UN country teams worldwide are continuing the fight against COVID-19 by stepping up efforts to support governments in their response and recovery efforts, including the vaccination efforts via the COVAX Facility.
The family life of Fagnosea Alphonse and Masy Suzanne, respectively 40 and 39 years old, originally from Tanandava, district of Amboasary south in the Anosy region (in the south of Madagascar), have now evolved well. Even their children can recall the hardships their family experienced before.
Monday morning. As usual, Stéphanie, 4 years old, a kindergartener, has to go to school. At 6am, her mother Hélène goes to wake her up so that she can get ready. She finds her daughter unconscious. Panic-stricken and distraught, she tells her husband and they rush to the hospital. The diagnosis was made: Stéphanie was suffering from neuromalaria or pernicious access, the most severe form of malaria. She was taken to the intensive care unit and regained consciousness only days later, on Friday.
Twenty young Beninese women, ages 16 to 24, who have dropped out of school, will learn to sew masks and make liquid soap, and will then take trainings on COVID-19 preventive measures, sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, and the basics of leadership and women's entrepreneurship.
United Nations country teams around the world continue to provide medical, logistical and socio-economic support to local authorities, coordinating resources to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Through stronger coordination, these teams are mobilising local, regional, and global partners to provide life-saving medical supplies to vulnerable communities, combat misinformation on vaccine efficacy, and ensure equitable distribution of vaccine through the COVAX programme.
The United Nations is supporting India as the country battles a major surge in COVID-19 cases which on Wednesday saw the overall reported death toll top 201,000, according to latest World Health Organization (WHO) figures. Confirmed cases stand at just under 18 million nationwide.
Ms. Srimoti Bauri works in the tea gardens located in Barolekha, Kulaura and Juri Upazilas of Moulvibazar district. Ms. Bauri has not only committed to remaining a woman tea garden worker but paved her way to becoming one of the three women Vice-Chairmen of the Cha Sramik Union (Tea Garden Workers’ Union) valley committees.
For Sister Juliet Lithemba, the past year has been “nothing short of grace and mercy from above,” as she explains it. The 77-year-old resident of Mt Royal Convent of the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa, located in Lesotho’s Leribe district, didn’t know much about COVID-19 until her convent home and fellow sisters were infected by the deadly virus.
The United Nations has launched a $29.2 million global funding appeal to help those affected by the eruptions of the La Soufrière volcano in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and other impacted countries.
