News from the Field
January 15, 2013
Syrian Refugees Share Their Stories with UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow visited some of the over 200,000 Syrian refugees who have been registered or are awaiting registration in Lebanon, the country with the highest number of refugees from the conflict in the Syrian Arabic Republic. In a UNICEF-supported center Ms. Farrow met with women who expressed their sorrow and fear for the future. Mia Farrow also met Syrian child refugees. “Today was an unbroken chain of stories of loss, grief, deprivation, frustration, anxiety and always the longing to go home,” said Ms. Farrow.
January 14, 2013
Haunted by Violence, Children in DRC Find Healing through Art
Since April 2012, fighting between the 23 of March Movement rebel group and the Congolese Army has forced families to flee their homes and seek refuge in makeshift shelters in and around North Kivu’s provincial capital city of Goma. Many children have experienced frightening scenes, and not every child can speak about the violence she or he has seen. To help these children, UNICEF and AVSI have set up mobile child-friendly spaces where children can receive psychosocial support, play, and retain a sense of normalcy in the midst of turmoil.
January 11, 2013
Attacking Malnutrition in the Mountains of Nepal
Deep in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, Pashupati Saud is up early, harvesting herbs and vegetables from her small garden. She cooks them and gives them to her eight-year-old son, along with a bowl of rice soaked in buffalo milk. She is part of a country-wide program backed by UNICEF and the European Union aimed at ending chronic malnutrition in Nepal. Mountainous Nepal is notoriously food insecure. Stockpiles barely last through the winter months, and children often go hungry—and half of the country’s children are stunted.
January 9, 2013
UNICEF Helps Immunize 132,000 Children in Jordan
More than 132,000 children have been vaccinated against measles and polio in northern Jordan as part of a joint UNICEF and Ministry of Health vaccination campaign. The campaign finished in early December, reaching vulnerable Jordanian and Syrian children under five years old, including Syrian children in the Za’atari refugee camp. Many children had missed their childhood vaccinations due to the conflict in Syria, which has been continuing for almost two years. The vaccinations will help protect these children from potentially fatal diseases.
January 8, 2013
Pilot Program Protects Children in Niger
In the Niger, where more than 80% of the population lives in rural villages, children are often expected to help with family work around the house and in the fields. One out of three girls in the Niger is married before the age of 15, and 69% of girls do not go to primary school. UNICEF and partners have launched a community-based program to change the way children are perceived and treated and to address the challenges facing children in the Niger today. Young and old, the community now has a forum to express their thoughts on serious issues.
