Field Stories

Wendy Bruere is an Australian working for UNICEF in Syrian refugee camps inside Iraq. In this #fromthefield story, Wendy visits the border crossing where hundreds of Syrians fleeing the violence in their country arrive every day.
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Dang Hong Dan is just three years old but he’s a victim of the Vietnam War. He was born with disabilities because of Agent Orange – a chemical sprayed during the war to destroy crops and forests. Read more...

Five-day old Yaman took a long stretch inside an incubator at a charity hospital in Damascus, while his mother and sister were admiring him happily through the glass door of the unit. Read more...

Australian resident and New Zealand citizen Mohamed Ugool arrived at the Domiz refugee camp, in nearby Dohuk, Iraq, where he will monitor UNICEF interventions for refugees fleeing conflict in Syria. Mohamed shares his initial impressions of the situation inside the camp; home to 40,000 Syrians.
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It’s Immunisation Day at designated health centres in northern Viet Nam’s Lao Cai province. Parents brought their children to be vaccinated or receive their follow-up doses. Read more...

In Cambodia, ten-year-old Pan In is attending school for the first time this year, following a local school enrolment campaign. “We organised a ‘long march’ with hundreds of teachers, parents and students from each school,” says Ke Vanny, Director of Education for Pouk District.
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Priest Severin's work in the fight to defeat polio is invaluable - he acts as a social mobilisor in his community raising awareness of vaccination. He also knows the consequences of this disease painfully well, as his son has been struggling with polio since birth. Today, we share with you a day in the life of this extraordinary man. Read more...

Um Ahmed* did not want to leave, but the bombs forced her. Read more...

In Zimbabwe, Munanshe's disability proves no barrier to his education.
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A UNICEF officer on the ground in Syria describes how the situation for children is dire even in this relatively quiet pocket of the Syrian Arab Republic.
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Over December and January there was no usual “shut down” over the holiday season. Only Christmas day and New Years’ day off at the East Asia and the Pacific Office.  Aid and development work doesn’t really stop for holidays does it?! Read more...

Mark Choonoo, UNICEF Emergency Specialist, was in Homs recently and shares his first-hand account on the situation there and the impact of the destruction wrought by the conflict on children and families.
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WHEN the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami hit land it caused damage and loss of life unlike that seen by any recent natural disaster and prompted an immediate and large-scale humanitarian response.

Now, eight years on, the impact and scale of the disaster has been dramatised in The Impossible, to open in Australian cinemas on January 24. Read more...

International welfare organisations fear there will be a rise in children recruited by rebel groups in the Central African Republic as the violence continues.
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In Kabul, a unique project combines skateboarding with education.
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One month in Bangkok. Two weeks of In-Country Orientation. Two weeks of working with UNICEF. So far it’s been a blast. Read more...

They were too young to understand the violence that would kill them. Bearing the brunt of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on their shrouds, four children from the Dalu family were buried amidst continued bombardment in Gaza City, occupied Palestinian territory. Their family home was turned into rubble by missile attack on Sunday. Read more...

Hand-washing and tooth-brushing - a new favourite ‘subject’ for these schoolchildren.
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‘When my school was destroyed, my dream of becoming a doctor was destroyed.’ Asu*, 11, says sitting in the courtyard of the Wadi Annakhle public school outside Tripoli. Read more...

By Karen Allen, Deputy Representative, UNICEF Pakistan
The first thing that strikes you is their sense of confidence. Women with faces framed by colorful headscarves hold dynamic discussions in a packed classroom at the Isa Kaita College of Education. They consider themselves to be “village girls” but there’s nothing ordinary about them.
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UNICEF Advocate for Children Affected by War, Ishmael Beah, recently visited the Central African Republic, where he witnessed 10 childrens' release from armed groups.
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Irene, 17, from Benin, can't attend secondary school because she lacks a birth certificate - but she is fiercely determined to obtain a birth certificate and, with it, an official identity.
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For many children affected by the Syrian conflict the scars they bear are internal.
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Sweat is running from 16-year-old Bitshilwalwa Bukula’s forehead as she tries to smash a rock into smaller pieces. A small plastic canopy offers some protection from the harsh midday sun, but the work is hard. Read more...

In this update, Brittany Neale writes about her experiences as a Child Protection and Communications Officer for UNICEF in Fiji.
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Save a life, add soy beans? Normally grown to sell, this crop is becoming an unlikely hero in stopping malnutrition in Ghana.

