save the Children, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Rescue Committee. UNICEF Haiti’s Child Protection Programme also has over 10 local partners working on family tracing.

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Ugandan delegates prepare to speak out on development at first African Youth Forum

At first glance, it seems an ordinary day in the UNICEF country office here – until the cameras zoom in and reporters begin interviewing young people selected as the Ugandan delegates to the first-ever African Youth Forum, or AYF. The Forum had been held in Entebbe from 17 to 19 July.

These 20 youth delegates come from every corner of the nation. In a series of exercises prior to the start of the AYF, they are learning how to make a meaningful contribution to the development agenda and become some of Africa’s strongest advocates for its youth and communities in need.

At the same time, an SMS text-messaging campaign – designed by UNICEF’s Technology for Development unit and promoted through a national television network – is generating a strong response across Uganda. Young people are engaged in the campaign via cell phone and are involved in chat sessions with their peers as far as away Malwai and Madagscar via the Speak Africa online forum for African youth, as well as the social media sites Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

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'Second-chance' examination for schoolchildren affected by conflict in South Darfur

UNICEF and the Ministry of Education in the South Darfur region of Sudan have witnessed the successful completion of a key goal: providing a ‘second-chance examination’ for eighth-grade students affected by conflict in the locality of East Jabel Marra.

Due to recent fighting, the children had lost the opportunity to take the exam that would guarantee their school advancement.

With the strong advocacy of UNICEF´s education cluster and efforts by the Ministry and local government officials – as well as the support of international donors – the second-chance examination took place in Nyala town in May. A total of 304 pupils, including 48 girls, took exam.

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Child-friendly spaces for learning and playing without fear in Osh, Kyrgyzstan

After weeks of violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, Osh is beginning to witness tiny signs of a return to normal life: The streets are filling up with people and cars. Some rush to the market to buy food, others go to visit their relatives and share their blankets and clothes with those who lost everything.

But there is one vital element missing: the children. Many were sent away by their parents for safekeeping, to stay with relatives in remote villages. Only a few families have started to bring them back.

Ongoing field assessments reveal numerous problems and hardships for children and women – regardless of ethnicity – who suffered the most during the civil conflict that broke out in mid-June and now have a long way to recovery. With this in view, UNICEF has opened an operating base in Osh, 600 km form Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital.

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Launch of the National Child Health Week and Measles Campaign in Zambia


The Ministry of Health in Zambia and partners, including UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), today launched the Integrated National Child Health Week and Measles Campaign in Chawama compound in Lusaka Zambia that will run until 24 July 2010.

The target for the National Measles campaign in Zambia is to reach 1,620,914 children aged between 9 – 47 months in all districts with the exception of Lusaka. In Lusaka all children aged between 6 – 59 months have been targeted due to the ongoing measles outbreak.

Speaking at the Launch, Honorable Minister of Health, Mr. Kapembwa Simbao commended WHO, UNICEF and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for their continued and timely support as Zambia faces a measles outbreak.

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Young of Central Asia and Eastern Europe suffering Blame and Banishment

An underground HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is intensifying at an alarming pace, fueled by drug use, high-risk sexual behavior and high levels of social stigma that discourage people from seeking prevention information and treatment, according to a new report released today by UNICEF.

Marginalized young people are exposed on a daily basis to multiple risks, including drug use, commercial sex and other exploitation and abuse, putting them at higher risk of contracting HIV. The trends are especially troubling, as the region is home to 3.7 million injecting drug users – almost a quarter of the world total.

For many, initiation into drug use begins in adolescence. Existing health and social welfare services are not tailored to adolescents at greatest risk, who are often exposed to moral judgment, recrimination and even criminal prosecution when they seek treatment and information on HIV.

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Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow visits Ugandan children affected by conflict

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow has made a round of visits to Uganda communities this week, in advance of her participation in the first-ever African Youth Forum, which begins tomorrow in Entebbe.

Ms. Farrow visited Gulu district in northern Uganda, where she met children affected by the conflict with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group, and Kotido district in the country’s north-eastern Karamoja sub-region, where she met children affected by inter-ethnic raids.

