UNICEF New Zealand supports
child survival, protection and development
worldwide through education, advocacy and fundraising.
child survival, protection and development
worldwide through education, advocacy and fundraising.
For all news enquiries please contact David Youngmeyer on 021 851 263 or email david@unicef.org.nz
Iconic Kiwi designs feature strongly in this year's UNICEF Corporate Christmas card catalogue which has been sent to more than 8,000 businesses around the country. more >>
UNICEF is concerned over the situation of nearly 40,000 children affected by the conflict in Georgia. more >>
BOSSASO, Somalia, 21 August 2008 - Malnutrition is one of the biggest challenges facing Somali children today, and according to an upcoming UN report, it could be getting worse. more >>
As the humanitarian crisis continues to unfold in Georgia-Ossetia, a UNICEF assessment team has made it into the town of Gori in Georgia. more >>
19 August 2008 -- More than 5,000 children under five die every day in part to unsafe water, lack of access to basic sanitation facilities and poor hygiene. more >>
Wellington 18 August 2008. – UNICEF Ambassador Alison Mau brought alive the work UNICEF is doing to combat the HIV-AIDS epidemic in Papua New Guinea during a recent talk to the Kora Lang Society. more >>
14 August 2008. – Children are among the most vulnerable of the almost 100,000 people estimated to be displaced by conflict in the Georgia-Ossetia region. more >>
12 August 2008. -- UNICEF is working with other United Nations agencies to meet the emergency needs of up to 56,000 people displaced by the ongoing conflict in the Georgia-Ossetia region. more >>
Wellington, 7 August 2008. - New figures out today that show a reduction in New Zealand's child poverty levels are good news, but more needs to be done to help children still struggling in poverty, says the UNICEF NZ. more >>
Wellington, 6 August 2008. – Child mortality rates are lagging in a number of Pacific Island states according to a just released UNICEF report. more >>
MAPUTO, Mozambique, August 2008 – UNICEF Executive Director, Ann. M. Veneman, concluding a 3-day visit to Mozambique, announced $3 million in additional support for UNICEF’s nutrition programs in the country. more >>
A New Zealander is among 10 people from around the world to win a video camera and the chance to film a short piece about HIV-AIDS to be broadcast internationally. more >>
In Ropi Churchyard in central Ethiopia, the regular late afternoon queue forms. The adults, mainly women, wait patiently for the ration of therapeutic milk that could save the lives of the starving children they carry. It's only a month since Ropi opened but already it's working to capacity and another centre has had to be opened. more >>
Wellington, 25 July 2008. - Thousands of cyclone-affected school children in Myanmar have been able to return to school thanks to help from UNICEF. more >>
EASTERN HARERGHE, Ethiopia, 9 July 2008 – One month ago, Kimia Gotu, six-months pregnant and a mother of four, and her two-year-old daughter, Destu Omer Hassen, were sharing the grounds of the Baroda therapeutic feeding centre with 75 severely malnourished children. more >>
UNICEF Continues to Strengthen Response for Affected Children and Families more >>
A historic global broadcast on CNN and CNN International. more >>
More urgently needed to scale-up operations. more >>
UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Hilde F. Johnson today appealed for a more robust and rapid response to the urgent needs of severely malnourished children in drought-affected areas of Ethiopia. more >>
Conflict has undermined the potential of an entire generation of Iraqi children, UNICEF said today. more >>
YANGON, Myanmar 17 June 2008 – The weather has become an added challenge to delivering aid in cyclone-ravaged Myanmar. more >>
As of 11th June 2008 more >>
GURAVAL VILLAGE, Madhya Pradesh, India, 9 June 2008 – In the pre-monsoon heat, the Akushwah family gathered under a Neem tree on their most important mission since a boy was born to the family a year ago. more >>
UNICEF has welcomed the adoption of a comprehensive new international treaty banning the production, use and transfer of deadly cluster munitions which have caused unspeakable suffering for millions of children. more >>
According to data recently collected, more than 10,000 school buildings in Sichuan were badly damaged by the 12 May earthquake. Almost 7,000 schools were completely destroyed and many others suffered partial damage. UNICEF estimates that the number of school children affected is in the millions. Most of these children are now trying to continue their schooling in temporary shelters and tents. Precise figures are still very difficult to obtain. more >>
More than two weeks after a devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province toppled schools, wiped out towns and killed an estimated 67,000 people, children in the worst-hit areas are still experiencing the staggering psychosocial aftershocks. more >>
SIRARO DISRICT, Ethiopia, 2 June 2008 - UNICEF is reporting that 126,000 Ethiopian children are severely malnourished and that this number is likely to climb as more harvests fail. more >>
Exactly one month after Cyclone Nargis damaged and destroyed more than 4,000 schools in Myanmar, children went back to school today as the new academic year began. more >>
But access to prevention and treatment still lacking for millions. more >>
YANGON, Myanmar, 27 May 2008 – As many cyclone-affected children are preparing to head back to school next week, UNICEF and its partners have been distributing essential school supplies by everything from truck to boat. more >>
UNICEF welcomes this report since it keeps the spotlight on an issue we're working on. Humanitarian actors have a particularly strong responsibility to protect vulnerable populations. As the UN Study on Violence against Children pointed out, under-reporting of violence against children is a problem all over the world. The recommendations in the report merit consideration and some of them already form part of UNICEF's work. more >>
By Elizabeth Kiem more >>
The rush to provide relief to the victims of Cyclone Nargis continues. The United Nations now estimates that as many as 2.5 million people have been severely affected by the cyclone and its aftermath. Forty per cent of those affected are children. more >>
An estimated 126,000 need immediate help - funding shortfall cited. more >>
Khin San Win, 35, her husband and their 3-year-old son, Mg Myo Min Thant, are back in their village and staying with friends. The villagers have united to rebuild—one by one each day—their small houses made of leaf and bamboo that had shattered from the intensity of Cyclone Nargis as it ransacked the impoverished Irrawaddy Delta in southwestern Myanmar two weeks ago. more >>
Rescuers are still racing against time to search for survivors in the Juyuan Township Middle School, which collapsed in the earthquake here on May 12. As of this week, some 50 people from the school have been confirmed dead, with about 100 still buried beneath the rubble. more >>
UNICEF missions throughout the flooded regions of Myanmar report that the destruction of homes, schools and water and sanitation systems are posing terrible threats to children's lives and well-being. more >>
Two days after the largest earthquake to hit China in a generation, news of its full impact on the communities living close to the epicenter is still trickling in at a painfully slow speed. more >>
UNICEF Myanmar staff travel by boat with two health workers from the Kawhmu Township Health Department to a remote corner of the destruction left by Cyclone Nargis in south-western Myanmar. By Angela Thaung. more >>
Updated Myanmar Cyclone questions and answers. more >>
UNICEF is supporting the government to respond to the immediate needs of children and women. UNICEF has not had problems with the Myanmar government in terms of distribution. more >>