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Alina Zelutina, 19, believes that her long-lasting love for football brings not only satisfaction and joy to her life but also offers her a chance to interact with other young people. She says it gives true meaning to her life. Read more...

A Zambian youth, through the UNICEF-supported International Inspiration programme, has been selected as one of the 8,000 torchbearers at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Ceasar Chola Thaimu, 15, was selected as Zambia’s lone torchbearer through a competitive selection process held among young athletes nationwide. Read more...

It's play time at the First Step Georgia day care centre for children with disabilities. Here, about a dozen children of different ages choose games or activities while teachers keep a watchful eye over them.
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A year ago, 4-year-old Ismail arrived in Mogadishu severely malnourished.
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In Niger women work as leaders to promote child health, hygiene and nutrition. These behavioural interventions, with women taking the lead, will have the greatest impact on reducing under-five mortality and morbidity; helping to insulate families against future shocks. Read more...

I knew we had a hit show on our hands when a woman started laughing so hard she had to wipe away tears from her eyes. We were sitting under a tree watching a group of local people perform a drama about malaria and the need for mosquito nets. Read more...

It is not just economic growth that Ghana is experiencing. Growth in human development, in the well-being and capability of Ghanaian women and children, is showing positive trends.
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It was a busy morning in the maternity ward of Torit Civil Hospital, Eastern Equatoria State. Three newborns were welcomed into the world, all in good health. Surrounded by family members, Lugina Michael let out a sigh of relief. Read more...

You wouldn’t think it to look at her, but Bintou Traoré is 18 months old. She is very small for her age because her little body has not had enough nutrients to grow normally.
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Not a lot about the typical Ghanaian city street looks high-tech. The sewers are often open, the roads potholed and the cars old. But running beneath these streets are mobile phone and internet networks that connect millions of people. Read more...

By Shantha Bloeman
With a captive audience of mothers sitting lined up on long stone benches, Isabelle Domingo, a 28- year-old mother of three, starts what she hopes will be an educational conversation on early testing for HIV/AIDS.
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When Xiaoyu Su tried to convince her parents that her newborn daughter should be fed breastmilk she was criticized for being stubborn. Luckily, she found a group of like-minded new mums through social media.
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Meet Fatimettou Mint Elliaj, an inspirational and passionate advocate for her community in Aioun, Mauritania.
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The road that leads Netsayi Bote to the households in her village is long and bumpy. On this grey morning, surprisingly cold for April, she is dressed in her new uniform, hat and health kit in tow as she sets off for the day. Yet despite the tough terrain, Netsayi is thrilled to be on the road, particularly since the addition of her new bicycle.
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Comilla, Bangladesh:  Nine-year-old Shima Ahkter holds her one-year-old brother Tahir as he squirms to avoid the droplets. “My parents sent me here to get my brother vaccinated because they heard it being broadcast on a microphone near the house.” Read more...

Six-month old Toshie Fiunakot is the centre of attention at a packed hall in Caritas Technical School in Port Moresby and he has no idea why he is surrounded by so many people fussing over him.
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Mosquito nets make excellent curtains. The thing is – they are not so great to sleep under. They can be hot and itchy and claustrophobic. Read more...

Something as ‘simple’ as hand washing can be hard work in a place like Northern Ghana.
A bar of soap from the market here costs 3 cedi – a large amount of money for subsistence farmers who have little access to cash. Read more...

For Nanni Oueled Faghi and her 3 year old grandson Habibi, the journey from their home in Lere, Mali to the border town of Fassala in Mauritania was long and dangerous. By the time that they arrived in Mauritania, Habibi was severely malnourished, suffering from diarrhoea and had lost a lot of weight. Read more...

Why do mums-to-be stay at home to give birth? In the Northern Region of Ghana, where only one in four women delivers with a skilled attendant, the reason is often cultural. Read more...

With a lot of confidence and a marvellous exhibition of intelligence, Panaka Muyambo (10years) elaborately and accurately explains each step of the digestive process in the human body. Read more...

A child drowns every 30 minutes in Bangladesh, that’s around 17,000 drowning deaths each and every year. 
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A small village in southern Punjab celebrated the opening of a new primary school, built with funding from UNICEF and the Government of the Netherlands. Read more...

