XUNICEF News and Views

 Former colleagues: My wife's cousin, along with his wife, ILO Regional Director for Latin America and Caribbean, was recently on vacation in Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina. He sent us the attached notice.

Editor's Note: It is a long while since we ran a contest in News & Views.  We thank Richard for setting the challenge.  Dig into your albums of offices where you worked or visited.  They could be country, state, project or natcoms or card sales offices.  Send your responses and photos to  xunicef.news.views@gmail.com . If you are searching on the web, please remember please that we cannot use copyrighted images. 

We live in such terrible and terrifying times with all that is happening around the world, whether it be brutal wars or trade wars or the defunding of essential services and development cooperation, and other assaults on human rights. For some of us, there is also winter. Here then, just to lighten the mood a little, is a collection of photographs from a recent trip to Morocco, a delightful country, where one can indulge a little welcome escapism.

Article shared by Richard Bridle Here's an interesting article. Nagi Shafik, who is quoted here, was a UNICEF Health Specialist in DPRK in the early 00s.  All the best! Richard https://www.brownhatstories.com “I’ve got a feeling they’re going to open again to UN agencies and NGOs,” said Nagi Shafik, who previously consulted for the UN on public health in North Korea, a country he described as “fussy about their security”.

by Richard Bridle Richard on the Taedonggang River I couldn't count the number of conversations where those words, or something of the like, got said. Perhaps I should attempt an answer. Where to begin? North Korea is said to be so unique that gaining a proper understanding of the context seems pretty obvious. Listen and read. My reading, fortuitously redirected due to the absence of other (1) literature in Pyongyang to bookstores in Seoul, South Korea (2), quickly taught me that the real context is peninsula-wide. Koreans on each side of the demilitarised zone are not inherently different, though they have more recently followed divergent paths. Listening was one of the principal social activities of almost every day. It helps to be versed in some of the vices the world has to offer. A regular cigarette break outside the office building, even in sub-zero temperatures, offered the opportunity to chat informally with the North Korean government employees, also hardened smokers, sec...

It began in the autumn of 1992 with the visit from then Mayor of Baltimore, who had changed his city’s tagline from The Garden City to The City That Reads. He was seeking to eliminate illiteracy, particularly among his fellow people of colour. Our boss, UNICEF India Country Representative Eimi Watanabe said: “Couldn’t we take up something as ambitious here?” From that challenge came the idea of creating a city-wide movement to assure that every child in Mumbai, then known as Bombay, would be able to exercise their right to education. Achieving an ambitious vision is not business as usual. This had to be a societal movement. So, with Bollywood on our doorstep and Mumbai being the financial capital of India, the small UNICEF Field Office set its sights on garnering their support. With crucial input from colleagues in the Country Office, we drew up a list of 150 of Mumbai’s movers and shakers. Each received an individual letter, explaining why it was every child's right to have an ...