Fieldnotes: Blogging on UNICEF's child survival work in the field

After several days observing the plight of the thousands of families affected by poverty and displacement, it's a fine feeling to have something to dance about.

This week's Monday photo catches UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow joining the celebration at the African Youth Forum in Entebbe, Uganda. Mia addressed the first ever official gathering of young people in conjunction with the African Union Summit.

She told the young delegates about her ties with Africa. As a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Ms. Farrow has traveled to some of the continent's most impoverished and conflicted regions to raise awareness about the refugee crisis in Chad, violence against girls and women in the DR Congo, lack of health services and education in Guinea, and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

Speaking at the end of her visit, which included time with young people who have had years of their childhood hijacked as forced soldiers, Ms. Farrow reminded the gathered youth, who will draft a call of action to send to the African Union leaders gathering shortly, of the need for optimism about the future.

Could you find Kyrgyzstan on an unlabeled map? Could you differentiate it from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan or Kazakhstan? I for one--when first hearing that ethnic fighting had claimed hundreds of lives and displaced nearly 400,000 people there --couldn't even picture the country in my head.

Now, I can't get the image from this week's photo out of my head. It shows a brother and sister standing outside their burnt-out home in Kyrgyzstan's southern city of Osh. Their house was destroyed during the recent violence, and their large family now shares a single tent.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-1352/Josh Estey

Temirbek, 11, and his sister Akbermek, 6, stand outside their burnt-out home in Furkat District, in the southern city of Osh.

For many Americans, the whole of Central Asia registers barely a blip on the radar screen. And that's unfortunate, because the countries of Central Asia face a lot of serious challenges year-round. Child exploitation, HIV/AIDS, extreme poverty, high infant mortality rates and natural disasters are among the threats to children and families throughout the region. Tajikistan was even featured in the 2010 UNICEF Humanitarian Action Report, after it was hit with severe flooding and mudslides as well as water and energy shortages.

UNICEF and its partners responded to the disasters in Tajikistan and continue to extend a lifeline of aid to those affected. UNICEF has, in fact, been working in Central Asia for many years to help the region's children survive and thrive. It has supported immunization campaigns in Kazakhstan, helped eradicate polio in Kyrgyzstan, combated infant mortality in Uzbekistan and helped provide sanitary facilities to schools in Tajikistan -- to name just a few examples.

As thousands of refugees from the ethnic fighting in Kyrgyzstan begin to return to their homes, many others are still taking shelter in camps across the border in Uzbekistan. This week's photo is of children taking respite from the heat in a camp in the Pakhtaabad district of Uzbekistan.

© UNICEF Uzbekistan/2010/Toshmatov

Refugee camp at Pakhtaabad district's cotton stock point, Andijan region. June 18 2010.

Close to 5,000 ethnic Uzbek refugees are living in the camp, which is prone to extreme temperatures. 33 medical workers have been deployed to tend to cases of dehydration and heat exhaustion. The camp offers accommodation in tents, water, sanitation facilities, and health services. Meals are served in an outdoor canteen, and a barber's stall was set up. But the shaded area is scarce. As the days get hotter, staying in the tents during the day is getting extremely difficult, especially for children, who make up nearly half of the camp's population.

Other infectious diseases are a real risk in the camp. All refugee children under 14 were immunized against polio within days of arrival. With UNICEF's support, the Uzbek government is planning to vaccinate refugee children against measles and distribute vitamin A.

Elizabeth Kiem is the online producer of unicefusa.org.

Every year, June 16 is commemorated throughout Africa and around the world as the Day of the African Child, in honor of the children who bravely stood for their rights during the 1976 Soweto uprising.

Our Monday photo captures the changes that have since altered the lives of children in Soweto, where the struggle against Apartheid has been replaced with many other struggles: poverty, HIV-AIDS and violence.

© UNICEF South Africa/2010/Hearfield

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Angélique Kidjo singing with children in Soweto.

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and world-famous singer Angélique Kidjo visited Soweto on the eve of the 2010 World Cup, which is being held in an African country for the first time in history.