A dunny with a corrugated iron door and hinges made from pluggers. What could be more Australian, right? Turns out, the design is 100 per cent Ghanaian.

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Bread seller Honorine Noudjèmèdji, 14, zigzags deftly through Dantokpa, one of the biggest markets in Benin's commercial capital. Loaves are piled high on a tray on her head, at customers’ eye-level. Read more...

UNICEF extends a nutrition treatment center for malnourished children in the Central African Republic. Read more...

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow is sharing updates from Chad
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Niger: The effect of food insecurity on children’s health is obvious; children, particularly those under age 5, are vulnerable to life-threatening malnutrition. Read more...

On a rooftop in the outskirts of Varanasi in north-east India, 14 mothers sit in the hot sun with their children as a woman uses a UNICEF flip chart. She explains how to recognise different diseases and the importance of the vaccinations that will protect children against them. Read more...

Schools in the Philippines are helping children heal after the devastating floods.
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Teachers are conducting an unprecedented census on the state of Somalia’s schools Read more...

Though Ghana has improved its education system, many kids are still missing out, including girls, orphans, vulnerable children, working children and children with disabilities or special needs.
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Vaccinating every child against polio in Ghana initially seemed impossible to me.
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As I write this blog, loudspeakers are being tested outside my office in Accra for a large ceremony marking International Volunteer Day. Read more...

Huseima Iddrisu from Ghana tells the story of her adolescence. Read more...

THAILAND: After losing their homes and in some cases loved ones to the Thai floods, families  now have something else to worry about – dengue fever. Read more...

Meet Eric, Sandrine, Serge and Stephanie.
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'B' was in prison less than a year ago, but now he is working for a documentary film company and is determined to turn his life around.
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The OneMinutesJr is a youth arts initiative that teaches young people how to capture their viewpoints on video. Read more...

Kangaroos were the last thing I expected to be discussing with my new colleagues when I arrived in West Africa last month. I moved to Tamale in Ghana to write stories about UNICEF’s work in the country’s impoverished northern regions. Read more...

UNICEF Australia's CEO Norman Gillespie is sharing updates from Kenya.
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To a rousing welcome, Limpho Moleleko, 15, takes her place at the centre of the large circle. At just under 150 cm, she is not a tall girl, yet she evidently commands great respect among her peers, Read more...

Alongside a busy road in rural Pakistan, flood-displaced children are enjoying school, many for the first time.
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As the sun sets across her township in the east of South Africa, Thandeka is reflecting on her teenage life. Tears form, and then flow. Read more...

For Halimo Faliid, 70, the arrival of baby Higad Mahad was bittersweet. In gaining a grandson she lost her daughter.
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The end of the school holidays for children around the world usually comes with mixed feelings. They feel a bit sad because they won’t have the whole day to enjoy time with their friends and play, but also they feel excited as classes start and they meet new colleagues and live new experiences.
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Shefena Gebre Egziabeher, 12, is in the sixth grade and excels at school. “Of all the subjects I take, my favourites are math and English. I like them because they are simple if you apply yourself,” she says. Read more...

Yeang Khan, 33, never fully understood the importance of a birth certificate until a year ago, when she was pregnant with her third child. Read more...

At the therapeutic feeding centre of Balbala, 20-month-old Abdelfattah stares suspiciously at the visitors who have just walked in. Read more...

Montegbosh is still nursing her 18-month old son who clings to her chest even if she is busy sweeping the dusty ground by their hut in this small farming community an hour outside the capital of Addis Ababa. Read more...

Abdile, his wife, four children and their paternal grandmother left their home in Somalia in search of food and water after the drought had claimed their crops and livestock.
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“Today we are doing growth monitoring , including weighing the children,” said Kasim. “We weigh the children in order to identify malnutrition which may not be visible to the eye.”
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UNICEF's Chris Tidey spoke to us about the current situation in Kenya.
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Driving the nearly 100 kilometre sand road from the Somali border to the refugee camps in Dadaab, Kenya is like an otherworldly odyssey across an arid landscape seemingly devoid of life.
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Genete carries her 18-month-old daughter Iman to a therapeutic feeding program every week in East Ethiopia.
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11 month old Elijah from Kenya was severely malnourished.
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Kowsar is 17 months old and has never known a life outside this camp within Galkayo. Read more...

Nimco and her three children lived in Baidoa District in southwestern Somalia until June of this year. Read more...

