Rebuilding from the ground up in the aftermath of Cyclone Yemyin

When Cyclone Yemyin tore into Northern Balochistan one month ago, it took only a short period of time before the village of Kuch Valari was completely submerged under raging torrents of muddy waters.

The powerful waters destroyed the Nari River dam, flooding two villages and shattering the lives of many farmers and their families. Balochistan and Sindh are two of the worst affected provinces in southern Pakistan. An estimated 2.5 million people have been affected there, with some 377,000 displaced.

Although waters continue to tumble down from the mountains, much of Kuch Valari’s population has returned home to begin piecing their lives back together. Many of the villagers’ mud dwellings and grain stores have been swept away while other homes are structurally unstable and will need to be rebuilt. The fields, which had promised a healthy harvest this year, were totally destroyed.

While no epidemics have been reported, diarrhoeal diseases and skin infections are on the rise. Several hundred thousand children under five are particularly at risk for infectious diseases caused by improper water and sanitation. UNICEF is now coordinating with the Government, UN agencies and other partners to ensure that children receive access to all essential services.Read Full Article...

WFP warns of food supply line break to Somalia as needs grow

WFP appealed today for urgent contributions to avoid breaks in its supply line of food assistance to Somalia because of forecasts of crop failure.

The growing need for food assistance follows a warning in June by the FAO "UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s" Food Security Analysis Unit Somalia of a crop failure or below average production in July to August in much of southern and central Somalia because of poor rainfall.

WFP Country Director for Somalia Peter Goossens said WFP requires now US$19.5 million or 26,500 metric tons of food by the end of 2007 to feed one million people in Somalia.

Without new contributions, WFP will be short of 8,500 tons by October and the accumulated deficit will grow to 70,000 tons worth US$53 million by May 2008.

“We are calling for immediate contributions because the needs of the weakest Somalis – mainly women and children – are growing for reasons entirely beyond their control and it can take up to three or four months to get food assistance into Somalia,” Goossens said.

“The people of Somalia have been hit by drought and floods last year and now insecurity and new displacements. They need humanitarian assistance to survive.”

The first impact of the forecast crop failure or poor harvest should become evident by October. WFP therefore revised its projections and estimates that it may need 50 percent more food assistance from October until May 2008 than what was planned for all of 2007. Read Full Article...

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NBA star and Goodwill Ambassador Pau Gasol visits HIV-affected children in Angola


National Basketball Association superstar and UNICEF Spain Goodwill Ambassador Pau Gasol recently visited Angola to see firsthand the country’s fight against HIV/AIDS and UNICEF’s programmes to support children and families affected by the disease.

One of Mr. Gasol’s very first visits was to the Luanda Children's Hospital. Accompanied by hospital staff and the UNICEF Angola team, he met with children and their mothers. Mr. Gasol was saddened to see many children hospitalized with illnesses such as malaria, malnutrition, meningitis and HIV/AIDS.Read Full Article...

UNICEF Indonesia supports community bird flu prevention programme

Hundreds of residents of Curug village were joined by senior officials and UNICEF representatives last week for the provincial launch of the Avian Influenza (AI) Kit, a simple tool that helps empower people in the fight against bird flu.

Curug is one of the thousands of villages across Java and Sulawesi that are holding community meetings to discuss bird flu and, with the AI Kits, demonstrate simple steps that everyone can take to stay safe from infection.

Each kit includes a mask, gloves, soap, educational materials and videos about bird flu prevention – plus a giant banner that each village can put up to remind people to be careful.

The kits, funded by Japan, have been developed by UNICEF in close cooperation with Indonesia’s National Committee for Avian Influenza and Pandemic Preparedness. One hundred thousand AI Kits are being distributed in Java and Sulawesi, and plans are in the works to send more to Sumatra and Bali.

One highlight of the 11 July event in Curug was a declaration from village leaders to continue the fight against bird flu. This commitment includes helping residents keep their poultry in a clean environment, with increased government support for village leaders.

Indonesia now ranks number-one in the world for bird flu cases. To date, 102 people have contracted the virus, and 81 of them have died. The latest fatality, on 8 July, was a six-year-old boy from Cilegon in Banten Province. Initial reports say it is not clear how the child contracted the virus because the family did not keep poultry.Read Full Article...