Given soccer's enormous popularity across Africa, the World Cup -- in which six African teams are competing -- is certainly a cause for celebration among many African children.

UNICEF is joining the party, setting up special open-air screenings of the matches in remote areas where there is no electricity or broadcast connection. But UNICEF is also using the occasion -- during which millions are assembled - to advocate for child rights and to inform the world of the particular risks facing the children of South Africa today.

Celebrate Day of the African Child on June 16. Learn more about UNICEF's World Cup campaigns, and help us make every day safer, brighter and healthier for the next generation.

Judith, age 15, lost her mother to the earthquake in Haiti in January. Today she and her fellow students support each other through their grief at one of hundreds of schools that have re-opened with UNICEF support. It is one of very few public schools in Haiti, where 90 percent of schools are private. 38,000 students and 1,300 teachers are estimated to have died in the earthquake.

On the day of the quake, Ms. Lambert, our School Director, sent us home early because she had heard that not far from our school a university teacher had been killed and there was fear of rioting. She insisted that we rush home and not linger on the streets. I was home in about 35 minutes flat, my blouse sticking to my back from the scorching heat.

© UNICEF/2010/Monier and Van den Brule

Judith at the site where her home once stood. UNICEF staff followed Judith for a day, view the whole set of photos on our flickr page.

Suddenly we were covered in dust from head to toe. I couldn't believe what was happening. My mother, who had been home tending the house, was trapped beneath the rubble and the rocks were too heavy for my father to lift by himself. Jeffson, Chrislinde and I worked frantically to help Papa remove some of the rocks with our hands but we could not move quickly enough.

That night we buried our mother. We then wandered the streets and eventually fell asleep on a street corner to the wailing of women. They too had lost their loved ones. We fell asleep that night huddled against one another on the street.

We no longer had a home and no longer had our mother. The two places where I sought refuge were gone. My entire life had crumbled before me. I cried a lot over the next few days and weeks. Sometimes I would hear my mother's voice or she came to me in my dreams. Although she is no longer here, she has given me the strength to move on. I keep her alive through my memories.

	© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0793/Kate Holt
	Afghanistan: Girls attend an informal school outside a mosque in the Mian Poshteh Bazaar.

Two weeks ago, while helping shepherd eighty boisterous 5th graders on a class trip, I was struck by the elaborate rules and occasionally frantic demeanor of the teachers trying to corral the students around Washington, D.C. With talk of hiring special security at our hotel, the clear assumption was this: School is safe, but this outside world is very dangerous.

In truth, the days spent in our capital's museums and souvenir shops proved less than perilous. But all week, newspapers were filled with stories illustrating why in many places, an opposite assumption applies: School isn't safe. Not at all.

In China, brutal and seemingly random displays of violence took the lives of teachers and kindergarteners. In north Yemen, both rebel and pro-government gunmen were reportedly occupying schools by force. And in Kunduz and Kabul, Afghanistan, dozens of female students were hospitalized after an apparent attack with poison gas.

These are different instances of tragedy--some less preventable than others. But UNICEF abhors the notion that the simple act of attending school should ever be an experience fraught with insecurity.

This week's photo is of three girls in Afghanistan attending an informal school outside a mosque in the Mian Poshteh Bazaar, a former trading center for opium and weapons in Helmand Province. The area is currently occupied by military forces. Attacks on schools and girl students throughout the country have deterred many families from sending their children to official schools.

Elizabeth Kiem is the online producer for unicefusa.org.

A new U.N. report presents good news and bad news on the subject of child labor.

A survey of conditions in 50 different countries published by the International Labor Organization found that while the number of girls and children under the age of 15 who are compelled to work has fallen, the number of boys age 15-17 classed as laborers rose. Whether the result of economic hardship or something worse - trafficking or exploitation, these children's situation will have a lasting impact on their health, happiness and well-being.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0612/Noorani

Oberd Noël packages coal for sale to support his family in Haiti.