Sameer doesn’t know how old she is. Like millions of children in Pakistan, her birth was not registered. Read more...

Deep inside Kampong Thom province in central Cambodia lies the scattered village of Prokeap. The village is so remote and hard to reach that routine vaccination outreach simply doesn’t happen. Read more...

Tilalem Kiros, 13, a seventh grader in Ethiopia, wants to be a doctor when she grows up. But she fears her daily struggle for water will ultimately prevent her.

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Libya: Ayman, 14, and, Mamud, 9, were both injured by unexploded cluster bombs.
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Côte d'Ivoire: Juliana is a 13 year old girl who does not talk much and very rarely smiles. She lives with seven members of her family who are now residing at the Catholic Mission IDP site in Duekoue, in western Côte d’Ivoire. The family fled Niambly, their village of origin 5 kms from the town of Duekoue, when they were attacked by armed men on 28 March. Read more...

On a hospital bed in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata, five-year-old Malak Al-Shami flicks through pictures of her brother and sister on her father’s laptop. Three weeks ago the three children were asleep at home when a rocket smashed through the ceiling of their house. Read more...

In Long Lao village in northern Lao PDR, 10-year old Thao Lee starts his morning helping his family with chores. His job is to let out the cows to graze, before sitting down to a breakfast of rice and meat.
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Etaj, 11, and Hanni, 12, are taking their drawings very seriously amidst the surrounding clatter of chairs and chatter of the children. For them, drawing is an opportunity to creatively express what they are feeling and to share with friends. Read more...

It was the screams that made Mr Mohamed jump. Shrieks and cries had become frighteningly familiar for those living in the western Libyan city of Misrata, but this was a singular scream. This was Mr Mohamed’s son. Read more...

Raw sewage bubbles up along the open sewers that line the narrow walkways of the slums of Moradabad known as mohallas. Hills of stinking garbage pile high in vacant lots, surrounded by wafting clouds of eager flies in the hot, humid air. Florescent green algae sprout over ponds of pooling fetid water. Read more...

Saida, 6 years old and Meriama, 1 year old. Read more...

Nurse-midwife Sanju Kaim got a little bonus on her first day on the job. That morning she delivered not one baby girl, but twins.She was alone in the maternity ward, having just reported for her first day of duty as an auxillary nurse midwife in Jhagar village’s small health centre.

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I sit talking to Monk Thich Thanh Huan in a Pagoda in southern Hanoi, Viet Nam. Seated at a dark wooden table, a shrine to buddha rises behind him. It is cold on this February day and Monk Huan wears a jacket zipped right up to his neck. Read more...

SOUTHERN SUDAN: Norah Abdelnabi, a 24-year-old mother couldn’t hide her joy when her two-year-old son, Steven Kulang, received two drops of polio vaccine for the first time. Read more...

ZAMBIA: Meet the mother who fought to ensure her baby didn't end up HIV positive.
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PAKISTAN: Pakistani's youth came out on roads, helped raise funds, and joined hands with local and international organisations to improve the plight of flood victims. Read more...

SRI LANKA: It’s a week since the flooding became severe in eastern Sri Lanka, and many routes remain barely passable. We travel along the main road to a more remote village – by boat Read more...

SUDAN: Hundreds of thousands of Southern Sudanese are heading back to southern Sudan by road, rail, barge and planes for the Janurary 9 referendum. While some are assisted to return by the South Sudan government, many others are coming on their own. Read more...

HAITI: On January 12 a friend of mine picked the children up from school. The two elder children were doing their homework and my youngest, Manoupnepha was watching “Margarita” on cartoon Television in a separate room. At 4.52pm, the house started swaying. Read more...

HAITI: A story from the mountain village of Jaquot, Haiti where until recently, healthcare and education facilities were non-existant.
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HAITI: Jean Andre Durvier, like many people in Haiti, can’t forget the moment the earthquake stuck Port au Prince on January 12 2010. Read more...

MYANMAR: Myths and misconceptions about breastfeeding have long existed in Myanman's Bago Region, barring many children from the opportunity for a healthy start in life.
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HAITI: “It’s better to reconstruct the children and young people than repair the adults, because children are the foundations upon which a nation stands,” says 16-year-old Luxon Julien, as he presents the results of three days of deliberations to youth participants gathered in Jacmel. Read more...