Laroo Primary School currently has 460 students, including 150 formerly abducted children. The UNICEF-supported school offers an academic and vocational training programme for children and young people affected by conflict as they try to resume normal lives.

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Iraqi refugee students in Syria need help to go back to school

Lulls in conversation with 16-year-old Iraqi refugee Gailan are soon filled with the gentle inhale-exhale of sleep. Outside, the Damascus streets are silent, except for the shuffling of those woken early by the intense morning heat.

Financial constraints prevent a great many young Iraqis in Syria from studying. The gap in Gailan’s own education is now five years – an extended absence that is very difficult to bridge.

To help get dropouts like him back into schooling, UNICEF and its partners – including the European Union – have initiated a programme of remedial classes and out-of-hours vocational workshops. It is a programme of support for those who have a multitude of reasons for not attending school and one very powerful reason to return – their desire.

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New child-friendly schools bring new hope to communities in Sri Lanka

Thousands of schoolchildren in Ampara district, eastern Sri Lanka, recently cheered in a new era in education, with marching bands playing and UNICEF flags waving during official ceremonies in their villages.

Along with local community leaders, they were celebrating the opening of six new schools – the result of a UNICEF Sri Lanka investment totalling $3.8 million. Thousands of students will benefit from the UNICEF-funded schools.

But it was a solemn moment, too – a moment to remember the tsunami that destroyed their old schools and villages in December 2004. The scars of the tsunami are still scattered along the coastline here, tombstones and ruins from the time when the sea took the lives of more than 30,000 Sri Lankans.

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UN Children’s agency in Vienna to focus on the children and the social exclusion and stigma of HIV and AIDS

UNICEF announced the agency’s participation in the 2010 XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna in July.

UNICEF’s Executive Director Tony Lake will launch a groundbreaking report on the social exclusion of children and young people affected by HIV and AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The report highlights underlying causes of the epidemic that are unique to the region, including the complex challenges that make youth vulnerable to HIV or early death due to drug use and other diseases.

Later that day, Lake will take part in a roundtable discussion on bottlenecks in the delivery of pediatric AIDS medications, together with the Global Fund’s Michel Kazatchkine and the Global AIDS Alliance.


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Testing and treatment - for Malaria

Because not everyone with malaria immediately displays the symptoms, or may not come forward for medical help, the risk of transmission can be high – but hunting the malaria parasite means that infected patients can receive treatment quickly, helping to eliminate the disease.

“Using bed nets and spraying against mosquitoes all bring the caseload down to a low point – but at that stage you have to focus on finding the parasite and wiping it out before it can be transmitted again,” says UNICEF Malaria Officer Bill Hawley, who leads the organization’s malaria programme in Indonesia.

“Sabang is the first district in Indonesia to take on this approach, with a clear focus on tracing the parasite through universal testing, and then treating carriers before the disease can be spread by another mosquito,” he notes. “Ultimately, this is going to make malaria a thing of the past.”

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Training for teachers

In the aftermath of the civil unrest here, 114 educators from 59 early childhood institutions and two primary schools were equipped with skills to help 1,850 boys and girls. The training workshops were run by the Early Childhood Commission, with support from UNICEF, before schools in the affected communities re-opened their doors.

“I feel more equipped to face the children and parents on Monday morning,” noted one early childhood teacher, Ms. Davies, after the training. “I have been able to develop a definite plan of action. I have always wanted to be in such a forum.”

Classes were a welcome respite for children who had been dealing with sorrow caused not only by the harrowing days of gun battles between security forces and armed civilians, but also by years of sustained violence.

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Counseling and recreation

To raise HIV awareness among young people in PK 12, UNICEF is working with partners USAID and Family Health International to provide counseling and recreational activities.

As part of this effort, container has been converted into a center where both the truck drivers and young people from the community can learn about HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

"We reach out to young people here to teach them how they can protect themselves, through Puppet Theater, films and interactive activities," says Filsan Abdi Osman, Program Assistant at Family Health International. "We also reach out to the truck drivers to tell them where to go for voluntary HIV testing and treatment."