After the tsunami, education and recreation for Solomon Islands children


Young children living in the western part of the Solomon Islands have faced tough living conditions and a sense of insecurity since a devastating tsunami triggered by a massive earthquake hit the area in April.

Many children lost their schools as well as their homes. Particularly hard-hit were Western and Choiseul Provinces, where more than 35,000 people were displaced, half of them children.

Catastrophic events like this can leave children with a significant gap in their education unless something is done to bring both students and teachers back to school as soon as possible. So UNICEF – in partnership with the Provincial Education Department, Save the Children and World Vision – is working to reach the affected areas with education and recreation assistance.

Since April, UNICEF and its partners have planned for distribution of 60 School-in-a-Box kits and over 100 recreation kits, and have set up temporary shelters for learning and safe play spaces.

Each School-in-a-Box kit contains supplies for a teacher and up to 80 students. Among other materials, the kits provide pens, pencils, chalk, exercise books, markers, flip charts, a blackboard, paint brushes, posters of the alphabet and numbers, and a world map.

Each recreation kit, which benefits up to 180 children, contains handballs, volleyballs, a basketball, skipping ropes and many other items.

“There are a lot of dedicated, hard-working teachers who are going out to assist UNICEF in providing the affected children with some form of education and structured play through the use of resources in the School-in-a-Box and recreation kits,” says UNICEF Child Protection Adviser Natalie McCauley. “After a disaster like this, children need to get back to everyday routines and begin to play and socialize with peers. This programme is starting the healing process for the whole community.” Read Full Article...

Darfur Can't Wait

Your help is urgently needed to save lives in Darfur.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Sudan's Darfur region. Over 200,000 have fled across the border to Chad. Millions more are homeless. Most are women and children, terrified while the fighting continues.


Your help will make the difference between life and death.
To learn how you can help visit www.AidDarfur.org

Refugee Film Festival Tokyo 2007 - July 18-26

UNHCR Representation in Japan and Japan for UNHCR announce the launch of the second annual Refugee Film Festival, to be held in Tokyo this month.

Following the success of the first festival last year, Refugee Film Festival 2007 showcases an expanded line-up of thirty award-winning feature films and documentaries portraying stories of resilience and inspiration of people forced to leave their homes due to war and persecution. The festival opens 18 July with the Japan premiere of Iraq in Fragments, winner of the Sundance award for Best Director and Academy Award-nominee, illuminating war-torn Iraq through the eyes of ordinary Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. The closing film on 26 July is Shooting Dogs, a portrait of humanity in the most inhumane circumstances in Rwanda.

Exclusive to this year’s festival is a retrospective tribute to Cambodian filmmaker and former refugee Rithy Panh, featuring eight of his films and a discussion with the director himself. The festival also includes a documentary highlighting the remarkable life of Chiune Sugihara, Japan’s consul to Lithuania who helped save the lives of thousands of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust.

The films will be screened free of charge at four venues: L’Institut Franco-Japonais de Tokyo, Goethe-Institut Japan, Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Tokyo, and Embassy of Sweden. All film screenings will be followed by a Q&A session.

The Refugee Film Festival is part of UNHCR’s year-round commitment to raising awareness of the plight of the world’s ever-increasing 33 million refugees. It is the festival’s aim to give a voice to seldom-heard stories of hope, despair, and courage, and to inspire involvement of the public in making a difference. Angelina Jolie, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, has expressed her support stating, "Film is an important medium to introduce the many aspects of the lives and circumstances of refugees across the world, and through this entertainment vehicle, create better awareness and understanding."


For a complete list of films, screening times, and special events, please visit the official Refugee Film Festival website, www.refugeefilm.org



Carly, a refugee's story

Carly is forced to flee her home and leave everything behind. All alone, she sets out to find help in other lands. She encounters the Stone-eaters, Smoky-crows, and Silk-tails. But none of them will help her because she is "strange and different from them." "Where will Carly find the safety and warmth of a new family?