This week's Monday photo is of Oberd Noël. The 14-year-old is the eldest of seven children living with their family in a shelter in a stadium in the Delmas district of Port-au-Prince. Oberd packs coal in small plastic bags, which he sells on the streets to help support his family.

We feature Oberd, because today's report finds trends in child labor improving for children in Latin America, even as they worsen in sub-Saharan Africa.

As with so many other conditions for children, Haiti is far below regional standards. The devastation caused by the earthquake has only highlighted its burden.

Child labor is a tragic reality for 215 million children worldwide according to the most recent data. That includes 115 million engaged in work that involves extreme heat, dangerous materials or hours in excess of 40 a week.

A two-day conference "Joining forces against child labor" begins today in the Netherlands. UNICEF will be in attendance.

Jenner Pascua is a production officer for unicefusa.org

Over the weekend UNICEF welcomed a new Executive Director.

	© U.S. Fund for UNICEF
	Anthony Lake playing with a child during a UNICEF field visit.

For this week's photo, we thought it would be a good opportunity to introduce the 6th UNICEF Executive Director, Anthony Lake.

Mr. Lake brings more than 45 years of public and international service to the position. As National Security Advisor (1993 - 1997) under President Bill Clinton, and as State Department Director of Policy Planning in the Carter administration (1977 - 1981), he managed the full range of foreign policy, national security, and humanitarian and development issues. In 2007-2008, he served as a senior foreign policy advisor to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama.

On top of the impressive résumé, Mr. Lake has long-standing ties to UNICEF. He served for nine years on the Board of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, including as Chair of the Board from 2004 to 2007. Under his chairmanship, the U.S. Fund saw a significant increase in funding and undertook a transition in personnel and mission.

Talk about the right person for the right job! We are confident that Mr. Lake will bring us closer to a day where zero children die from a preventable cause. We wish Mr. Lake the best of luck in his new position.

Jenner Pascua is a production officer for unicefusa.org.

Here in New York the weather is less than favorable today. A cold drizzle? Isn't it supposed to be spring? Then I thought about a recent photo distributed by UNICEF, and it made me realize how lucky we are even when the weather isn't pleasant.

Today's photo is from Mongolia, and shows a first grader walking home from school.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0432/Andrew Cullen

A first-grade student walks several miles to her home after school in the district of Altai, in Khovd Province. A mountain range rises in front of her.

Last month Mongolia got hit hard with heavy snow, strong winds, and extreme cold. The weather was so extreme that 12 of the country's 21 provinces were declared a state of disaster.

The crisis, known locally as a 'dzud', has killed at least nine children in one province, and has trapped many others in dormitories with failing heating systems and limited food supplies. Over 22,000 children in dormitories need emergency aid, and possibly thousands more.

UNICEF is responding by providing food, fuel, blankets, hygiene kits, medical supplies and boots to over 60,000 children, including those in dormitories and isolated villages. UNICEF is also collaborating with other United Nations agencies to supply hospitals and provide mobile medical teams in isolated areas.

Spring couldn't come sooner for this region of the world. UNICEF is also sending blankets and supplies to neighboring China in the aftermath of its 7.1 earthquake a few weeks ago.

Needless to say, I'm not complaining about the weather anymore. You can help by supporting UNICEF's relief efforts in emergency situations.

Elizabeth Kiem is the online producer for unicefusa.org.

Imane Tirich is one of six young photographers who will be travelling to Cannes this week to accept a Sony World Photography Award sponsored by UNICEF and the World Photography Organization.

Along with other young advocate/photographers from Romania, Israel, Brazil, New Zealand and the USA, Ms. Tirich set out to capture an image relevant to the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This week's Monday photo focuses on a child's right to education.

©Imane Tirich, courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010

A winning photograph from Morocco

What I love about 18-year-old Tirich's photo is its timeless quality. Wash it in sepia and it could easily date to the 19th century.

Or could it? Look at it closely--study the composition and the positioning of the three subjects.

Jenner Pascua is a production officer for unicefusa.org

Last week Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, released a statement about the recent death of a 12-year-old Yemeni girl.

