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Editor's Note:  By mistake last week we used the title of this article with a completely different text.  Our sincere apologies to Karsten who submitted the very special version of Guantanamera below.  We have asked Karsten to send us a recording of the words set to music. ....... Another song this time from Cuba where I changed the wording somewhat to become more meaningful for me. It`s a way for me to relax playing it on my guitar. Karsten “Guantanamera – guajira Guantanamera…” A song from Guantanamo / Cuba (1929) by Jose Fernandez Diaz , who worked as a public promoter for a radio station at the time. It is told that while hanging around at a street corner with a group of friends, a good looking woman walked by and he made a courteous pass at her, which she answered rather harshly. The same afternoon, it is told, he composed this song. The original text in Spanish was changed by Karsten Sohns, Germany in July 2021 to include messages of hope for a better living together. 1. I`m

In 2009 when I was the Rep in uganda I set up an Innovation Lab. After riots (sparked by a car accident) in Uganda in 2010 where 27 people were killed, we developed a tool called UReport where young people could share their point if view on a specific issue and we could help their voice and point of view be heard and considered in policy and programme design. Also young people could channel their energies and become partners in development rather than be passive recipients of services. That initiative has now spread to 84 countries worldwide with over 16 million young people enrolling themselves to be a part of their future development . Afghanistan has over 500,000 ureporters (rising rapidly everyday). Yesterday a poll with young people on what are the challenges they are facing and how best international community could help them, over 100,000 (including 15,000 girls) responded in 24 hours. Almost half of them said direct cash assistance would be the best way to help them and let th

Ellen Francis Fawzia Koofi flees Taliban-held Kabul, evacuates to Qatar Please click here to  Read the article Hours after landing in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, the outspoken Taliban critic said Afghanistan feels unsafe now but pledged to return one day. “It was heartbreaking to see how everything collapsed,” she said in a BBC radio interview Tuesday. “I was afraid of being oppressed, of staying under house arrest, not that those people would kill me,” Koofi added. “I never wanted to leave. … To leave in a situation where you think thousands, maybe millions of people, are desperate and hopeless … to leave those people, emotionally, I felt so inappropriate.” Koofi, born in a remote province in the northeast, was the first girl in her family to go to school and went on to become the first female deputy speaker of Afghanistan’s parliament. Last year, she was one of a few women chosen to take part in the U.S.-backed government’s attempt to negotiate with the Taliban. The two sides

Hello All! My third work of creative nonfiction is out. You will find a good description, places to buy, and a number of prepublication reviews on this link: https://www.neillmckeeauthor.com/kid-on-the-go I hope you will read it in paperback or ebook and and let me know what you think. Regards, Neill Neill McKee, M.S. Creative Nonfiction Writer Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA nmckee20@gmail.com Author’s website:  www.neillmckeeauthor. com/

Ted Chaiban said, «The Early Childhood Authority is a pioneer in early childhood development and child protection in Abu Dhabi. UNICEF can play an important role in helping spread their learnings and new programmes to countries around the world. Through our participation in ‘WED Movement’, we can work together to advance our shared goal of providing every child everywhere with the opportunity to have the right start in life.» ABU DHABI. KAZINFORM Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority (ECA) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are partnering on a series of initiatives to advance their shared mission to drive innovation and excellence in early childhood development and to create opportunities for every child in Abu Dhabi and around the world to be raised in a healthy, safe and nurturing environment. As part of this partnership, UNICEF is joining the new World Early Childhood Development Movement, or WED Movement, established earlier this year by ECA. WED Movement is uniting a m

Somalia and UNICEF launch Child Protection Information Management System By Devdiscourse News Desk devdiscourse.com 2 min View Original Credit: Flickr The Federal Ministry of Women and Human Rights Development, in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), launched today an online Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS+) to enhance the protection of the most vulnerable children in Somalia. "Today, we're taking a crucial step towards keeping the extremely vulnerable children – including children living in the streets, child survivors of sexual violence, children in conflict with the law, abandoned babies, and children without primary caregivers – in our country safe. The CPIMS+ will strengthen our collective ability to identify these children , provide them with lifesaving services, and protect them from exploitation and abuse," said Somalia's Minister of Women and Human Rights Development, H.E. Hanifa M. Ibrahim. In Somalia

A statement by both representatives of the Secretary General.... a strong Global Call to Action Warm Wishes, Rima Afghanistan: “Children Have Suffered Enough” UN Officials Call to Uphold the Rights of Children, Including through Global Action Joint statement by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, Najat Maalla M’jid Press Statement: For Immediate Release (New York, 31 August 2021) With alarming reports of human rights violations against civilians in Afghanistan, the two UN Officials call on the Taliban and other parties to respect and protect human rights for all. As at least 45% of the Afghan population is below the age of 15, the international community must not abandon the children of Afghanistan. The UN Officials strongly condemn the horrific and deadly attacks against Kabul’s airport in which children have reportedly been killed and