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"HOPE FOR HAITI NOW" distributing remaining $31 million raised through telethon

"Hope for Haiti Now" (HFHN) today announced the allocation of the remaining $31 million—of the $66 million in total—raised through the Emmy nominated telethon "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief."

The $31 million will be distributed in two payments to partner organizations including Oxfam America, Partners In Health, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, Yelé Haiti Foundation, and the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund that are focused on recovery and reconstruction efforts in Haiti.

The first payment was made on Friday, July 2 and the second payment will be in December 2010, following an assessment of the effectiveness of the funds' use.


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UNICEF honoured for short film on 'Protecting Childhood' in Occupied Palestinian Territory

UNICEF has been honoured for its coverage of the challenges facing Palestinian children in ‘Protecting Childhood’, a short film that recently won the 2010 Communicator Award of Excellence, sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts.

“The Award of Excellence, our highest honour, is given to those entries whose ability to communicate puts them among the best in the field,” said an Academy spokesperson. UNICEF won its award in the charitable/non-profit category.

‘Protecting Childhood’ was commissioned by the European Union as part of a multimedia project highlighting its partnership with UNICEF in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Produced by Chris Niles and edited by John Mims, both of UNICEF, the five-minute documentary focuses on helping Palestinian children and their families cope with the conflict and violence that affect their daily lives.

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UNICEF helps displaced families start afresh after violence in Osh, Kyrgyzstan

UNICEF is working with the Ministry of Education to open activity centres in 20 local schools. The centres will give children some structured recreation and help them get back into the rhythm of school ahead of the new school term, which starts on 1 September.

In addition, UNICEF and its local partners are planning to establish child-friendly learning spaces in neighbourhoods around the city, in hopes of drawing children from different ethnic communities to facilitate the reconciliation process.

Ultimately, the hope is that more families will feel safe enough to bring children back from the homes of relatives and friends where they were sent when violence broke out.

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Bamyan maternity waiting home: A safe place to give birth in Afghanistan

“This place is needed in Bamyan like water in the desert,” said Dr. Hamed Nazim, head of Bamyan Provincial Hospital. “In the past, not enough care was taken of mothers. This will change now.”

Together with UNICEF, representatives of the provincial government, religious leaders and local women, Dr. Nazim last week inaugurated the Bamyan Maternity Waiting Home, which aims to provide a safe place for women during the final stage of pregnancy. It is part of Afghanistan’s Maternity Waiting Home project, launched in 2007 in six provinces to bridge the gap between rural areas with poor access to skilled care and urban areas where maternal health services are available.

In his remarks at the opening of the Maternity Waiting Home, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan Peter Crowley pointed out that every 30 minutes an Afghan woman dies from pregnancy of childbirth-related causes – giving Afghanistan one of world’s highest rates of maternal death.


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Key tools to improve education in emergencies

UNICEF and partners today announced minimum standards for education to help the 25 million children in countries and territories affected by conflict who are currently missing out on their right to primary education.

“The Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response and Recovery” updates a highly successful handbook that was translated into 23 languages and used in more than 80 countries by education and development professionals during emergencies.

“UNICEF’s experience in emergencies shows that one of the best things for children is to get them back in school,” said Ellen van Kalmthout, Senior Education Specialist of UNICEF. “This handbook is an important tool to help government officials, international aid workers and other partners react when emergencies strike, schools are damaged and destroyed, and children’s education is at risk.”

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Risks, support and opportunities impact the lives of children in Haiti

Six months after the strongest earthquake to hit Haiti in 200 years, the challenges to meet the needs of more than 800,000 affected children and their families remain daunting. The earthquake left behind a death toll of over 220,000 persons and over 300,000 injured in an already fragile nation.

Some two million persons have been displaced from their homes and some 1.6 million of them remain in overcrowded displacement camps. The country’s infrastructure, never strong, was devastated with 60 per cent of government infrastructure destroyed and over 180,000 homes uninhabitable.

UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS.

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UN Secretary-General visits a child protection centre in Gabon

On a recent trip to Gabon, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with children living in a child-protection centre supported by UNICEF in Angondgé, a neighbourhood of Libreville, the capital.