"The death of Elham Mahdi al-Assi from internal bleeding following intercourse, three days after she was married off to a man at least twice her age, is a painful reminder of the risks girls face when they are married too soon."

This heart-breaking news brought to mind this photo of a young bride from Bangladesh who was featured in a UNICEF photo essay in January.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-2317/Md. Ilias Mia

Thirteen-year-old Tania was married at age ten in an arrangement made by her parents when she was just a year old. Despite her pregnancy, she has many household tasks. She advises against marrying at too early an age.

Yesterday, April 4, was International Mine Awareness Day. Programs and events were held around the world to educate people about the dangerous legacy of landmines, which affect more than 84 countries.

Children at play are particularly vulnerable to mines and cluster munitions since they come in interesting shapes and colors that attract children's curiosity.

This week's Monday photo shows a young survivor from Angola.

© Sean Sutton/Mines Advisory Group

A landmine victim in Angola

This is a serious problem with devastating consequences. Visit www.mineaction.org to educate yourself and help raise awareness.

If you live near New York City, today you can join U.N. Under-Secretary-General Alain Le Roy for the opening of an art exhibition to mark the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.

Monday, April 5 2010, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m; North East Gallery, United Nations Visitors Lobby

This is a free event that's open to the public.

You can also help advance the call to ban cluster munitions. Help support our vision of a world free from the threat of landmines and explosive remnants of war.

Jenner Pascua is a production officer for unicefusa.org.

On March 22 the world celebrated our most precious resource: water. Here at UNICEF USA we celebrated World Water Day with the UNICEF Tap Project, a week-long event where we asked restaurants around the United States to charge $1 for tap water, something that's normally free. All proceeds would go to UNICEF's water and sanitation programs. We asked our volunteers and supporters to dine, donate and do their part. And they responded by recruiting restaurants, holding events and raising awareness.

© Noberto Guruciaga

A child holds a sign at a protection rally for the Uruguay River in Argentina.

But we wondered how other countries celebrated the holiday. After all, it is WORLD Water Day. This week's photo features a young clean water advocate during a protection rally for the Uruaguay River in Argentina. You can see a slideshow of other events around the world on the official World Water Day website.

Jenner Pascua is a production officer for unicefusa.org.

Thousands of children around the world die from preventable causes each day – tragedies that could be prevented, if the children had received immunizations.

Last year, UNICEF procured more than 2.5 billion doses of vaccines to combat preventable childhood diseases. But more children urgently need our help.

This week’s photo shows UNICEF’s immunization efforts in the wake of the Haiti earthquake. A young girl goes through a little pain, but that brief moment is worth it to fight preventable childhood diseases.

© U.S. Fund for UNICEF/2009

HAITI: A girl held by her father, cries as a health worker vaccinates her, at Sylvio Cator Stadium in the center of Port-au-Prince, the capital.

Right now, you can join UNICEF and take action on immunization in a couple of ways:

Double the impact of your gift
When you donate to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF's Annual Fund before midnight on March 22, your dollars will be matched dollar-for-dollar – up to $300,000! Remember, today is your last chance to make twice the difference for children.

Vote for UNICEF in the Kiwanis Worldwide Service Project
The U.S. Fund for UNICEF is a candidate for the Kiwanis Worldwide Service Project. We submitted a proposal that will help eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus. You could help by joining the discussion and vote for UNICEF’s proposal. Voting ends on March 31, so make sure your voice is heard.

Remember every little bit helps. Everyday 24,000 children die from preventable causes. We believe that number should be zero. Immunizations helps saves children’s lives, click here to learn more about UNICEF’s work.

Shezhad Noorani is one of UNICEF’s most experienced and trusted photographers. He has been in Haiti since February 1, documenting the needs of the population and UNICEF's relief efforts.

Recently Shezhad put together a photo essay about a little girl named Sterling Vincent. Just five years old, Sterling came onto UNICEF’s radar about a month after the earthquake. She had become separated from her family and was living with a host family who had taken her in.

What ensued is the story Shezhad tells here. It begins with a little girl going out to buy bread and ends with a triumph of cooperation. Everyone in this story is a hero, including Sterling, whose budding artistic talents helped UNICEF’s child protection team find her way home.