©The Guardian Nigeria UNICEF gets thumbs up for planting seeds of exclusive breastfeeding in Benue Read original article By Peter Duru – Makurdi The 2021 World Breastfeeding Week, WBW, with the global theme, Protect Breastfeeding: A Shared Responsibility, may have come and gone but the campaigns to instill in mothers the practice of ensuring the proper breastfeeding of their babies and young children have become a daily grind in a place like Benue state. This is largely due to the years of robust trainings and core awareness raising on the import of adequate breastfeeding for children and the underlying benefits of that very important practice carried out in the state by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF. It is on that basis that it has therefore became a norm in the state to have pregnant and nursing mothers tutored on the practice through organized awareness programmes in the communities, in the health facilities and through the media. This accounts for the level of awarenes

Afghan children ‘at greater risk than ever’, top UNICEF official warns By news.un.org 2 min View Original George Laryea-Adjei, Regional Director for UNICEF South Asia, said children have paid the heaviest price in recent weeks of increased conflict and insecurity. Not only have some been forced from their homes, and cut off from their schools and friends, they have also been deprived of basic healthcare that can protect them against polio, tetanus and other diseases. “Now, with a security crisis, skyrocketing food prices, a severe drought, the spread of COVID-19 , and another harsh winter just around the corner, children are at greater risk than ever,” he warned. Malnutrition threat looms UNICEF has predicted that if the current trend continues, one million under-fives in Afghanistan will face severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition. Mr. Laryea-Adjei said more than four million children, including 2.2 million girls, are out of school. Around 300,000 youngsters have be

  "This is a child protection crisis in a country that is already one of the worst places on earth to be a child.” Read the full remarks of UNICEF #Afghanistan Representative, Hervé Ludovic De Lys https://t.co/HuBJwETZsV — UNICEF Afghanistan (@UNICEFAfg) August 30, 2021 "On Saturday, [ @UNICEFAfg ] reunited those children with their families. It was a practical, personal and poignant illustration of what @UNICEF means when we say, “no child left behind.” Read our Rep's remarks at today's noon briefing👇💙 https://t.co/v3zrhce0zc — Sam Mort (@SamMort9) August 30, 2021 Thanx @UNICEFAfg @SamMort9 for all your efforts to continue to deliver basic services to vulnerable Afghan people in the hinterland while the rest of the world's media is focused on happenings at the Kabul airport. Please #stayanddeliver . @unicefchief @UNICEFUSA_CEO @UNICEFROSA . https://t.co/gd7RZmwJcf — Kul Chandra Gautam (@KulCGautam) August 29, 2021 @UNICEFAfg sends our condolence

From Reza Hossaini The original email the group circulated included a survey.  The deadline was 31 August.  However, they will open a new survey for anyone who comes to know about this initiative later and mised the deadline. Warmly , Reza From Vidhya Ganesh Dear All, As we watch the situation in Afghanistan, the suffering and fear that Afghans feel is indescribable Ratna had the good nature to seek out the welfare of Guest House cleaners and send money to one in this hour of need. This is a very good idea which I thought we could come together on. We could collect some funds from interested ex ACO IPs and send it someone in ACO who can distribute it all the GH cleaners. Monique is there now and could help. I am reaching out to you all to hear your views on this or any other idea. A practical difficulty now is that the banks are all closed and cannot transfer any money. I have been in touch with our Treasurer who will keep me posted and has agreed to help us to find a way to sen

  UNICEF awaiting formal meeting with Taliban leaders UNICEF's chief of communications in Afghanistan Sam Mort said UNICEF is awaiting a formal meeting with Taliban leaders in Kabul so it can decide whether it can safely resume its humanitarian operations. She said half the country is in need of humanitarian assistance and while there is regular communication at a regional level between UNICEF and the Taliban, it has yet to have a formal meeting with the new de-facto authority in Kabul. Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Ms Mort said that "until we understand what the new operating environment looks like we have scaled back our programmes due to issues of safety and security". She said UNICEF needs to ensure its staff, including female staff, can move around country without threat. Ms Mort said that half a million people are displaced and UNICEF is receiving an increasing number of reports of unaccompanied children moving around the country. As the evacuations

UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Representative in Afghanistan, Herve De Lys, said on Monday at least seven children were killed in the Afghan capital of Kabul during a drone strike, yet the agency is unaware who carried out the attack. On Sunday, the US has reported carrying out drone strikes against The Islamic State-Khorasan terrorist group (ISIS-K, banned in Russia) in Kabul and other areas of Afghanistan, allegedly killing high-ranking members of the group. The Taliban (banned in Russia) condemned the strike in Kabul and claimed it resulted in scores of civilian casualties. "The number of children that we are able to report... is seven children that have been killed. We don't know who is behind the strike," De Lys said in a press briefing.