UNICEF is able to respond rapidly to emergencies, even multiple emergencies, because we have offices in more than 150 countries around the world and we work in close collaboration with a wide range of experienced partners, including governments, communities, local and international non-governmental organizations. more >>
“We ran to higher ground when the water rose,” explained Kaung Myat, 12, standing on what used to be his family's bamboo hut in Gyo Phyu village, part of Kungyangone township in Myanmar’s southern Yangon Division more >>
UNICEF China is deeply concerned that large numbers of children could be affected by a major earthquake in Sichuan Province. At this writing the latest death toll stands at 7,650, according to China Central Television. more >>
Child- friendly spaces set up in camps sheltering people affected by Cyclone Nargis. more >>
UNICEF appeals for more than $8 million for medicines and other lifesaving supplies. more >>
To meet the urgent needs of children and families affected by the cyclone last weekend in Myanmar, UNICEF today issued an emergency appeal for $8.2 million. more >>
NEW YORK, 7 May 2008 - Some 130 UNICEF technical and operations staff continued to travel to the areas affected by Cyclone Nargis today, identifying the greatest threats to children and women and delivering much-needed supplies. more >>
UNICEF Myanmar field staff have begun delivering emergency supplies to Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta as the death toll from Saturday's cyclone continues to climb. more >>
Responding to increases in violence affecting children and growing hindrances to reaching the most vulnerable, UNICEF said that it deplores the actions of those who involve innocent children in Zimbabwe's current crisis. more >>
Hundreds of thousands more at risk because of lack of shelter and unsafe drinking water more >>
United Nations humanitarian and development agencies working in the occupied Palestinian territory United Nations Special Coordinator's Office (UNSCO), United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), World Food Programme (WFP), World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) are gravely concerned about the limited fuel supplies in the Gaza Strip which are having a severe impact upon daily life for the population, and UN operations. more >>
New York, 24 April 2008 - UNICEF joins the World Food Programme and other UN agencies in expressing concern that food price increases are having negative social and economic impacts, especially in low income and least developed countries. more >>
Moka, 13, was hiding at home with his family when the mortar landed. “It killed my grandfather and my younger brother,” he says. “We saw them dead, blown up, burnt.” more >>
UNICEF marked International Women’s Day 2008 (8 March) by drawing attention to the need for improvements in maternal health care. more >>
Awa Gras knows firsthand how deadly malaria can be for children growing up in Guinea-Bissau. She has given birth to eight children, and malaria has killed four of them. The last to die was her four-year-old son, who returned from a soccer match feeling ill. more >>
As she wrapped up a three-day official visit here yesterday, UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said Sierra Leone's stability was bringing progress for children after a decade of conflict. more >>
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odiniga yesterday signed a power-sharing agreement to restore peace to a country that has been engulfed by violence since the disputed presidential elections there in December. more >>
China's Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS campaign website was recently honoured as one of the country's Leading Websites of the Year. The award recognizes young people in China who are battling HIV/AIDS through Internet awareness and messages of prevention. more >>
Ongoing flooding has disrupted the lives of more than 20 million people in India's Maharashtra State, as heavy rains once again pounded Mumbai, the country's financial hub. more >>
Growing up in a comfortable home in a Harare suburb, Sandra Malunga (17 years) never imagined that her family's possessions would one day just occupy a single corner of a makeshift cabin in a resettlement camp. "My mother is HIV positive and she fell very sick in 2004," says Sandra. "We had to sell off everything that she had worked so hard to acquire so that we could get the right treatment for her." more >>
When Yvonne’s family fled the violence that ravaged their village, the eight-year-old lost her home, her precious plastic necklace, her school uniform and her classroom. more >>
UNICEF has conducted its first mission to northern West Darfur in the wake of an attack by Sudanese forces there. more >>
NEW YORK, USA, 19 February 2008 – “If we want to champion prosperity and progress, we cannot ignore poverty,” His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, has said. “We should therefore emphasize the role of education as the most powerful weapon in breaking the vicious circle of poverty.” more >>
In the heart of Jamaica’s 'conflict zones', it is not unusual for a silent night to be shattered by the roar of gunfire. Nor is it unusual for children who live in these communities to sleep underneath their beds, deathly afraid of stray bullets, or to keep a pair of shoes close by at all times, ready to run for their lives. more >>
The first international conference on human trafficking, one of the fastest growing crimes, will be held in Vienna next month to raise awareness about what has become a billion-dollar industry, organisers said Tuesday. more >>
"We've come through several days of some of the most atrocious violence against children and women that Kenya has ever seen," said UNICEF Kenya Chief of Communication Sara Cameron. more >>
NEW YORK, 4 February 2008 - UNICEF and United Nations assessment teams have been sent to the borders of Cameroon and Nigeria, where thousands have fled to escape fighting in Chad's capital, N'Djamena. more >>
The first outbreak of cholera in southern Lao People's Democratic Republic in nearly eight years has prompted a vigorous response from UNICEF and its partners. more >>
One-month-old Kpa has been suffering from a high fever, severe muscle seizures and an inability to eat since birth -all classic symptoms of neonatal tetanus. To save her baby, Tatyana left her Aka Pygmy community deep in the forest and walked more than 15 km to find a hospital. more >>
The hopes of hundreds of thousands of Kenyan children and their families hang in the balance as the two leaders in the disputed election, President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga, finally begin to talk, face to face. The meeting, instigated through the mediation of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and other eminent African leaders, offers the strongest hope for peace since the country was engulfed in brutal inter-ethnic and political conflict. Children and women have borne the worst of the violence in Kenya and have the most gain from peace. more >>
NAIROBI, Kenya, 24 January 2008 - The violence that erupted in the aftermath of last year's disputed presidential elections has made life chaotic for many in Kenya. more >>
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador David Beckham returned this week from Sierra Leone, where he travelled with UNICEF to draw attention to the one in four children who die before their fifth birthday. His trip marked the launch of UNICEF's annual flagship publication, The State of the World's Children Report 2008 (SOWCR 08), calling for urgent political action on the issue of child survival. more >>
Strategies that can help reduce the number of children who die before their fifth birthday were highlighted today, at the launch of UNICEF's flagship report - The State of the World's Children 2008: Child Survival - in Geneva. more >>
Soumaïya, 5, went to bed feeling ill. By the morning, her condition had worsened and she was stricken with vomiting and diarrhoea. Thankfully, her mother took her to Soumarana’s health post and Soumaïya received proper attention. more >>