Over 400 unaccompanied children have been registered in Port-au-Prince since the earthquake. There are estimated to be thousands more. UNICEF is doing everything it can to make their stories as happy as Sterling’s.

Elizabeth Kiem is the online producer for unicefusa.org.

This week's Monday photo caught my eye late last week. It's a beautiful picture of a beautiful girl, with patience as notable as her head of hair. "She was standing in a long line at dawn for a UNICEF water tanker, shampoo and comb in hand," wrote UNICEF correspondent Thomas Nybo when I asked him about his picture.

© Thomas Nybo

Haiti: A young girl waits in line for a UNICEF water tanker.

I recalled visiting Haiti with UNICEF in 2008, when the country was recovering from a string of ferocious hurricanes. I remembered being impressed with the number of hair salons in the capital. I thought of the many women I had seen calmly and carefully plaiting their daughters' heads, outside houses were still filled with mud from the flooding and storms.

But this photo also made me laugh when I saw it.

Because I had spent the early morning grooming my own son. See, an outbreak of headlice has consumed just about every public school in Brooklyn this month, and I don't know many mothers who haven't spent an inordinate amount of time "checking heads."

If you were to judge the outbreak by the dismay and lamentations of parents in the schoolyard, you might think that we were facing a true disaster. Of course, we are not. We are merely inconvenienced. We have abundant water and working sanitation. We have the means to address an infestation of lice with a trip to the drugstore or even a professional "nitpicker" at whom we can throw money and gratitude and walk away, unburdened.

This is not the case in Haiti today, where the rainy season is just around the corner, threatening 1.3 million homeless families who are already struggling to keep their children clean and healthy.

Thank you Thomas, and thank you to this patient young lady waiting to wash her hair, for reminding us that an itchy scalp is an inconvenience and not a disaster.

Jenner Pascua is a production officer for unicefusa.org.

It’s been almost two months since the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Although it seems like there’s less urgency with the news coverage on the quake, there are long-term effects of the disaster. This past weekend, the New York Times took a lengthy look at how the earthquake left not only the city in ruins, but the education system as well.

Hundreds of teachers and thousands of students lost their lives in the quake. A great number of teachers-in-training are also lost. Many schools and colleges have been destroyed, or are considered too dangerous to resume classes. With fewer schools and less facilities to properly train more teachers, the education of Haiti's children is in "limbo".

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0200/Shehzad Noorani

Children file into a UNICEF tent school, on the first day of classes in the remote village of Jacquot Merlin, above Port-au-Prince, the capital. UNICEF is also providing the children with educational supplies via a newly delivered school-in-a box kit, containing teaching and learning materials for 80 students.

This week’s Monday photo shows a UNICEF tent school, providing much needed education support. UNICEF is also providing educational materials for students and teachers.

UNICEF is there before, during, and after an emergency. UNICEF is the lead coordinating agency for education, child protection, nutrition and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) and is working with the Government, other UN agencies, international and local NGOs and private partners across these and other sectors.

To support UNICEF’s continued efforts in Haiti, please visit www.unicefusa.org/haitiquake.

If you subscribe to our email updates you may already know that we started a photo petition for the children of Haiti.

© U.S. Fund for UNICEF

Stand with Haiti or view more photos on our flickr page.

Haiti is still in crisis, and with 40% of the population under the age of 14, this is a children’s emergency. We want to show the children and the relief workers on the ground that they have our support!

Take a picture now holding a sign that says "I stand with Haiti" and submit it to our photo petition, and we'll compile the images and package them with an upcoming aid shipment.

Click here and follow three easy steps to add your photo to an upcoming aid shipment.

Thank you so much to those who already participated! We’re getting amazing images from all of you. Make sure to spread the word and ask your friends to visit www.unicefusa.org/standwithhaiti. You can check out all of the submissions so far on our Flickr page.

This week's Monday photo comes from the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.

