Rebuilding from the ground up in the aftermath of Cyclone Yemyin
WFP warns of food supply line break to Somalia as needs grow
NBA star and Goodwill Ambassador Pau Gasol visits HIV-affected children in Angola
UNICEF Indonesia supports community bird flu prevention programme
After the tsunami, education and recreation for Solomon Islands children
Darfur Can't Wait
Your help will make the difference between life and death.
Refugee Film Festival Tokyo 2007 - July 18-26
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."
Carly, a refugee's story
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UNICEF: UN progress report urges new commitment to Millennium Development Goals
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
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...
UNICEF & partners aid child labourers and fight trafficking in Niger
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
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
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
Today is World Refugee Day
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.
Support UNHCR :
Get informed, get involved! www.unhcr.org/getinvolved
Make Dination Now www.unhcr.org/give
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Support USCRI - US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants :
Give Now www.refugees.org/donate.aspx
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