"They grabbed my baby and one of them held him aloft with one hand. Then they asked me to choose who should die. My baby or I?" Jane Wamuyu recounts her ordeal on the day hell broke loose in Mathare slum in Nairobi following the announcement of the contentious results of Kenya's presidential election. more >>
An estimated 250,000 Kenyans remain displaced following civil unrest that began shortly after the announcement of national election results on 27 December sparked a wave of rioting in the capital and other areas. more >>
The year 2007 marked the five-year anniversary celebration of the UN plan of action, 'A World Fit For Children' - a commitment by world leaders to protect and promote child rights. It was also in year in which UNICEF further expanded its efforts to empower children and let their voices be heard. more >>
The effects of post-election violence in Kenya continue to reverberate throughout the country. An estimated 250,000 people have fled their homes and are in need of food, shelter and essential medicines. more >>
Ansoumane, 16 months old, shut his eyes tightly and clenched his little fists as he received a jab in the arm to rousing applause, under the gaze of Niger's President Mamadou Tandja. more >>
Juliett Otieno and Julie Mwabe spoke to young Kenyans about their experiences during the past week. more >>
Executive Director Ann M. Veneman has just completed her first trip with UNICEF to Haiti, the country with the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality in the Western Hemisphere. more >>
At least 300 people have died in conflict that erupted in the wake of last week’s disputed election in Kenya. Much of the unrest has centred around Kibera, a slum district outside of Nairobi. more >>
Hawa Ali, a mother of two, fled fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu last month and found refuge in the makeshift Eelasha Biyasha settlement here. This camp and others like it, along a 30-km stretch between Mogadishu and Afgoye, are now home to some 200,000 children, women and men displaced by conflict. more >>
Statement by Executive Director Ann M. Veneman concerning the situation of children in Somalia: more >>
On Thursday December 13th the Campbell Institute (English Language School) in Wellingon held their third Christmas charity auction. Each year Campbell selects a charitable organisation as the beneficiary of the auction, and this year they chose UNICEF NZ (The United Nations Children's Fund). more >>
Charities fighting poverty and disease in the Third World have some rare good news for Christmas, writes GEORGINA NEWMAN. more >>
NEW YORK, USA, 13 December 2007 – This week’s landmark United Nations General Assembly plenary ended today with a renewed commitment to meeting the goals laid out five years ago in ‘A World Fit for Children’, the plan of action from the assembly’s first Special Session on Children. more >>
NAHR EL BARED, Lebanon, 17 December 2007. Since May, when conflicts between the Lebanese military and Fateh el Islam militants began, life for children in the Palestinian refugee camp here has been a mixture of fear and disillusionment. more >>
We need volunteers! more >>
On the sidelines of the United Nations Climate Change Conference now under way in Bali, Indonesia, UNICEF has held a series of events to highlight the effects of global warming on children and to ensure that young people are involved in debate on this issue. more >>
Two days after the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize to environmental experts, UNICEF has released a publication that outlines the concerns of children and youth about climate change. more >>
As policy makers and scientists from around the world discuss responses to climate change at a global conference in Bali, Indonesia, young people convening for high-level meetings at UN headquarters in New York added their voices to the debate. more >>
About 75 children from more than 50 countries met at UNICEF headquarters in New York today to prepare for a United Nations session on children's rights this week. more >>
A multitude of voices joined together today to launch "Our Stories" - an initiative that will collect, preserve and share stories from young people around the world. more >>
A new UNICEF Flagship Report 'Progress For Children' (issued today) reveals a wealth of detailed information on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. more >>
Here is the first in a series of stories on successful initiatives to promote healthy lives, provide quality education, combat HIV and AIDS, and protect children against abuse, exploitation and violence - all part of a special edition of 'Progress for Children', UNICEF's flagship publication on advances towards the Millennium Development Goals. The report will be launched on 10 December. more >>
Measles deaths in Africa fell by 91 percent between 2000 and 2006, from an estimated 396,000 to 36,000, reaching the United Nations 2010 goal to cut measles deaths by 90 percent four years early. The spectacular gains achieved in Africa helped generate a strong decline in global measles deaths, which fell 68 percent worldwide - from an estimated 757,000 to 242,000 - during this period. more >>
While national caseloads are declining, UNICEF is increasingly concerned about a possible outbreak of Cholera in Baghdad. The capital accounts for 79% all new cases and is now up to 101 cases, the vast majority reported in the past three weeks. No single source for the outbreak has been identified. more >>
The impact of HIV and AIDS on children and young people continues to be of critical significance. more >>
This weekend, after months of training, Auckland woman Janine Wiles will be participating in NZ's premier Mountain Running event, the Kepler Challenge - a 60km mountain run that begins and ends at the Control Gates of Lake Te Anau. This popular event has been taking place for 20 years, and draws competitors from all around the globe. more >>
November 20th was a day of celebration for UNICEF and other agencies that promote UNCROC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child). more >>
In a breakthrough for the fight to curb measles in Zambia, more than 2.1 million children under the age of five were recently immunized against the disease during the country's latest national measles campaign. more >>
Enter our exclusive Prize Draw for a Private Lesson for you & a friend with two world ranked professional players from the 2008 Heineken Open at the ASB Tennis Centre on Monday 7 January 2008, including a delicious Gourmet Lunch for two at the official tournament restaurant and a full afternoon enjoying all the live courtside action! more >>
Lois Harvey, UNICEF Education Consultant, Gizo - Solomon Islands. more >>
A decade after the United Nations issued a landmark report on children affected by armed conflict, the context of conflict has changed dramatically. A strategic review of the Graça Machel report is now under way to address this issue for the next 10 years. Here is one of a series of stories testifying to the importance of that review, ‘Machel Plus 10’. more >>
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 5 October 2007 – UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman met with Nelson Mandela today to discuss the importance of partnerships to address children's issues, particularly HIV and AIDS. more >>
Competitors from over 160 countries converged on Shanghai this week as the city offered up a glowing welcome for the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games. And while more than 7,500 intellectually disabled athletes made final preparations for competition, UNICEF and Special Olympics International announced a new partnership to champion the cause of children with disabilities. more >>
Jenna Bush, who interned with UNICEF in Latin America from September 2006 through May 2007, has drawn from that experience to write 'Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope'- a personal account of a girl who struggles to break free from a vicious cycle of abuse, poverty and illness. more >>
