UNICEF News
News from UNICEF, Press releases, News notes, Media advisories, Statements



UNICEF Botswana launches new website (Dec 16)
GABORONE , Botswana, 16 December 2011 – The UNICEF Botswana office has launched a website, a platform for highlighting the organization’s programmes and for announcing news and events related to UNICEF’s projects and partners in Botswana.


In Kenya, school offers meals, shelter, education and hope (Dec 16)
TURKANA District, Kenya, 16 December 2011 – Gabriel Ekalale, the head teacher of Napuu Primary School in the north-western Turkana District, proudly displays the certificates and awards his school has received. There is one for ‘most disciplined school’, another celebrating the school’s achievements in national exams, and many more for participation in culture, music, tourism and environmental activities.


In Tanzania, religious leaders fight violence against children on the World Day of Prayer and Action for Children (Dec 16)
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, 15 December 2011 – Acrobatics, music and dancing delighted an audience of over 2,000 children in Dar es Salaam, part of a series of events commemorating the annual World Day of Prayer and Action for Children.


Campaign promoting the inclusion of children with disabilities yields positive results in Montenegro (Dec 16)
PODGORICA, Montenegro, 15 December, 2011 – This week, Montenegro’s Prime Minister Igor Luksic and UNICEF Representative Benjamin Perks unveiled the impact of a groundbreaking campaign promoting the inclusion of children with disabilities into society.


A child-centred approach to learning in Uzbekistan (Dec 15)
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, 15 December 2011 – It was one of the noisiest games of the session. As a team, a group of adolescents raced to guide a long metal rod – supported by just their extended index fingers – down to the ground without dropping it. It was a test of concentration and co-operation, and it was the highlight of the morning at this UNICEF-supported team-building camp at Tashkent’s School No. 66.


New UNICEF report examines the risks facing children online (Dec 13)
FLORENCE, Italy, 13 December 2011 – A child’s first steps into a run-down Internet café in Benin can be a transformative experience, offering access to new friends on other continents, exploration of distant lands, and entertainments far beyond the traditional village scene.


Urgent need for aid continues in Pakistan in wake of devastating floods (Dec 14)
NEW YORK, USA, 14 December: “All these houses have drowned. We are getting no help here,” said 9-year-old Saeen Bukhsh in September, after torrential monsoon rains and flooding destroyed his home in Farooqabad, Pakistan. “We don’t even have anything to put on the ground and sit.”


UNICEF and partners provide hygiene education and clean water in post-flood Pakistan (Dec 14)
SINDH, Pakistan, 13 December 2011 – Tens of thousands of flood-affected children in Pakistan are being kept free of disease through the emergency provision of safe water, sanitation facilities and hygiene lessons. But a lack of funding is putting in doubt future humanitarian assistance.


Young women in India learn to express their views through film (Dec 15)
LUCKNOW, India, 14 December 2011 – Nineteen-year-old Laxmi Nishad had wanted for years to talk about the burden of care for her five family members, including her alcoholic father. Her chance finally came at the OneMinutesJr. workshop organized by UNICEF in Lucknow, India.


Indigenous adolescents push for recognition and equity in Mexico (Dec 14)
MEXICO CITY, Mexico, 14 December 2011 – An interactive presentation offers first-hand accounts of the daily challenges facing many of Mexico’s indigenous adolescents.


Expanding basic health services to children and women in Mali (Dec 13)
NEW YORK, USA, 13 December 2011 – The roar of a motorbike heralds the arrival of health workers in a remote village in Kayes District, Mali. They are bringing life-saving medical supplies to communities that lack easy access to health care.


Threat of malnutrition dire in Africa's Sahel region due to increasing food shortages (Dec 16)
DAKAR, Senegal, 12 December 2011 – It’s not a tsunami or an earthquake – it is a predictable emergency. UNICEF estimates more than a million children under five will need to be treated in feeding centres for severe malnutrition in the Sahel region of Africa. It is a staggeringly high number, and there is little time to prepare.


Innovative programme brings pre-school education to the most vulnerable (Dec 12)
NEW YORK, USA, 12 December 2011—Mohammad Azizul Islam, 28, is a trader in Chinipara, in the remote Rangpur region of Bangladesh. As a landless man, he has very few opportunities to make a living.