The Angondjé centre accommodates boys and girls up to 18 years of age from various nationalities and religions. The children come to the centre for many different reasons.

The centre offers the children shelter, education, health care and psycho-social support. The ultimate goal is to reunite the children with their families in Gabon or other countries in region. For those who are orphans or can no longer reintegrate with their original families, legal adoption to welcoming families is an option. Every month, at least four children leave the centre and start a new life.


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Child Smuggling Continues in Haiti

The head of UNICEF warned that people may still be trying to smuggle children out of Haiti and said protecting youngsters who survived the earthquake is the top concern of the U.N. children's agency.

Veneman, who visited Haiti last week, said in every humanitarian crisis there's a risk that children will be trafficked out of the country for sexual exploitation, adoption, child labor or other illegal purposes. In Haiti, she said, "this is a big concern."

Last week, 10 Americans were charged with kidnapping and criminal association for trying to take 33 children into the neighboring Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without proper documentation. The Baptist missionaries say they were heading to a Dominican orphanage following Haiti's devastating quake, and had only good intentions.

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Angola/UNICEF rejoices at implementation of projects in Bie province

A delegation of UNICEF and donors rejoiced Thursday at the development and implementation of the jointly financed ongoing projects in the central highlands Bie province.

The head of the UNICEF programme for child survival and development, nutritional health, water and sanitation in Angola, Brandão Có, stressed the great improvements in the implementation of child and woman related projects, adding that such progress is highly due to the commitment of the government and other institutions involved in the project.


He reaffirmed the support by UNICEF and donors of social projects aimed at improving the social and economic welfare of women and children, mainly in health and education adding that for three days the his team could ascertain that women and children are benefiting from the services.

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Re-building communities as refugees return home to Kyrgyzstan

All along Alisher Navoi Street, the scene is the same from house to house. Some of the buildings are just charred walls. Some have collapsed completely. Others bear bullet holes from intense gunfire.

The street forms part of a poor ethnic Uzbek neighborhood that saw some of the worst of the ethnic violence that swept through Osh, Kyrgyzstan in June. In the wake of the devastation, small groups of men, women and children stand along the street, many with a looks of shock or resignation on their faces.

Start talking with them about the events that ripped apart their community several weeks ago, and the emotion soon comes out—sometimes in anger, sometimes in tears of absolute despair.

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New UNICEF report condemns German policy of deporting Roma children

The police often come unannounced at 4 a.m., to reduce the chance that their targets will find a place to hide.

After being rushed into a van, the terrified Romany families are taken to the airport - often with a detour to the local police station, where they are asked to sign a statement saying that their deportation is voluntary. In exchange, they are often promised better housing when they arrive in Kosovo. These promises are rarely held.

Because of this harried departure, vital documents like birth certificates are often left behind. Families living in Germany since the early 1990s suddenly find themselves back in Kosovo - virtually destitute in the poorest country in Europe.

The children, arriving in a country where they have never been, and whose languages - Serbian and Albanian - they do not speak, suffer particularly.

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UNICEF Awarded Emergency Grant To Support Tajikistan Polio Outbreak Response

UNICEF has received two emergency grants, totalling $350,000, to support immunization efforts in Tajikistan, following a polio outbreak first identified at the end of April. Tajikistan, which was previously polio-free, has confirmed 334 polio cases since April.


The funds will go toward OPV procurement costs and are the result of a combined grant, with $200,000 coming from the Government of Japan and another $150,000 coming from Japanese NGO Vaccines for the World's Children (JCV). So far, UNICEF has procured and delivered almost 10.3 million doses of oral polio vaccine (OPV).

"UNICEF is very grateful to the fact that Japan has shown its commitment to polio outbreak and polio eradication efforts with contributions from both public and private sectors," said Hongwei Gao, UNICEF Country Representative in Tajikistan.

Tajikistan recently completed its fourth five-day immunization campaign in response to the outbreak, with the most recent campaign targeting almost three million children under 15 years of age. The massive effort has been led by the country's Ministry of Health with support from UNICEF, WHO and other partners, and has resulted in a sharp decline in suspected cases.

