Floods are responsible for about two-thirds of the total human casualties incurred by natural disasters in the past 40 years. That’s why flood risk management is now part of disaster risk reduction strategies so critical, especially in the Middle East and North Africa.
“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.
Children returning to schools, workplaces re-opening, and vaccines all seemed to point to a return to normal but like 2020, 2021 has been a year of hope, loss, and uncertainty for people around the world. Stories of innovative ways to connect, protect our planet from climate change, and ways we, as a society, have joined forces to protect each other from the pandemic that has ravaged all our lives.
“He told me he was in love with me and was planning to propose to me soon,” says Layla* about her relationship with the head of a company she worked for in Morocco. “I trusted him.” But mixed in with the declarations of love was coercion and violence...
"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.
UN teams are tirelessly working with authorities and partners to respond to the ongoing pandemic and other multifaceted challenges across the globe. Today, we highlight some of the coordinated efforts.
Haitians who were affected by the devastating earthquake which struck the south-west of the country in August have demonstrated their “heartwarming resilience” according to a staff member of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), who has been supporting recovery efforts.
Joseph Chlela, who is from Lebanon, is an emergency coordinator with IOM and has been working in the earthquake zone.
Three months after a devastating earthquake struck the south-west of Haiti, a hospital that was largely destroyed has continued to give mothers and their babies the care they need.
More than six years into Yemen’s war, migrants continue to arrive in the country. Most hope to continue north through Yemen seeking job opportunities for day labourers. But many of them are kidnapped and held for ransom. Migrants face hunger, theft, injury, or death along the way as they desperately seek refuge.
For the past four years, Birma Devi Kunwar has been weaving her way up and down the hilly pathways in Darchula District in Nepal’s remote far-west, a vaccine box perched firmly on her back. Birma is responsible for periodically collecting vaccines from the vaccine store in the district headquarters of Khalanga and taking them to the Pipalchauri Health Post in Duhun – located in the upper reaches of the district – where she works as a support staff.