Editor's Note: Marc Powe was for many years UNICEF's Security Advisor, as well as friend and colleague to many of us. He was always 'there' whenever and wherever we needed him in dangerous situations. We will miss him very much. May he rest in peace. Note that he is survived by his daughters Michelle Powe and Alexandra Powe Allred. We do not yet have email addresses for those who may want to send condolences. However at the bottom of the article, you will find a memories and condolences box to which you can add messages. If anyone has photos of Marc in his civilian days as UNICEF Security Advisor, please share them with us. From Karin Sham Poo I only learned today that Marc Powe had passed away more than a year ago. Attaching a copy of the obituary.Warm regards Karin https://obits.dallasnews.com/us/obituaries/dallasmorningnews/name/marc-powe-obituary?id=2228610 On August 2, 2020, the nation lost one of the most dedicated, professional, proficient, prolific, and res

Fully 24% of children in sub-Saharan Africa work—four times the proportion in Latin America and the Caribbean https://t.co/wSDPFITfs6 — The Economist (@TheEconomist) August 25, 2021 The number of child labourers has increased for the first time in 20 years By The Economist 3 min View Original THE SWEETEST chocolate can come from the most bitter of sources. In May police in Ivory Coast rescued 68 children working on cocoa farms, allegedly trafficked in from neighbouring Burkina Faso. They are a tiny share of the approximately 790,000 children working in cocoa production in Ivory Coast alone. According to a report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and UNICEF based on data from more than 100 national household surveys, some 160m five- to 17-year-olds—one in ten of the world’s children—are engaged in labour, understood as work that they are too young to perform or that might harm their “health, safety or morals”. Between 2000 and 2016 the percentage of children in work globa

Congolese children trade life as miners for a chance at school By Lucien KAHOZI news.yahoo.com 3 min View Original Lined up under a hot sun in Kipushi, a mining city in southeastern DR Congo, the children proudly clutch a piece of paper that will change their lives. To most other people, the document -- a birth certificate -- is banal. But to these youngsters and their poverty-stricken families, it is the passport to going to school for free. Until recently, many of the children had been working alongside their parents in cobalt and copper ore mines, a major source of income for central Africa's troubled giant. "When I have finished my studies, I will be president of UNICEF and lead the Congo," Yves tells AFP earnestly, referring to the UN Children's Fund, which helped his parents obtain a birth certificate 13 years after he came into the world. Yves is still only in the fourth year of primary school, because he fell behind during years spent at the pit helping his p

  Is it easy? No, it's not. But nothing that @UNICEFAfg does is easy. Despite the challenges in #Afghanistan right now, we're trucking water to communities most affected by the drought. #ForEveryChild , water https://t.co/QpbAtT7o5E — Sam Mort (@SamMort9) August 29, 2021 Attacks on children must stop now. #NotATarget pic.twitter.com/o5VmnX1tny — Henrietta H. Fore (@unicefchief) August 26, 2021 Thanks @asalfomagic for this uplifting message! It’s a big motivation or my @UReportAfgh team and I. Thanks for your support and thanks for being a champion for children! #UNICEF #StayAndDeliver https://t.co/R7OBxLOE3B — Daniel Kenania Ouedraogo (@Daniel_Kenania) August 20, 2021 Our outreach to communities across #Afghanishtan continues to help guide our emergency response. A simple, anonymous, SMS-based, free of charge questionnaire to reach more 6 million people across the country. #StayAndDeliver #Innovations w/ @UReportGlobal @UReportAfgh https://t.co/B435AZMkMp

The Troubled History Of Vaccines And Conflict Zones By Madeline Dexter NPR 27 min View Original Enlarge this image On March 23, 2020, with the deadly coronavirus reported in 167 countries and territories, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for a global ceasefire to support a public health response. It was the first global ceasefire appeal since the agency was founded in 1945, in the aftermath of World War II. "The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war," Guterres said. "End the sickness of war and fight the disease that is ravaging our world." On the ground, little changed. More than a dozen armed groups, from the National Liberation Army in Colombia to the Communist Party of the Philippines, initially endorsed Guterres' appeal, but most offers to lay down arms were either one-sided or did not culminate in a formal ceasefire agreement. A U.N. Security Council resolution that July, which affirmed Guterres' plea, also went nowher