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Food Crisis in Africa

State authorities and aid agencies in northern Nigeria are scaling up their food security and nutrition responses in the light of coming food shortages.

Seven Nigerian states along the edge of the Sahel - Yobe, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa and Bauchi - received poor and erratic rains in 2009, as did the neighbouring countries of Chad and Niger, and northern Cameroon.

This year, rains are again expected to arrive late and end soon. "Already pockets of [food] problems exist," said Alhassan Nuhu, deputy planning director of the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).




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2010 Communicator Award of Excellence

UNICEF has been honoured for its coverage of the challenges facing Palestinian children in ‘Protecting Childhood’, a short film that recently won the 2010 Communicator Award of Excellence, sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts.

“The Award of Excellence, our highest honour, is given to those entries whose ability to communicate puts them among the best in the field,” said an Academy spokesperson. UNICEF won its award in the charitable/non-profit category.

‘Protecting Childhood’ was commissioned by the European Union as part of a multimedia project highlighting its partnership with UNICEF in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Produced by Chris Niles and edited by John Mims, both of UNICEF, the five-minute documentary focuses on helping Palestinian children and their families cope with the conflict and violence that affect their daily lives.To get regular beauty and fashion tips, check Fashion and Beauty Fete.

Emergency aid arrives at Kyrgyzstan

Much more aid is now on its way. It will be distributed by UNICEF, other UN agencies and local partners, through programmes that are quickly being established throughout the city.

Through the border crossing with neighbouring Uzbekistan, a long-awaited convoy of UN trucks has brought in tonnes of supplies. For its part, UNICEF sent eight trucks containing 40 metric tonnes of aid for refugees who returned from Uzbekistan to southern Kyrgyzstan last week. The governments of both countries provided a safe corridor for the UN humanitarian convoy to travel across the border and into Osh – the worst affected region of Kyrgyzstan.

The UNICEF shipment included health and hygiene essentials, including medicines, treatment kits for diarrhoea, and nutritional and vitamin supplements for children.

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Child Brides Flogged After Trying To Run From Forced Marriages

The latest video that has been released this week was recorded by one of the girl’s tormentors and taken to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission by one sympathizer.


The girls aged 13 and 14 were married underage and were reportedly trying to run away from their old husbands who were forcing them to have sex. They disguised themselves as boys and did their best to reach the check point.

The cops who intercepted them at the check point sent them back to their husbands in spite of knowing their story and what punishment awaits them. The teenage girls were repeatedly whipped by their elderly in what seemed an excruciating video to watch.

A UNICEF study between the years 2000 and 2008 revealed that more than 43% of women in Afghanistan were married underage and some of them even before reaching puberty. Flogging which is also illegal in Afghanistan is a common practice by the self-appointed moral police in the form of kangaroo courts.

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UP is home to 20 per cent of India’s child labourers


It is indeed a matter of grave concern that 20 per cent (1,927,997 to be exact) of India’s total (12,666,377) child labour force lives in Uttar Pradesh. It is a fact that there is no dearth of grants, aid, projects and schemes for creating a child-labour-free state and yet, instead of declining, the percentage of child labour is growing by leaps and bound in the state.

Children, it seems have never been on the priority list of the state government. No wonder that when other states have had a Commission for children for years Uttar Pradesh still does not have a Commission for the Protection of Child rights. It is also often observed that important functionary; including ministers of concerned department always avoid attending children-centric functions. It is never a clear cut no, just a last minute ditch with some lame excuse.

Students of Amity mass communication, Lucknow, also did not lack behind in creativity - they displaced 100 odd frames of black and white photographs showing children at work.

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Children Hard hit at Kyrgyzstan

UNICEF is reporting that 90 per cent of the refugees from fighting in Southern Kyrgyzstan were children, women and the elderly. A rapid assessment revealed that many children suffered physical and mental violence.

More than 100,000 refugees are in Uzbekistan, most of whom are located in about 75 camps around the city of Andijan.

Today, seven UNICEF trucks carrying emergency supplies were on their way to eastern Uzbekistan to provide refugees with tents, clothes, blankets, health kits and kitchen sets. Valued at $100,000, the supplies are an initial emergency response.

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