UNICEF and Football Club Barcelona renewed the second year of their five year partnership with the handing over of this seasonâs team jersey bearing the UNICEF name and a pledge to give a further 1.5 million Euros for children. more >>
It was the news that many had been dreading all summer. On 14 August, a man suffering from acute watery diarrhoea in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk was confirmed to have cholera. Despite emergency control measures, the disease spread like wildfire and has quickly become Iraq's biggest outbreak in recent memory. more >>
You could help raise $500,000 for at risk children in Tanzania and save thousands of young lives in just two minutes. more >>
UNICEF New Zealand congratulates Beth Wood, former Advocacy Manager for UNICEF NZ, on receiving the inaugural award from He Mana to ia Tamaiti/Every Child Counts. more >>
Children at the Little Champs Alexan Kopano School in Alexandra, Johannesburg, today had the opportunity to meet some of New Zealand's ICC World Twenty20 squad as part of the International Cricket Council's partnership with UNICEF and UNAIDS to promote HIV and AIDS awareness, especially among children and young people. The children met Kiwi stars Ross Taylor (23), Jeetan Patel (27) and Gareth Hopkins (30), who joined in a range of HIV and AIDS awareness activities. more >>
Dr Gareth and Jo Morgan announced today that they are donating $500,000 NZD to support UNICEF's work in Tanzania. The announcement came after they visited a UNICEF Water and Sanitation Project in the Magu District (Mwanza Region) of Northern Tanzania. more >>
UNICEF and its humanitarian partners in the Caribbean region are taking action to protect children and families from the effects of Hurricane Dean, as Jamaica picks up the pieces from a battering it took on Sunday and Mexico feels Dean's fierce impact today. more >>
Manchester United stars Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand and Dong Fangzhuo took time out of the club’s Far East Tour for a meeting with three children whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS more >>
Each night, mothers around the world face an agonising decision: choosing which of their children will sleep under a net protecting them from malaria-carrying mosquitoes. It's a choice no mother should have to make. more >>
The results of a study conducted in Ghana show that breastfeeding babies as early as within the first hour of birth can save hundreds of thousands of infants’ lives in developing countries. more >>
UNICEF today highlighted the crisis developing across South Asia as monsoonal rains continue to pound northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh, creating havoc and chaos with heavier rains forecast in upcoming days. more >>
UNICEF is urging governments to sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which opened for signing today. Once ratified by 20 countries, the Convention will become international law. more >>
Making a difference together - kids helping kids. Pumpkin Patch is proud to support UNICEF NZ with the launch of three funky kids tees, designed especially for UNICEF. more >>
As the New Zealand cricket team began their workouts in Antigua for the Super Eight round of the ICC World Cup 2007, Blackcap Ross Taylor visited local youths involved in the UNICEF-sponsored Health and Family Life Education Programme here. more >>
A major humanitarian crisis in the northeast of the Central African Republic (CAR) is prompting UNICEF to launch an emergency response to provide immediate assistance to women and the children affected by recent fighting between the Government forces and a rebel movement. more >>
United Nations (UN) Agencies working in Iraq warned that a chronic shortage of safe drinking water is threatening to push up diarrhoea rates, particularly in children. Diarrhoea is already the second highest single cause of child illness and death in Iraq. more >>
The launch of a new project to improve gender-based violence and child abuse referral mechanisms in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) is the expected result of a collaboration in which UNFPA and UNICEF BIH are joining efforts with the NGO, Medica Zenica. more >>
In response to a major outbreak of measles in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), UNICEF and WHO are launching a nationwide immunization campaign from 14 - 16 March, to reach six million children aged six months to 15 years in its first phase. more >>
Seven weeks of competition in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 began on Tuesday with a victory by the West Indies over Pakistan in front of a record crowd of over 16,000 at Jamaica’s Sabina Park. more >>
The International Cricket Council (ICC) will team up with UNAIDS, UNICEF and the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 to highlight the situation of children and young people living with and affected by HIV. more >>
On 6 March, a powerful earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter Scale hit the city of Padang in western Sumatra, Indonesia at 3:39am GMT, 10.49am local time. The region was hit by a second trembler, measuring 6.0, two hours later. more >>
Cricket’s biggest and most prestigious event will highlight the situation of children and young people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS more >>
UNICEF and Mia Farrow call for security and expanded humanitarian action for Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians in easter Chad more >>
Millions of school bags, books, pencils and other essential learning materials are now being delivered to Iraq’s primary schoolchildren, thanks to a national school supply drive organized by Iraq’s Ministry of Education and UNICEF with vital support from the European Commission. more >>
Children will bear the brunt of tropical Cyclone Favio said the United Nations Children’s Fund today as the organisation is preparing to respond to the second disaster to hit the central Mozambique in less than a month. more >>
An historic national partnership was sealed today with the Zimbabwean Government and UNICEF to advance a National Action Plan that will improve the living conditions of 350,000 Zimbabwean orphans and vulnerable children in 2007. more >>
A boy peers from his family’s tent at Chupanga camp for displaced people, near the town of Caia in Sofala Province. His family sought refuge here after severe floods destroyed their village. more >>
The United Nations is stepping up its emergency response in central Mozambique as the number of people seeking refuge in temporary accommodation centres along the Zambeze River Valley is increasing due to severe flooding. more >>
A renowned humanitarian and internationally acclaimed actress, Ms. Farrow is in the Central African Republic (CAR) to highlight one of the world’s most neglected crises – a conflict that has partly spilled over from neighbouring Chad and Sudan, and has left some 150,000 people displaced in this landlocked, isolated country. more >>
A new international report shows width and depth of child poverty in New Zealand compared to other industrialised countries more >>
Emergency supplies valued at more than $150,000 from UNICEF will arrive today to assist flood victims. more >>
After several weeks of internal fighting in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, leaders of the Hamas and Fatah parties yesterday signed an agreement to cease the violence. The agreement, known as the Mecca Accord, followed a two-day summit in Saudi Arabia. more >>
We the United Nations Agencies working in the occupied Palestinian territory are extremely alarmed by the deteriorating security situation in Gaza. The upsurge of violence, which has taken the lives of innocent civilians, is also putting our workers on the ground at serious risk. more >>
Fifty-eight countries represented at a high-level conference in Paris today committed themselves to stopping the unlawful recruitment and use of children in armed conflicts. more >>
UNICEF and Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah signed an agreement at the World Economic Forum in Davos today naming the Queen of Jordan as UNICEF’s first ever Eminent Advocate for Children. more >>
