Bouncing back: helping children affected by drought in Garissa

Kaha plays with her son Sudeys, 1, who is recovering from malnutrition in Garissa
© UNICEF Kenya/2021/Lameck Orina.

This story first appeared in The Star newspaper.

It is a brutally hot, dry and dusty day in Garissa town, in the arid region of North-Eastern Kenya, when Kaha Hassan brings her one-year-old son Sudeys to Medina Health Centre. Two consecutive rains have failed in the region and only a few scrubby bushes and skinny animals have survived. Goats with visible ribcages roam the grounds of the health centre, searching for something to eat. The morning sun beats down on the sandy ground, drying it out even more.

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Helping children with disabilities return to school

Ezra playing football with friends after school in Lodwar, Turkana
© UNICEF Kenya/2021/Lameck Orina

As the school day finishes in Lodwar, Turkana, a group of boys runs out onto a sandy football pitch between their classrooms. There is a flash of colour beneath their pink school shirts, which some of them peel off to reveal international football club shirts beneath. They run up and down the pitch with tremendous energy, gesturing at each other. Finally, 13-year-old Ezra, wearing an Atletico Madrid t-shirt, gets a clear shot at the goal. He lines it up and shoots. The ball swerves past the goalkeeper and lands behind the goalpost, kicking up a small cloud of dust as it lands. Ezra throws up his arms in celebration. But there is little or no sound from the players, all of whom are fully or partially deaf.

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Photos: Children of Malawi

_DSC0083 (3) — Children laugh at a fishing village beside Lake Chilwa, where I was writing a story
© UNICEF Malawi/2017/Andrew Brown

One of the pleasures of working for UNICEF is travelling to remote parts of Malawi to write stories about children and their families. Sometimes I’m accompanied by a professional photographer but other times I go on my own. This gives me some great opportunities to photograph children. Some of these children are the subjects of stories I wrote, while others are just curious kids from the neighbourhood who came to see what was going on. Like most places in the world, children in Malawi love having their photo taken, But here they see cameras much less often, so are that much more excited. Continue reading “Photos: Children of Malawi” →

Broken sanctuary: attacks on schools in Myanmar

Zau Seng, 11, and teacher Mya, both of whom were injured in an attack on their school
© UNICEF Myanmar/2016/Khine Zar Mon

Zau Seng, 11, is a student at Nam Ya Middle School, in Moe Nyin District, Kachin State, Myanmar. Kachin has been affected by conflict since 2011, following the collapse of a 17-year ceasefire. The recent violence has resulted in thousands of deaths and the displacement of around 100,000 civilians, half of them children. Despite ongoing peace talks, a final deal has proved elusive and the fighting continues.

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Field of dreams: Kachin children hope for peace

Baum with her family at a camp for displaced people near Myitkyina
UNICEF Myanmar/2016/Khine Zar Mon

Baum Myaw, 12, lives with her family at a camp for displaced people near Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State, Myanmar. Kachin has been affected by conflict since 2011, following the collapse of a 17-year ceasefire. The recent violence has resulted in thousands of deaths and the displacement of around 100,000 civilians, including children. Despite ongoing peace talks, a final deal has proved elusive and the fighting continues.

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Children, not tourist attractions: keeping families together

Children walk through a rice field in Dala, one of the locations for orphanage tourism
© UNICEF Myanmar/2016/Andy Brown

Every twenty minutes, a busy ferry crosses the river from downtown Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, to the rural village of Dala on the opposite bank. On a recent morning, the ferry was packed with local commuters wearing Burmese ‘longyi’ skirts, vendors selling speckled eggs and cigarettes, and a handful of adventurous tourists.

As soon as I disembarked at Dala pier, I was approached by a thick-set young man with a pony tail and baseball cap. He introduced himself as Meh Meh, 28, and offered me a tour of the area by rickshaw. “What’s your name, where you from, you want trishaw tour?” he asked. “I take you to pagoda, fishing village, Cyclone village, orphanage. 15,000 Kyats.

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Billy the Hero: teenagers stay safe online

Nicole, 14, from Malaysia with her creation ‘Billy the Hero’
© UNICEF EAPRO/2016/Andy Brown

From social media to online chatting, the Internet has countless avenues for sharing and connecting with friends and communities. But this open network also carries many risks, especially for children. After falling victim to cyberbullying, Nicole is on a mission to make sure the same doesn’t happen to her peers.

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Safe from harm: tackling online child sexual abuse

A rescued child in the playroom at the Child Protection Unit, Philippines
© UNICEF/Philippines 2016/Andy Brown

The Philippines has become the global epicentre of the live stream sexual abuse trade, and many of the victims are children. In the slums of Manila, a police raid of a child sexual exploitation operation illuminates the challenges the country faces in protecting vulnerable children and prosecuting their abusers.

One evening in 2014, Philippines police raided an ordinary looking home in the slums of Manila. It was just before midnight, and darkness permeated the surrounding narrow alleys as the officers entered with a search warrant. Inside the small single room house, they found an unusual amount of computer equipment: laptops, webcams and a Wi-Fi router.

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In Myanmar, education helps build a joint future

Thu Zar Moe (right) studies in a classroom at Thea Chaung displacement camp
Hlaing Hlaing Oo (left) studies at Mingan School, not far from the camp
© UNICEF Myanmar/2015/Thame

Rakhine State is one of the poorest and most isolated parts of Myanmar, and suffers from complex humanitarian needs and unaddressed development needs. Already marked by a high rate of poverty, the socioeconomic situation in Rakhine further deteriorated in 2012 following the outbreak of violence between majority Buddhist and minority Muslim communities, which displaced many Muslims who were relocated in controlled camps.

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After the tsunami: Thai fishing village, ten years on

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.”

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