It's a photo from Al-Tanf refugee camp, which has closed - we hope - for good. Established in 2006, when hundreds of Palestinian refugees fleeing persecution in Iraq were prevented from crossing into Syria, the border camp was never meant to be a home. But that's what the strip of desert sandwiched between a busy highway and a wall became.

This month, the United Nations refugee agency transferred the last 60 people from Al-Tanf, ending their long exile in a bleak no-man's land.

© UNHCR/B.Diab

A young boy helps pack up the last of the belongings of the Al-Tanf refugees.

UNICEF supported the children of Al-Tanf camp with recreational materials and counselling. The residents of Al-Tanf join about 2,000 other Palestinian refugees in camps inside Syria and in Iraq, according to UNHCR.

In a tent made with assorted sheets and other cloths, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, a young girl holds a baby in her lap. The tent is part of an improvised settlement, one of an estimated 300 in the city, for people displaced by the earthquake.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0070/Haiti

After decades of hardship and political instability and despite pressing need, Haitians remain both resilient and inventive amid disaster.

If you would like to support UNICEF's relief efforts for Haitian children affected by the earthquake, please donate online at www.unicefusa.org/haitiquake.

New year, new beginnings. Brand new babies, too -- all around the world.

Here is a Hteik Hteik Soe, holding her eight-day-old son in Taung Pet Village in the eastern Shan State of Myanmar.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2004-1391/Shehzad Noorani

Wishing you and yours, and the children of the world, all the best in 2010.

Last week we launched a campaign to raise $2 million by the end of the year to fight a "silent emergency" that's killing children: malnutrition.

This week's photo is from the village of Sullineabad, in India's Bihar State, where some 29 percent of children suffer from severe acute malnutrition.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0902/Brian Sokol

The global economic downturn is likely to increase poverty, particularly in Bihar State, where many already live at the edge of subsistence. Still recovering from massive flooding that occurred in 2008, people are now coping with job losses and increases in food and fuel costs.

Child malnutrition in Bihar is 56 percent higher than usual, and 8 percent of children suffer from severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition.

Many families are coping by pulling their children – often girls – out of school and sending them to work. People are also buying cheaper, less nutritious foods, which is increasing rates of malnutrition, especially among young children and pregnant women.

The negative impacts on education and nutrition can diminish children’s ability to learn and work in the future, and may extend the effects of the economic crisis over generations.

Please help us spread the word about this silent emergency. Share this post with your networks. And if you're able, please consider making a donation today.

On Friday, UNICEF released a Humanitarian Action Update for the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda), where some 500,000 children under the age of five are suffering from severe acute malnutrition due to ongoing drought, chronic food insecurity and conflict.

You can see the concern on this mother's face as she feeds her severely malnourished child therapeutic milk at a UNICEF-supported feeding unit in Ethiopia.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-0429/Grum Tegene

The milk, rich in micronutrients, is the first phase of a feeding regimen--eight times daily-- that helps the body recover from the shock of malnutrition and condition it to digest food.

In Ethiopia, UNICEF is supporting a national Therapeutic Feeding Programme (TFP) in 342 districts to respond to the needs of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition all over the country.

Since the beginning of the year, UNICEF has provided training, technical assistance and 2,393 metric tons of Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for the treatment of more than 200,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition. In marginalized and drought-affected areas of Somali and Afar regions, 1.6 million people were able to access essential health, nutrition and WASH services as a result of the UNICEF-supported mobile teams.

UNICEF has also supported the response to acute watery diarrhea outbreaks in the country by providing technical assistance and to date, nearly 500,000 people living in districts with diarrhea outbreaks have been reached with prevention measures through UNICEF coordination.

Similar efforts are underway in other countries in the Horn of Africa. You can support these efforts by making an online donation today.

