Stories from my time living in Africa and Asia
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| Ampai with her three children outside the family home on Koh Lanta © UNICEF Thailand/2014/Jingjai N. |
It’s been ten years since the Indian Ocean tsunami hit the Thai island of Koh Lanta on 26 December 2004, but talking about it still brings tears to Ampai’s eyes. “I often cry when I talk about the tsunami,” she says apologetically. “It’s always at the back of my mind, like a scar that doesn’t heal.”
Continue reading “After the tsunami: Thai fishing village, ten years on” |
| © UNICEF Philippines/2014/Andy Brown |
Typhoon Hagupit passed south of Manila, capital of the Philippines, overnight on Monday. Wind and rain brought flood risks for slum communities living near the river. In Barangay Bagong Silangan, Quezon City (part of Metro Manila), an evacuation centre was set up in a covered court on the hillside above a flood plain.
Continue reading “Families shelter from Typhoon Hagupit” |
| Carmela, 8, holds her brother Joshua as they wait for Typhoon Hagupit to pass © UNICEF/UNI175840/Samson |
Sunday 7 December – Yesterday I arrived in Manila, the Philippines, a day or two ahead of Typhoon Hagupit (known locally as Ruby). Looking out to sea from UNICEF’s office on the 30th floor of RCBC Plaza, there’s no sign yet of the typhoon. There’s even a narrow band of sunlight on the horizon. But everyone knows that it’s coming.
Continue reading “Typhoon Hagupit diary: into the eye of the storm”
Beneath the Baobab 