XUNICEF News and Views

Ethan Donnell writes about efforts to reunite children with their families following the Sulawesi earthquake last September .  https://www.forbes.com/sites/unicefusa/2019/03/29/where-are-indonesias-missing-children/#2f1ba99f4bb1

Can the UN move the venue of its international conferences beyond the usual round of NY, Geneva, Paris, and Nairobi?  Now in a first, a move to the US West. https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900063176/united-nations-conference-utah-new-york-uvu-utah-valley.html

Article “I didn’t believe my sister was still alive” Four years into the Yemen conflict, families are struggling to feed themselves. That’s having a devastating impact on their health. By Mohammed Al-Ghorbani UNICEF/UN0276403/AlGhabri 29 March 2019 HUDAYDAH, Yemen – “I didn’t actually believe that she was still alive until I saw her for myself,” Mareiah, 15, says of her sister Doa’a. One-year-old Doa’a was experiencing complications from severe acute malnutrition, including pneumonia, but the nearest health centre was about an hour away by car. Her father, Hussein, wasn’t sure his daughter could even survive the journey to the hospital. “I was pretty sure she wouldn’t make it,” Hussein recalls. “But I didn’t give up,” he says, adding that he needed to borrow money just to get his daughter to the centre for treatment. “I was pretty sure she wouldn’t make it...But I didn’t give up.” Doa’a was one of the hundreds of thousands of children in Yemen suffering the most extreme and visible for

So far 139 cases of cholera are reported within one day of the outbreak.  WHO and UNICEF responding with supplies.  Vaccination campaign planned for next week. Cecilia Borges carries her son, Fernandino Armindo that is holding a plate, through the destroyed informal settlement, in Beira, Mozambique, on 20 March 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/mozambique-cholera-cases-jump-to-139-a-day-after-outbreak/2019/03/29/ad9b3f88-51f3-11e9-bdb7-44f948cc0605_story.html https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/3/29/18287342/mozambique-cyclone-idai-cholera-how-to-help

Antonio Aragón Renuncio Each year the German UNICEF Committee (UNICEF Deutschland) asks an independent jury to select the UNICEF Photo of the Year.   This is the 2018 winner.  What might be the 2019 winner? "They are seen as a “punishment from the gods”, sometimes even as “demons”. Or simply as “snakes”. The less people know about diseases, the more they are frightened by them. This is especially true when it comes to disabilities. As a result, horrible myths are widespread in parts of West Africa about children with mental and physical disabilities. They are at risk of isolation; they are often mistreated and shunned by their families. This is still the case, for example, in some regions of Togo. The country only ranks 165th out of 189 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI) 2018 of the United Nations Development Programme. Therefore, it is almost like a life-raft for disabled children that there is now the “Saint Louis Orione Center” in Bombouaka, named after an Italian p

UNICEF's Photo of the Week - March 18, 2019 "Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2018: “My favourite toy is my teddy bear, I like to walk around with him and give him hugs," says Ngalula Tshufuila Marie, 13, who is receiving psychosocial services at a Transition and Orientation Centre in Kananga, Kasaï region, after being kidnapped in Kinshasa. She was held captive for six months. In 2019, UNICEF continues to provide psychosocial support as part of integrated services for vulnerable children in the country." You can see this and other fine UNICEF photos each week at:   https://www.unicef.org/photography/

Is this turn in strategy a good signal?  Might it indicate less focus on advertising its products as infant nutrition, or does it simply mean that Nestle and other producers of formula may be seeking to broaden their customer base to yet another lucrative market?    We have already been watching with concern recent moves by producers of infant formula to market their milk formulas to toddlers.   Now it is aiming also at mothers.   What's next?    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-28/nestle-turns-to-moms-after-150-years-of-selling-infant-formula

Two interesting articles from the NY Times this week ask whether 'precrastination' might be just as much an issue for us as 'procrastination'. Are you a 'Type A' personality who has to do everything on your to-do list on or before required?  If so, this one is for you. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/precrastination-when-the-early-bird-gets-the-shaft.html Only act at or just before absolutely required?  Respond only to deadlines?  Both articles are for you, but see this one first. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-procrastinate-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-self-control.html

   “Day in and day out, deed by deed, United Nations personnel work unwaveringly to help the most vulnerable, protect the planet and build a better future for all.  Sadly, fulfilling this vital mission, often entails great perils.”  SG Guterres March 25th was the International Day of Detained and Missing Staff https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/03/1035421 https://www.un.org/en/events/detainedstaffday/

Jason Lee of SCF on the war on children continuing in Yemen, and the missile attack on an SCF clinic earlier this week. https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/29/every-war-is-a-war-against-children/

From Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Regional Director in the Middle East and North Africa and Dr Ahmed Al Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean  MUSCAT/ AMMAN/CAIRO, 26 March 2019-  “In Yemen, since the beginning of the year till 17th March, nearly 109,000 cases of severe Acute Watery Diarrhea and suspected cholera were reported with 190 total associated deaths since January. Nearly one third of the reported cases are children under the age of five years old. This comes two years since Yemen witnessed the world-largest outbreak when more than 1 million cases were reported.  “We fear that the number of suspected cholera cases will continue to increase with the early arrival of the rainy season and as basic services including lifesaving water systems and networks have collapsed. The situation is exacerbated by the poor status of sewage disposal systems, the use of contaminated water for agriculture, unreliable electricity to store food and families’ displacement as they