In India, a youth club raises awareness about HIV/AIDS and its prevention (Dec 13)
CHANDRAPUR, India, 12 December 2011 – Rushali Gajabhaye hasn’t travelled past the fields, coal mines and cement factories that surround her small village. But the 18-year-old is more sophisticated than most teenagers her age.


Report evaluates the state of Tanzania’s adolescents (Dec 9)
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, 9 December 2011 – ‘Adolescence in Tanzania’, a publication on the issues facing the country’s adolescents, was launched this week at an event attended by Speaker of the National Assembly Ann Makinda and young people from across Tanzania. The launch came days before the country celebrates the 50 years of independence, focusing attention on how far the nation has come and challenges that remain ahead.


UNICEF at 65: Looking back, thinking ahead (Dec 9)
NEW YORK, USA, 9 December 2011 - On 11 December, UNICEF celebrates its 65th anniversary. Created in 1946 from the residual resources of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to secure the fate of Europe’s children, few then imagined that it would still be in existence today. In the six and a half decades since it was formed, UNICEF continues to assist children affected by war and crisis, but has also taken on a much broader and ever-evolving role in international development, working across political, national and social divides to provide integrated services to children and advocate for the full spectrum of their rights.


Botswana commemorates the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Dec 13)
GABORONE, Botswana, 9 December 2011 – Sixteen years have passed since Botswana ratified the Convention on the Rights of a Child (CRC). To commemorate this anniversary, UNICEF organized an art fair for 50 children with disabilities. ‘Thari ya Bana – Reflections on the Children of Botswana 2011’, the second edition of a report on the situation of children in the country, was also launched to mark the occasion.


UNICEF and SAACID promote exclusive breastfeeding in Somalia's drought-affected communities (Dec 9)
MOGADISHU, Somalia, 9 December 2011 – Nawaal Mohamed Nur, a 34-year-old mother of nine in the Shingani District of Mogadishu, has had a harrowing several months. In June of this year, her daughter Amira was diagnosed with acute malnutrition.


Media workshops empower youth to address climate change in Zambia (Dec 9)
LUSAKA, Zambia, 8 December 2011 – To 17-year-old Msonda Chibwana from Lusaka, climate change is not just a topic for debate; it is a reality that has affected his family’s livelihood and taken food from their table.


In Sudan, protecting every child against the menace of polio (Dec 14)
KHARTOUM, Sudan, 6 December 2011 – Rahma Sid Ahmed pores over a roughly drawn pencil map that will help her locate children under age five. She is part of a team of vaccinators who have come to the Al Shagara neighbourhood, in southern Khartoum, to immunize all children under five against the crippling polio virus.


Programme returns child metalworkers to school (Dec 13)
MORADABAD, India, 7 December 2011 – At 6 a.m. each morning, 9-year-old Anas Mohammed began his shift at a tiny metalware workshop in the slums of Moradabad. There, he worked inches from a white-hot pit of molten metal.


Lao PDR takes a swipe at measles and rubella (Dec 8)
VIENTIANE PROVINCE, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, 8 December 2011 – The sound of a gong from a nearby temple echoes in the distance as morning approaches. The sky is still dark, but it’s not too early for Ms. Kongkeo, a nurse in the district hospital, who has been awake for hours. She and her team are preparing for another day of immunizations targeting children between ages 9 months and 19 years in the surrounding areas.


Field diary: Marsupials are model mums in Ghana (Dec 16)
TAMALE, Ghana, 7 December 2011 – Kangaroos were the last thing I expected to be discussing with my new colleagues when I arrived in West Africa last month. When I moved from Australia to Tamale to write about UNICEF’s work there, I had braced myself for the unfamiliar – villages of squat mud huts, gritty harmattan winds and the crackled sound of the muezzin’s call to prayer.


In Zimbabwe, school grants provide equal learning opportunities to girls (Dec 12)
BULILIMA, Zimbabwe, 7 December 2011 – After completing the fourth grade at the top of her class, 13-year-old Ellen Mbedzi was forced to drop out of Mafeha Primary School in Bulilima, a district in south-western Zimbabwe. Her unemployed father did not see the value of spending the family’s limited resources on a girl.


Young photographers from Niger and Mali document the problems facing their communities (Dec 8)
BAMAKO, Mali, 6 December 2011 – “This child looks very mean, and it’s a consequence of life on the street,” said 17-year-old Rachida Aboubacar, gazing at a photograph taken by one of her friends.