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From Your Editors
News and Views passed another big milestone this week - over 75,000 page views (the times someone, somewhere opened one of our articles) . This is an important marker as we only began publishing News and Views on the web slightly under three years ago in March 2018. Nice coincidence that we are passing 75 K in UNICEF's 75th year! Keep reading - by the end of the year we hope to pass 100 K.
Meanwhile, your editors have been digging into UNICEF's history. We hope that you are doing the same in preparation for our March Quarterly. Don't forget that the Quarterly, like everything we do, depends on you and your contributions of articles, art, photos, and music. Remember that March 1st is our deadline for your contributions for the Quarterly which we hope to send out around March 22nd.
This week we have seen encouraging progress in some countries in vaccinating against COVID-19. Elsewhere, however, access remains very limited. Henrietta Fore and Dr. Tedros warned this week that still 2.5 billion people in 130 countries are without access to vaccine - still a long way to go in controlling the virus. Even in the countries where vaccination has begun, there are deepening worries about new variants of the virus. As if those worries were not enough, we also see continuing bouts of vaccine nationalism, opposition by anti-vaxxers, super-spreaders of misinformation, along with opponents of masks, social distancing and shutdowns.
There were some surprises in the pandemic. India has surprised researchers by reporting a sudden decline in new cases of COVID. On the other hand, in Israel, which has led the world in vaccinating its population, there has been a sudden rise in cases among children, forcing continued shut-down of schools.
There were unpleasant surprises elsewhere too. In the DRC there has been a new outbreak of Ebola and first indications are that this outbreak is a result of sexual transmission - something not seen before.
Our Artist of the Week - Patricia Marin
Originally trained as a pediatrician, Patricia Marin was recruited by UNICEF due to her groundbreaking work in breastfeeding in her native Chile. She worked in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro, San Salvador, New York City, and Natal, prior to retiring and returning to Santiago.
Click here to read more of Patricia's biography and to enjoy the gallery of her stunning mosaics.
The Week Ahead
Clusters
Violence against Children - the cluster met on Tuesday, 9 February. You can find the report of the meeting by clicking here.
Dorothy Rozga spoke with members of the cluster about her work heading child rights within the Centre for Sports and Human Rights. She also explained the work of the Consortium for Street Children and Child Helpline. The cluster offered support for prevention of violence against children in sports. A number of options were discussed.
You can see the Dorothy's slide presentation by clicking here.
The cluster will meet again on Monday, 15 February at 0900 EST. The speaker will be Stephen Blight, UNICEF's Senior Advisor on Violence Against Children. For more information contact Raana Syed.
Mary has circulated a series of articles published on the Rappler website recounting interviews carried out with leaders of urban poor communities on the impacts of lockdowns amidst the pandemic. You can find these interviews by clicking here.
UNICEF@75
This 75th year is a good opportunity to stimulate our interest in UNICEF's history. For our part we plan to include in each Weekly Update one item of our history. Where possible, we want to emphasize not the events, but the people who made that history.
We start this week not with the 75th, but by commemorating an man who 100 years ago became the first director of the Health Organization of the League of Nations - the organization which would later become the World Health Organization.
Who was this man and what was his relationship to UNICEF@75. Click here to find out - in A Little History.
Comments
Click here to see the comments readers added to posts or sent to us for posting. Keep in mind that it is easy to add your comments under any article. Just click on Comments, add your name and email address if you don't have a google account, and enter your comment. That way there is no need to email us.
Tom McDermott - Time to Face Up?
Ramesh Shrestha - Greenhouse Gas and Citizenry
Editors' Picks - Articles We Hope You Won't Miss
Africa was Winning - What Happened?
More on the Mystery of India's COVID decline
How we Lost Control of our Faces
ED's Statement to the Executive Board
Finally
We want to know what is happening in your community and your country these days. Tell us what is going on near you with the pandemic, with economic disruption, with schools, with UNICEF and the UN. We need more articles by you, our members. We also need your art work, photos, and music.
Stay safe, stay healthy, stay happy - and stay in touch !!
Virtual Zoom meeting with UN Retirees to review Guide on Digital Certificate of Entitlement (DCE). Last Friday 11th February 2021, we held a virtual Zoom meeting with UN Retirees, in Guatemala. We're able to review the guide in Spanish and gave personal experiences in processing the app, which proved very useful for participants. In recent years we had many difficulties in processing the CE, since the regular postal service has not been operating in the country. This digital innovation is very welcome and hope soon all Retirees will be able to have a successful registration. Warmest regards.
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