INDIA: Kiran Sharma stands watch over her six-day-old nephew huddled in an incubator under a pink blanket with teddy bears covering his frail body. The baby boy and his twin sister each weighed just over a kilo when they were born at seven and a half months.
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YEMEN: Life on the street can be incredibly difficult, especially if, like Khaled, you are only 16 years old, with no money and nowhere to go. For this teenager, however, anything seemed better than living at home with his family.

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HAITI: When you've been to places like Mais Gate Camp and Terrain Acra in Port-au-Prince, you're forced to acknowledge the vulnerability and suffering faced by tens of thousands of Haitians each day. And that's just two camps. Mais Gate alone hosts about 10,000 people. Read more...

HAITI: A three-hour drive up a steep, bumpy road, brings two vehicles filled with oral rehydration salts, IV fluid, and other UNICEF and partner medical supplies to Saint-Michel, the epicenter of the cholera outbreak. Read more...

In a shaded corner of the centre courtyard of L’Estere Medical Centre St. Jacques Destine, a rice farmer from Volumba outside of L’Estere holds his two-year-old niece, Jackson. Read more...

Sisters Val Voyalant , 10, and Cledna, 3, live in the small community of Pisto south of Dessaline and near the Artibonite River. They were brought to Claire Heureuse by their mother, Francina Davariste. Read more...

Twenty-month-old Clarena lies nestled in her uncle’s arms. Her mother, Rosedani, brought her to Saint Nicholas Hospital three days previous, leaving her seven other children in the care of relatives. Read more...

That’s when it hit me: I was actually safe and would leave Obo within 24 hours, but what about those who live there and have no other place to go? They have to deal with this kind of situation on a weekly basis. Fear is an integral part of their lives. Read more...

After four intense days in Bossangoa, I returned to Bangui for one night before going again on the dusty roads and into the deep bushes of the Central African Republic. This time the destination was Mongumba, a village in the southwest part of the country and close to where some 7,000 refugees are living in the most extreme conditions imaginable. Read more...

After landing in Bangui in the early evening, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by everything that surrounded me. Our first mission to some of the most remote villages in the country was less than 15 hours ahead and despite all the research I had done, I still didn’t know what was expecting me. Read more...

A gentle breeze whispers through plantation of date palms, in the village of Agha Ali Jatoi. A small group of children are gathered near the stagnant pond, taunting a turtle that had beached itself on the mud.
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During the past three weeks, over 400 Internally Displaced People (IDP) fleeing from floods in Balochistan and Sindh have been hosted at the Headquarters of the Balochistan Boys Scouts Association. Around half of these people are children.
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Dr. Nasreen's mobile health clinic has been at the makeshift camp on the noisy highway since early this morning. The heat is relentless and flies swarm about children. Read more...

Executive Director, Anthony Lake, recently visited the Punjab province, one of the worst flood-affected areas of Pakistan.
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UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake traveled to see UNICEF's humanitarian operations in the Muzzafargarh district of Punjab, one of the worst affected parts of the country.
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For millions of children who took the brunt of the floods in Pakistan, waking up in the middle of the night to be rushed into helicopters and taken away from their homes can be quite traumatizing. Read more...

Flood waters flowing south from northern Pakistan have devastated the province of Punjab. Millions of people have been affected in 12 districts across the province, with thousands of homes destroyed and dozens reported dead to date. Read more...

I woke with a start and looked out the window. There was water everywhere. People were carrying young children over their shoulders to keep them out of the raging flood waters. My wife and I grabbed our three children and ran outside. Read more...

They say it takes a village to raise a child, but in this case, UNICEF Ghana is aiming their hand washing project directly at children of primary school age, and the effects are already rippling out to entire villages. Read more...

I'm pleased to report that my work with UNICEF Ghana over the past few months has been interesting, challenging and extremely fulfilling. My role in the Child Protection team has focused primarily on legal protection - specifically projects relating to juvenile justice, child protection systems and inter-country adoption. Read more...

Tired and expressionless faces searching for answers to their misery gathered in the premises of the Government Comprehensive Higher Secondary School, turned into a relief camp for people displaced due to high floods in Sukkur. Read more...

Looking through the doorway of the chief’s hut in the village of Chirifoyili, into a courtyard littered with earthen and ceramic cooking pots, it looks like nothing has changed in this village in centuries.

But in fact, one very important thing has changed.

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