At the end of a five day mission to rural Maharastra investigating the impact of HIV and AIDS, Ralph Fiennes, UNICEF UK Ambassador and Sharmila Tagore, UNICEF India Ambassador, called for an end to discrimination against people with HIV and AIDS. more >>
UNICEF Ethiopia today inaugurated the Berhan Guzo Youth Anti-AIDS Club Non-Formal School for orphans and vulnerable children in Awassa more >>
The UN estimates that between three and five million people have died since 1998 as a result of the conflict in DRC. As many as 30,000 Congolese children are thought to have been fighting or living with armed forces or militia. Many children have been displaced, brutally raped, mutilated and killed. more >>
In 2006 natural and man-made disasters continued to cripple the lives of children around the world. Devastating floods swept the Horn of Africa; conflicts continued in Darfur and elsewhere; and in countries such as Haiti, extreme poverty took its toll. more >>
UNICEF today launched its Humanitarian Action Report (HAR) 2007, calling on donors to provide $635 million to assist children and women in 33 humanitarian emergencies, ranging from Darfur to Haiti, Eritrea and the Central African Republic. more >>
The violence in the Darfur region of western Sudan continues unabated amidst reports over the weekend of villages being heavily bombed in the north. Meanwhile, a joint statement issued on 17 January by a group of United Nations relief agencies, including UNICEF, has put the humanitarian crisis back in the spotlight. more >>
Over the last two years the efforts of humanitarian agencies in Darfur have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians caught up in the region’s conflict. more >>
There has been an unprecedented decline in the number of child deaths from measles, thanks to a worldwide initiative to combat the disease, the Measles Initiative partnership announced today. more >>
A year ago, UNICEF and its partners launched Unite for Children, Unite Against AIDS to highlight the missing face of the child in the AIDS pandemic. more >>
Six months ago UNICEF NZ and the international development arm of the NZ Government, NZAID, donated almost $100,000 to provide water and sanitation facilities to women and children in displacement camps around East Timor. more >>
It’s time to starting making those New Year’s resolutions and why not make doing a good deed number one on your list? The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in New Zealand is encouraging people to start 2007 with a commitment to make a real difference to the world’s most vulnerable children by becoming a UNICEF Global Parent. more >>
UNICEF today confirms that staff member Mr. Janan Jabero has been killed in Iraq. Initial reports from local authorities indicate that Mr. Jabero, a 52 year-old Iraqi national, was shot while driving his car in Baghdad. He is survived by his wife and two children. more >>
Peace and stability are urgently needed in Somalia to end the suffering of thousands of Somali children affected by the recent conflict, UNICEF and Save the Children said today. more >>
‘Much Done, More to Do’: Indian Ocean tsunami recovery, two years on more >>
Roger Federer, the world’s top-ranked tennis player and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, will visit Tamil Nadu, India – the country’s hardest hit state – this month to mark the two-year anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami. more >>
UNICEF today welcomed the allocation of $9 million by the Government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to assist former camel jockeys who have returned home to their communities. more >>
NEW REPORT EXPOSES THE PROBLEM AND NATURE OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN IN FIVE PACIFIC COUNTRIES - Findings indicate the need to “ring alarm bells now” more >>
The situation in Darfur for women and children is worsening. The efforts of some 13,000 humanitarian workers have held the line against the threat of malnutrition, disease outbreaks and growing displacement of civilian populations. more >>
Statement by Mr. Dan Rohrmann, UNICEF Special Representative in occupied Palestinian territory: I am shocked by the tragic event where three children were gunned down on their way to school this morning in Gaza city. more >>
On its 60th anniversary today, UNICEF is launching a report that says gender equality is critical to child survival and development. “The lives of women are inextricably linked to the well-being of children,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman. “If they are not educated, if they are not healthy, if they are not empowered, the children are the ones who suffer.” The State of the World’s Children 2007, this year’s edition of UNICEF’s flagship publication, examines the status of women around the world. It concludes that an end to gender discrimination produces the ‘double dividend’ of benefiting women and children – which, in turn, has a positive impact on the health and development of societies everywhere. more >>
On 11 December 1946, the new United Nations created the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund – UNICEF – to provide humanitarian relief to children in the aftermath of World War II. more >>
The worst floods in years have affected more than 1 million people in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda in recent weeks, destroying homes and cutting off entire villages. Here UNICEF’s Sarah Crowe reports from the region, where a long drought left the soil too dry to absorb the rains. more >>
UNICEF is assisting 250,000 people in urgent need of supplies, following floods that have hit Southern Somalia. more >>
The National Disaster Coordinating Council reports that 146 bodies have been recovered and 75 are missing, feared dead in Albay province. Eight villages are reported to have buried in mud flows in the vicinity of the Mayon volcano in the area. more >>
Twenty-five years after the first case of AIDS was recorded, the impact of the disease on children and young people is inspiring creative new partnerships to create an HIV-free generation. more >>
n the run-up to the 25th annual celebration of World AIDS Day on 1 December, the US-based National Basketball Association (NBA) and UNICEF today launched a new public service announcement campaign featuring 10 high-profile NBA and Women’s NBA stars: more >>
According to the latest figures released by UNAIDS/WHO, the number of children newly infected by AIDS and those dying as a result of an AIDS related illness has declined during the last year. more >>
UNICEF New Zealand welcomed the Justice and Electoral Select committee report on section 59 Crimes Act 1961 and acknowledged the efforts of the select committee members to address New Zealander’s concerns about harm to children. The committee recommended that Section 59 be substituted with new wording. more >>
To mark World AIDS DAY on 1st December The City Gallery in Wellington will be showing YESTERDAY, an academy Nominee for Best Foreign Film more >>
Tens of thousands of people in eastern Africa have fled their homes, and many have died, as a result of heavy flooding in recent weeks. Somalia in particular has been severely affected, along with neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya. more >>
Today’s UNICEF forum “WHO DO WE ADULTS THINK WE ARE?” challenged New Zealand adults to live respect for children instead of just talking about it. The four speakers, who are listed below, and young people who attended the forum described how New Zealander’s need to change the way they talk and think about Children and young people. more >>
Former US President Bill Clinton, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, chaired a session at UNICEF headquarters with partner agencies today to assess progress in the massive rebuilding effort. more >>
A national polio immunisation drive to protect 4.8 million Iraqi children was launched by the Iraqi Ministry of Health. The campaign was delayed for a week because of security concerns across parts of the country. more >>
