In Dire Times, Youth Advocates Shined
With support from UNICEF and partners, young people of all ages stood up for child rights and a healthier, more equitable world for everyone. A look back at some of the brighter moments during a year of conflict and crisis.
UNICEF: Helping youth make a difference in 2024
The year 2024 brought challenges no child should have to face.
But when given the chance, children showed time and again that they can be a powerful force for change.
With support from UNICEF and partners, young people of all ages are standing up for a healthier planet, for every child’s right to be safe and protected and to have access to safe water, health care and education. They are standing up for a brighter, more equitable world for everyone.
Video: a look back at UNICEF's impact in 2024
Young people like Yaroslav of Ukraine, a 14-year-old eighth grader with speech and motor skills and advocate for children with disabilities who spoke to a room full of government leaders and other stakeholders to remind them: “We exist.”
Like Olwethu — one of 400 UNICEF youth environmental reporters and advocates promoting climate justice in communities across South Africa — investigating, documenting and communicating environmental issues such as air and water quality alongside peers in Inanda township.
Like the youth group members in rural Ethiopia who helped rescue 13-year-old Zemzem after she was abducted by men intent on forcing her into an early marriage.
And Samer, a 16-year-old boy in Sudan who — after witnessing how difficult it had become for his female peers to manage their menstrual health as his country’s conflict and displacement crisis spiraled — now makes and distributes cloth sanitary pads, which he learned how to do by participating in a UNICEF youth skills building program.
These are just a few examples of kids helping kids, with support from UNICEF and partners — a few of the many ways UNICEF is making an impact for children caught in some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, providing what they need to survive and thrive, to speak out and be heard, to be the change they want to see in their communities.
This is hope. This is making the seemingly impossible possible. This is UNICEF.
Learn more about how UNICEF works to make the lives and futures of the world’s most vulnerable children better. Support UNICEF’s mission. Donate today.
HOW TO HELP
There are many ways to make a difference
War, famine, poverty, natural disasters — threats to the world's children keep coming. But UNICEF won't stop working to keep children healthy and safe.
UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories — more places than any other children's organization. UNICEF has the world's largest humanitarian warehouse and, when disaster strikes, can get supplies almost anywhere within 72 hours. Constantly innovating, always advocating for a better world for children, UNICEF works to ensure that every child can grow up healthy, educated, protected and respected.
Would you like to help give all children the opportunity to reach their full potential? There are many ways to get involved.
