It’s hard for most people to make friends and find their place in a new hometown. But it’s that much harder when you move to a whole new country. Four years ago, Juan Diego and his family fled the socio-economic crisis in their native Venezuela and made a new home in Costa Rica — a few of the nearly 40,000 migrants who have made that trek.
FGM is prevalent in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. It has no health benefits, and, as the World Health Organization reports, it can pose serious threats to women and future newborns.
Millions of people around the world do not have access to quality education and are facing poverty, violence, and other forms of exploitation and abuse.
Having commenced my role as UN Resident Coordinator in China almost one year ago, it is a privilege to lead the United Nations in China in this new year and at this auspicious moment as the Games return to Beijing.
Today, on International Day of Education, let us take a moment to reflect on the value of learning, and consider, through the lenses of five stories of people from different regions, cultures, age groups, and abilities, how we could support the work of UN country teams established across 162 countries and territories around the world on making education accessible for all.
As news coverage of the eruption and tsunami that hit Tonga starts to fade away, the United Nations Coordination Specialist in the country has a message to the outside world: Tonga’s people are going to need sustained support responding to a disaster of this scale.
“Apocalyptic” is the word that sprang to mind when I visited communities in the orange and red zones just nine days after the devastating eruption of La Soufrière.
“Persons with disabilities are capable and equal. It is time the world understands that,” says Antonio Palma, a UN Volunteer at the Resident Coordinator’s Office in Guatemala.
"After raping me, he told me that I was still a child, and he threw me outside. This is the first time I have told anyone because I was scared to say something before." And so, 12-year-old Elisabeth's childhood was forever changed.
The United Nations Country Teams from Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina recently completed a ten-day mission by visiting several communities in the largest dry forest in the world and the second-largest forest biome in South America: the Gran Chaco, which extends over an area of over 1,14 million square kilometres, distributed in central and northern Argentina, southeastern Bolivia and western Paraguay.
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