At 64, Evelyn Sikholiwe Simelani should be enjoying the benefits of her advanced years. She hoped her daughter would help her have a comfortable retirement, secure her financially and give her emotional support. But her daughter is bedridden, so Simelani must take care of two of her seven grandchildren. more >>
UNICEF today called on governments and others committed to universal education and gender equality to remember that the earliest years are the most critical for children’s development. more >>
Renewed violence in Gaza is again raising serious concerns about the welfare of civilians, including children. Over the past week, the armed conflict has claimed the lives of an estimated 68 Palestinians – including 18 reportedly killed in shelling as Israeli tanks withdrew from the town of Beit Hanoun before dawn today. more >>
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is distressed by the extraordinary violence in northern Gaza. Since 1 November, we estimate that 68 Palestinians have been killed, including 14 children. more >>
For families across Ghana, yesterday was the day to get their young children immunized against deadly childhood diseases. For US tennis star Serena Williams, it was an opportunity to witness the realities facing parents who struggle to help their children survive the first years of life. more >>
An estimated 7.8 million children across Sudan will be targeted in the next round of polio immunization, which starts on Sunday. Led by the Ministries of Health in both North and Southern Sudan, and backed by UNICEF, WHO and other partners, the National Immunization Days aim to ensure that Sudan remains polio-free in 2006. more >>
In the Vanni districts of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu in the north of Sri Lanka, around 67000 thousand people have left their homes in recent months – many of them fleeing from shelling and bombing as fighting broke out between the Sri Lankan Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Now UNICEF is assisting the Ministry of Health in carrying out a nutrition survey among the displaced people after reports that parents were having trouble getting enough food. more >>
HIV is very aggressive in children and for those that are born with the virus, an estimated one in three will die before their first birthday and more than half die before they reach the age of five. Despite this, UNICEF figures reveal that less than ten per cent of these HIV-positive children, in need of life-saving treatment, are currently receiving them. more >>
In another key step towards recovery in post-war Lebanon, the first round of an emergency polio immunization campaign began yesterday, targeting all children up to five years of age. more >>
UNICEF and Ministry of Public Health mobilize volunteers to prevent re-emergence of polio after routine immunization disrupted by conflict. more >>
Early childhood care and education make a real and lasting difference in children’s lives, says this year’s ‘Education for All Global Monitoring Report’, released by UNESCO and launched today at UNICEF. more >>
Last year alone, some 380,000 children under 15 died of AIDS-related causes around the world. more >>
The volatile security situation in Iraq, the difficulties of managing UNICEF country programmes from afar and the high turnover of counterparts in the government there all pose major challenges to the development of an Iraqi national policy on early childhood development. more >>
Despite the deteriorating security situation in Darfur, a new United Nations assessment has found that overall malnutrition levels have mostly stabilized in 2006 and food insecurity has improved slightly thanks to a stronger international response to the suffering in Sudan’s war-torn west. Crude mortality dropped for the third year running, but insecurity and lack of access to many Darfurians continued to cloud the aid picture. more >>
Some 18 million children are still living in extreme poverty in the countries of southeastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States – most of them former Soviet bloc nations. Even though the region’s economic recovery has improved conditions for most adults, the ‘Innocenti Social Monitor 2006’ report shows that many children are not seeing similar benefits. more >>
Undernutrition remains a major killer of children under five years of age, contributing to approximately 50 per cent of the more than 10 million child deaths every year, said UNICEF on World Food Day. more >>
Although back-to-school day happens every fall, the sight of children arriving at Ansarieh Public School is nothing short of extraordinary this year. more >>
David Kenkel, the advocacy manager for UNICEF New Zealand, says: “The violence in this report mirrors New Zealand, far too many of our own children experience it. We do not do well by our children; our recent record of child deaths by abuse is shameful.” more >>
Much violence against children remains hidden and is often socially approved, according to the United Nations Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children presented yesterday to the UN General Assembly. For the first time, a single document provides a comprehensive global view of the range and scale of violence against children. more >>
Violence against women and children by warring groups in Darfur is reaching alarming levels. In the past months, attacks on women and girls, both within and outside camps for the displaced, have soared. more >>
One year ago the strongest and most devastating earthquake in Pakistan’s history, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, killed over 73,000 people, seriously injured 69,400 and left 3.3 million homeless. Of these as many as 2.2 million were children. Hundreds of villages and communities were completely destroyed. more >>
Access to improved drinking-water increased from 72 percent to 79 percent. Although this rate of progress has kept up with population growth, the sheer number of people in the region present challenges enough for East Asia and the Pacific to meet its MDG target. more >>
UNICEF report says progress made, but more needed to prevent the deaths of more than 1.5 million children under five each year. more >>
An official ceremony, launching a massive school kits distribution in Djibouti was organized today in Djibouti City. This distribution will reach thousands of children all over the country. more >>
The Red Crescent Society of the United Arab Emirates is to support UNICEF’s involvement in Lebanon’s recovery following the recent conflict. more >>
The first of UNICEF’s many permanent schools for Aceh and Nias were officially opened this week. more >>
Children continue to be victims of the needless killing that continues in Darfur. It is estimated that more than 400,000 people have lost their lives in the continuing conflict. more >>
UNICEF expressed appreciation today to Spain’s Prince of Asturias Foundation for giving the children’s agency the prestigious 2006 Prince of Asturias Award for Concord. more >>
Eight-year-old Parveen is once again getting used to life in her new tented classroom, following the end of the summer holidays. When the earthquake that affected so much of northern Pakistan struck in October 2005, her old school building was totally destroyed, forcing teachers to suspend classes due to lack of available shelter. more >>
Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Education and Culture and UNICEF will launch a nationwide ‘Back to School’ campaign on Monday 4 September to encourage over 200,000 children to resume formal education at the start of a new school year. more >>
For nearly 20 years, peace has been an elusive dream for 1.8 million people living in conflict-affected northern Uganda. more >>
Now that the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has ceased, the children of southern Lebanon are trying to return to normal life. But the challenges are enormous. In the village of Srifa, half the buildings have been damaged or destroyed. more >>