The importance of education and clean water are always on our minds around here, and this photo -- of boys drinking safe water in a classroom in Rubingo School, a child-friendly school in a village in Rwanda's Gasabo District -- illustrates both.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-1340/Guillaume Bonn

Efforts to promote stability and reconciliation after the 1994 Rwandan genocide continue to show success. The child mortality rate, while still one of the highest in the world, is declining, and education, health care and gender parity continue to improve. Women hold 45 out of 80 parliamentary seats, the highest female-to-male ratio of parliamentarians in the world, and girls enrol in primary school at higher rates than boys. Public health initiatives have caused dramatic improvements in access to healthcare. Ninety-four per cent of pregnant women now receive antenatal care, and the number of HIV-positive people receiving ARVs has increased 50-fold since 2002.

From November 19 through April 2010, Faces of Freedom, a photography exhibition documenting efforts to end child labor in South Asia’s carpet industry, will be on display at Miami International Airport’s South Terminal Art Gallery. The collection of photos, developed by the Washington, DC-based organization RugMark USA together with award-winning photographer U. Roberto Romano, takes you behind the looms and inside the lives of children illegally employed to weave carpets in India, Nepal, and Pakistan.

© facesoffreedom.rugmark.org

One of the photographs that will be on display at the Faces of Freedom exhibition in the Miami International Airport’s South Terminal Art Gallery.

The Miami exhibition also features a breathtaking selection of child labor-free Himalayan wool carpets by Odegard, a national leader in contemporary carpet design. RugMark is an international nonprofit organization working to end child labor and offer educational opportunities to children in South Asia. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF and UNICEF have supported RugMark’s child rescue and rehabilitation work since 1994.

In conjunction with the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, the exhibit’s national co-sponsor, Faces of Freedom is being hosted in venues across North America to herald the progress made in the fight against child labor worldwide. Venues include the Russell Senate Rotunda and the World Bank in Washington, DC; UNICEF Headquarters in New York; the Minneapolis Children’s Theater; and the San Francisco Design Center. To learn more, visit FacesofFreedom.GoodWeave.org.

Every day, 24,000 children die from preventable causes, simply because they don’t have access to clean water, immunizations, proper nutrition, or protection from exploitation and during emergencies. The lifesaving work of UNICEF and likeminded organizations such as RugMark are bringing us closer and closer to the day when the number of children dying from preventable causes is finally zero.

Our latest Annual Report (click here to download a PDF) just came out, so I thought I'd share this fantastic UNICEF photo that's featured on the cover:

© UNICEF/NYHQ2006-1355/Claudio Versiani

Meet Poliana da Silva, age 7, and her brother, Gabriel, age 4, who live in on the outskirts of the city of Olinda, in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco, Brazil.

Despite its commitment to ending poverty and hunger, the Brazilian government keeps a tight rein on social spending in order to pay its debts. There are some 62 million Brazilians under the age of 18, but only a fraction of the national budget is allocated to programs for children. That's where UNICEF comes in, supporting programs for health, nutrition, education, clean water, sanitation and child protection.

And that's something to smile about.

Pneumonia is the leading cause of mortality in children under 5, killing more than 4,000 every day.

Today—the first-ever World Pneumonia Day—UNICEF and the World Health Organization are launching an action plan against pneumonia, which could save more than five million children over six years if it's adopted worldwide.

Big numbers. Here's one kid, just a year and a half old, exhausted from his struggle against the preventable disease:

© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-00814/Ramoneda

His mom, Tasleem Mondy, is carrying him home from the Sindh Government Children’s Hospital in the city of Karachi, Pakistan, where he spent nearly a month being treated for pneumonia. He continues to get fortified milk to treat his malnutrition and Tasleem spends an hour walking to the hospital every day because she can't afford the 35-rupee bus fare.

You can download the complete Global Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Pneumonia (GAPP) here.

Last week we reported that funding shortfalls could threaten humanitarian assistance activities that are so desperately needed in Somalia. One of UNICEF's key areas of concern is preventing and treating malnutrition in children, so I thought I'd share this photo taken at a UNICEF-supported nutrition program in Jamalaaye, a camp for displaced people in the north-western city of Berbera.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0200/Nicholas Ysenburg

The girl in the background is eating a ready-to-eat therapeutic food.

In Somalia, armed conflicts, droughts and floods have displaced over one million people and have contributed to a nutrition crisis that leaves one in six children under the age of five acutely malnourished.