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UNICEF: UN progress report urges new commitment to Millennium Development Goals

Despite progress made at the halfway point to the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the global MDG targets will be achieved only if more concerted action is taken immediately and is sustained until 2015 and beyond.
Despite progress in lifting families and communities out of poverty around the world, a staggering 980 million people still live on less than $1 a day. And one region in particular, sub-Saharan Africa, is not currently on track to achieve any of the goals.
But large-scale advances towards the MDGs in some developing countries show that results for children and families are possible when the collective will is backed by collective action.
Continued...

First-ever synchronized polio campaign between Namibia, Angola and DR Congo

When the gates at the border crossing on the Angola-Namibia border open, it's more than trade that can go rushing through. Polio and other diseases need no passports, and that fact triggered the first-ever synchronized polio campaign between Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo across these long, often porous borders.
All children under the age of five here are being immunized in this first round.
A year ago, just as Namibia was on the edge of being certified polio-free, an outbreak of wild poliovirus left six adults dead and stunned the country into action. The entire adult population was immunized.
Forces from all three countries and others in the region, including South African singer and UNICEF Regional Goodwill Ambassador Yvonne Chaka Chaka, were mobilized for the launch of the synchronized campaign in northern Namibia. Under the countries’ three flags, Angolans, Namibians and Congolese all came together, pledging to kick polio out of Africa and keep on the march toward reaching health goals.
Read Full Article...

For more UNICEF Video Please Visit YouTube.com/UNICEF

UNICEF & partners aid child labourers and fight trafficking in Niger

The sight of children toiling in the streets is part of the daily landscape here in Niger’s capital. In one of the poorest countries in the world, two-thirds of children under the age of 14 work.
They come from all over the country and sometimes from other countries in the region – especially Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana. Some of these children are trafficked, and many end up in the capital’s central bus station. From there, they are hired out for menial tasks such as washing dishes and selling and transporting various wares.
Across the African continent, children are trafficked into prostitution and recruited into armed groups as child soldiers or porters; they provide cheap or even unpaid labour and often work as domestics or beggars.
These children typically are between 7 and 14 years of age. In most cases, they have families – but very poor families.
Continued...

UNICEF: ‘Social Monitor’ finds 18 million children in poverty in southeastern Europe and CIS

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. Continued...


UNICEF correspondent Rachel Bonham Carter reports on the Innocenti Research Centre's 'Social Monitor 2006' report on child poverty. Credits: Producer:Rachel Bonham Carter



Watch this video on YouTube
For more UNICEF Video Please Visit YouTube.com/UNICEF

UNHCR Video: Angelina Jolie returns to Chad


Watch this video on YOUTUBE

Last year one of worst ever for refugees: UNHCR chief

By Jeremy Clarke,
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Last year was one of the worst on record for
refugees and the crisis is deepening in 2007 thanks to conflicts in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan's Darfur region, the United Nation's refugee
chief said.

But the accelerating return of refugees to their homes in
south Sudan in 2007 -- some after more than two decades -- is one bright spot in
the otherwise bad year, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres
said.

"It is a very bad year for refugees worldwide. Now there are
almost 10 million who have been expelled from their homes by insecurity, and
that number is growing," Guterres told Reuters in an interview this week in
south Sudan.

In the latest available figures, UNHCR said the number of
refugees under its mandate at the end of 2006 had grown 14 percent from the
previous year to 9.9 million. Continued...

More News about Refugees on: www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/worldRefugeeDay

A World of Difference

Around the world, 24 hours a day, UNHCR makes a difference for more than 30 million people.


For more video from UNHCR Please visit www.youtube.com/unhcr

Today is World Refugee Day

June 20 was established as World Refugee day by the United Nations General Assembly as a way to commemorate the courage and triumphs of refugees. It is a day to honor refugees living safe, meaningful lives in our communities and celebrate their contributions to the world.
However, it is important to remember the 8 million refugees who are denied the right to work, the freedom to move, and lead normal lives. Every day is a struggle. And they all need your help.This June 20, support refugees and give them the right to lead normal lives in exile.

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Earth Day


Today is Earth Day

Earth Day @ Yahoo!


Search to Donate! Give to nine million refugee youth around the world.

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