Piecemeal prevention efforts in South Eastern Europe (SEE) are failing to protect children from falling prey to traffickers more >>
UNICEF welcomes the agreement between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to cease hostilities, which is aimed at ending 20 years of armed conflict. more >>
Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands more made homeless by floods sweeping across Ethiopia. UNICEF has launched an emergency appeal for $18.35 million to provide food, shelter and medicine to those struggling to survive. more >>
As the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah holds in southern Lebanon and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan makes a diplomatic visit to the region, Lebanese children continue to suffer from inadequate services, water shortages and a lack of basic supplies. more >>
International donors have been urged to support the Lebanese government’s efforts to ensure that the destruction and upheaval caused by the recent conflict does not prevent children returning to class for the new academic year. more >>
Launching its nationwide Wheat Flour Fortification (WFF) project in August 2006, Iraq has achieved a notable milestone in combating anaemia and assisting in the optimal early development of the child. more >>
Preliminary assessments have revealed major destruction done to water and sanitation systems by the month-long conflict in south Lebanon. more >>
Author Wheldon Curzon-Hobson helps UNICEF by donating a portion of proceeds from his recent book. more >>
With a fragile ceasefire continuing to hold in south Lebanon, UNICEF and sister agencies are stepping up efforts to bring humanitarian assistance to the tens of thousands of displaced people as they return to their villages. more >>
UNICEF is warning that thousands of Lebanese children are at risk from unexploded bombs as they return to their homes in the wake of Monday’s ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. more >>
UNICEF today said it “condemned in the strongest possible terms” news of more horrific sexual child abuse cases in Zimbabwe. more >>
Air strikes in northern Lebanon have destroyed the country’s last road links to the outside world, severely restricting humanitarian access. more >>
The campaign to protect tens of thousands of children displaced by the ongoing conflict in Lebanon against the twin threat of measles and polio is moving up a gear this week. more >>
MTV LATIN AMERICA PREMIERES NOTICIAS MTV DOCU: VIH-SIDA, UNA CONFESIN A DIARIO, PRODUCED IN COLLABORATION WITH UNICEF more >>
UNICEF has launched a measles immunization campaign in Lebanon to protect the health of tens of thousands of children forced from their homes by the conflict there. more >>
UNICEF warned today that schools in Afghanistan are the targets of increasingly dramatic attacks, including 11 explosions, 50 school burnings and 37 threats against schools and communities. more >>
The first convoy of humanitarian supplies for children has reached Tyre in southern Lebanon. The joint UN convoy contains 40 tonnes of much-needed emergency supplies destined for the tens of thousands of displaced children affected by the ongoing violence between Israel and Hezbollah. more >>
UNICEF announced today the arrival of the first convoy of humanitarian aid for children in Tyre, southern Lebanon, the hardest hit part of the country. The convoy consists of 40 tonnes of humanitarian supplies aimed at the tens of thousands children displaced due to the escalating violence in that country. UNICEF’s supplies include water purification tablets, soap and other hygiene necessities. more >>
Childhood in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been under attack for decades, but elections on 30 July could offer an opportunity to break the cycle of violence that has scarred an entire generation. more >>
UNICEF is asking for NZ$38 million as part of a wider UN appeal for emergency aid to Lebanon. Launched simultaneously in Beirut and at United Nations headquarters in New York, the appeal urges the global community to help displaced and refugee children and families in their hour of critical need. more >>
UNICEF today launched an appeal for $NZ40 million to support children caught in the crisis in Lebanon and Syria. more >>
Civilian refugees caught in the conflict in Lebanon and Israel are increasingly imperilled, especially in southern Lebanon, where fighting is expected to intensify. Gaining access to deliver aid to children and families at risk remains a major challenge. more >>
UNICEF emergency supplies are being distributed among communities in Java to help them cope with the aftermath of the tsunami that struck the south coast of the Indonesian island on Monday, killing more than 500 people. more >>
As the humanitarian situation deteriorates further amid continuing conflict in Lebanon and Israel, UNICEF is concerned for the lives, health and well-being of children caught in the crisis. more >>
UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) today expressed serious concern about civilian casualties and new risks to health from escalating violence in Lebanon and Israel: more >>
“In conflict situations, it is invariably children who suffer the most” Dennis McKinlay, Executive Director, UNICEF NZ more >>
UNICEF is sending a rapid assessment team to the Indonesian island of Java, where a series of earthquakes triggered a tsunami. more >>
Kiwi, Angela Kearney is the UNICEF representative in Angola and over the next three weeks will be helping to immunize 3.6 million children against killer diseases. more >>
A multilateral accord against the trafficking of women and children was signed yesterday, as UNICEF and its partners spearheaded a joint ministerial conference of 26 West and Central African countries. more >>
GODE, Somali Region, Ethiopia, 29 June 2006 – Mahad Muhumud Yussuf used to enjoy going to school with his big sister. That was before drought started spreading around his home in Gode, a bustling town in Ethiopia’s remote Somali Region. more >>
UNICEF in Sri Lanka is calling for immediate action to halt the abduction and forced recruitment of children by the Karuna group. more >>
Recent outbreaks of fighting and the worst drought in a decade have pushed many people in Somalia to their limit, creating the bleakest malnutrition situation in years, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF warned today. more >>
More than 100 people have died in flash floods after three days of torrential rains swept through eight districts in South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. more >>
UNICEF today expressed its deep concern about the potential increase in trafficking of children and women into sexual exploitation during the event. more >>
UNICEF and FIFA kicked off the 2006 FIFA World Cup today, calling on football fans around the world to UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE FOR PEACE more >>
The Ministry of Health and UNICEF will launch a mass measles vaccination campaign on 13 June targeting all children aged 6 months to 14 years living in displacement camps in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste. more >>
The first ever Contours World Relay for Children is taking place this Saturday, June 10th in 15 Contours branches around the country. With your help we want to run, walk, cycle, row and step around the world (40, 076 km in one day) to raise funds for children. more >>
UNICEF New Zealand and Contours Gyms invite you to take part in the Contours World Relay for Children in support of ‘Strong Women for Strong Women’, a fundraising and advocacy campaign designed to address gender discrimination and adverse cultural practices girls and women face in poor countries. more >>
UNICEF and FIFA announced its partnership game plan for the upcoming 2006 FIFA World Cup activities dedicated to children under the campaign theme Unite for Children. Unite for Peace. more >>
By James Gray UNICEF Child Protection Officer James Gray has spent the past year and a half in Darfur. In this Frontline Diary he offers impressions of the deteriorating situation there. more >>
UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, Rima Salah speaks on the launch of a Child Alert for Horn of Africa. more >>
BUJUMBURA, Burundi, May 2006 – In a recovery room at Burundi’s biggest hospital, the Prince Regent Charles, 18-year-old Jocelyne Ndayizeye’s face is a study in pain and triumph. more >>
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By Blue Chevigny - UNICEF’s Representative in Somalia, Christian Balslev-Olesen, was in New York earlier this month discussing and planning UNICEF’s efforts to provide humanitarian assistance in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa. more >>
By Eman Musa Eltighani - DARFUR, Sudan, 2006 – Eman Musa Eltighani is a young Sudanese woman who has been working with UNICEF in Darfur since 2004. In this Frontline Diary entry she documents her thoughts on recent developments – and fears for the future. more >>
A worldwide study to be released tomorrow by UNICEF reveals that some 5.6 million children die every year in part because they are not getting enough of the right nutrients. more >>
UNICEF welcomes the renewed process of disarmament and demobilisation of children associated with armed forces and groups in Southern Sudan. more >>
On the 20th anniversary of Chernobyl, UNICEF says that the numbers of children who developed thyroid cancer could have been significantly lower if they had been consuming iodized salt in their daily diet at the time of the accident. more >>
Despite the escalating political turmoil that has hit Nepal in recent weeks, a national distribution of vitamin A capsules and de-worming tablets started today. more >>
UNICEF Ambassador Robbie Williams is to head up a team of World Cup legends and top celebrities in what is sure to be this summer’s most exciting football match - Soccer Aid. more >>
Maureen Akinyi, 14, dreamt of becoming an accountant and making it to the top of Kenya’s growing corporate sector. She came from a poor family in Kibera, a sprawling slum in Nairobi that is home to over 800,000 people. more >>
Juvenile Justice Must Take Special Circumstances and Needs of Children into Account more >>
DUBAI – Speaking at the inauguration of the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Re-Development Conference, DIHAD 2006, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Rima Salah today stressed the need for enhanced Arab collaboration in the field of humanitarian assistance to crisis countries around the world. more >>
Statement by Tom Koenigs, Special Representative of the Secretary General for Afghanistan, on the Attack of a School in Kunar Province more >>
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, – It is mid-morning in one of Alexandria's bustling working-class neighbourhoods. In a small ironing and dry-cleaning shop, 14-year-old Ahmed is already hard at work. It has been one year since he began working here, joining the growing numbers of Egyptian children – an estimated 2.7 million between the ages of 6 and 14 – driven out of school and into the workforce by poverty or other circumstance. more >>
By 23 April, 4.8 million of Iraq’s children under the age of five will have received the necessary vaccinations that will help protect them from polio and reinforce the country’s polio free status. more >>
The needs of 600,000 Iraqi children who, for a variety of reasons, have missed out on their formal education, have just been addressed in a three-day workshop involving the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Iraqi Ministry of Education (MoE), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other technical experts. more >>
Children could be free from the threat of landmines and other explosive remnants of war much sooner than previously thought. According to the ‘Landmine Monitor Report 2005’, between 15,000 and 20,000 people – at least 20 per cent of them children – are killed or maimed by these devices each year. But that number has been decreasing over the last decade. more >>
UNICEF thanked the governments of San Marino, Andorra, Liechtenstein and Monaco today for joining together to support the UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE AGAINST AIDS campaign. more >>
As the ‘hunger season’ begins in Niger, UN nutrition appeal offers hope for the Sahel more >>
Fridays arrest of Thomas Lubanga by the International Criminal Court, on a charge of conscripting and enlisting children and actively using them in hostilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, sends an important message that the international community will not tolerate the use of children in armed conflict more >>
On World Water Day, Children Deliver Urgent Call for Change more >>
DARFUR FUNDING CRISIS THREATENS CHILDREN’S HEALTH AND PROTECTION - UNICEF Warns Money is Running Out more >>
International children’s agencies today called for urgent and far-reaching action to ensure that every child receives a birth certificate, a piece of paper that is crucial for international efforts to combat global poverty. more >>
New Alliance Seeks to Get Youth Involved in Creating More Peaceful Society more >>
It is a big day for Asiyah Sultan and her children. The family has traveled to a mobile birth registration centre in a Manila suburb, taking part in a drive that aims to reach all the children of the Philippines. more >>
BALAKOT, Pakistan. Here in northern Pakistan, the children of Balakot have suffered a great deal. First there was the earthquake that killed more than 80,000 people and left millions homeless in the region last October. Then came the freezing winter and miserable conditions in tent camps for the displaced. more >>
Returning from Zambia with UNICEF, James Nesbitt draws attention to the children missing out on education because of HIV/AIDS. more >>
Marking International Women's Day UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said, more >>
Africa leads a dramatic decline in measles deaths more >>
UNICEF said Monday was a sad day for the children of Gaza, after five were killed in conflict-related incidents. more >>
More than 100 men, women and children crowd around the edge of a rough-cast well in Ethiopia’s southern Moyale district more >>
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Lucy Liu visited the scene of the earthquake in Northern Pakistan to highlight the ongoing needs of the survivors. On the trip, she spoke with children and learned how UNICEF is supporting the recovery process. more >>
More than seven million children under the age of five will be vaccinated against the crippling polio virus over three days starting 5 to 7 March 2006. more >>
UNICEF DENOUNCES VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CALLS ON ALL ZIMBABWEANS TO HALT THE HORROR more >>
Viet Nam has eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus as a public health problem, the Ministry of Health of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UNICEF announced today. more >>
33.5 million children vaccinated against measles in three weeks more >>
UNICEF is dispatching more emergency health supplies to the Philippines, where a mudslide took countless lives as it devoured a village last Friday, February 17th. more >>
The village of Guinsaugon in the town of St. Bernard lies sprawled at the foot of Mt. Can-abag, bound by a river. Its population size is approximately 1,400. Most of the families earn a living on palay or copra farming. more >>
Port-au-Prince, UNICEF today congratulated Rene Preval on his election as President of Haiti, and hailed his renewed commitment to children. more >>
UNICEF has sent tents for 90 families and mosquito nets for 550 families to the worst-affected areas hit by severe floods. more >>
UNICEF calls on all parties to remember their commitments made under the Cease-Fire Agreement, including a stop to the recruitment of children. The number of children released and reunited with their families remains low in Sri Lanka. more >>
Eradication drive enters new phase with global roll-out of monovalent vaccines more >>
Despite Signs of Hope, 3 Million Girls Still Subjected to Practice Annually