UNICEF and its partners currently provide nutritional support to over 100,000 children per month. Nevertheless, over 300,000 children are expected to experience acute malnutrition over the course of the year.

If you would like to support UNICEF's work for children in Somalia, please click here.

(Brought to you Tuesday, courtesy of an ISP that shall go unnamed...)

Yesterday, following in the footsteps of Audrey Hepburn, Danny Kaye, Shakira, Sir Roger Moore, David Beckham, Jackie Chan, Mia Farrow and many others, Orlando Bloom was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, in recognition of his commitment to the rights of children around the world.

Here's a photo of him in Nepal:

© UNICEF/NYHQ2007-2015/Brian Sokol

Bloom is kissing a sleeping baby in the village of Kalika in Kaski District at a UNICEF-supported community growth monitoring program. He's wearing garlands of fresh flowers around his neck and has a red 'tikka' mark on his forehead, both local symbols of welcome.

On the occasion of his appointment, Bloom said:

"UNICEF doesn't just deliver humanitarian aid, which is what they are known for all over the world. They also educate and provide tools which help women and children face challenges specific to their own lives. I responded to how UNICEF works as much as I did to the work itself. I look forward to learning more and to supporting UNICEF any way I can."

We're delighted to welcome Orlando Bloom to the UNICEF family.

The earthquake that struck Indonesia's West Sumatra province last week left hundreds dead, and hundreds of thousands of families and children without homes.

“Every one of those children is acutely vulnerable to potential disease, lack of shelter, disruption to education, and the traumatic effects of living through such an experience,” said UNICEF Country Representative in Indonesia, Angela Kearney.

This is one of those children, in Padang:

© UNICEF/2009/Estey

UNICEF Indonesia is providing water pumps, jerry cans, hygiene kits, school tents, schools-in-a-box, and recreational kits to help children re-establish a sense of normalcy.

If you would like to support UNICEF's relief efforts in Indonesia, you can make an online donation here.

We'll continue posting new information as it's available to us. Thank you for your concern and commitment.

With a new storm threatening to strike this week, we're saying prayers for everyone who's been affected by Tropical Storm Ondoy and the terrible floods it caused. Our colleagues in Manila have sent some photos; this one hints at the scale of the devastation:

© P. Wurzel/UNICEF

UNICEF has already delivered emergency supplies and will continue working to meet children's immediate and ongoing needs. In the densely populated regions affected by the storm, disease could spread in the weeks ahead, compounded by inadequate water and sanitation/hygiene resources.

To support UNICEF's relief efforts for children in the Philippines, please click here.

Speakers at the event included Caryl Stern, President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF; Nina Smith, Executive Director of RugMark USA; U. Roberto Romano; and Kailash Satyarthi, founder of RugMark and Chair of the Global March Against Child Labor. All of the speakers addressed the pressing issue of child labor and celebrated UNICEF’s and RugMark’s efforts toward ending the use of child labor in the handmade rug industry.

Today is the International Day of Peace.

Here's a photo to celebrate it:

© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-1260/Ramoneda

This girl is standing in a classroom at the Aman Kot Girls’ Primary and Middle School, in a town in Pakistan's Swat District, where hundreds of schools were damaged or completely destroyed during the recent fighting.

Back to school: that's a real "peace dividend."

Last week we were celebrating the drop in child mortality to 24,000 a day. For me, this photo captures one aspect of what we were so happy about, and what we continue working for: two kids, alive and happy, in school and energized by their education:

© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-1243/Pirozzi

These boys are in a pre-school class at a public primary school in Madagascar. It's one 360 schools that offers public pre-school classes. The Government, with assistance from UNICEF, is introducing early childhood development programs in schools throughout the country.

On a Monday morning, this smile is going to keep me believing in zero.

Week 2 of my weekly photo column endeavor. Labor Day. With gratitude for all the people working non-stop around the world to save kids' lives, here's a new "photo of the week":

© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0452/Riccardo Gangale

Here's a girl registering for a medical consultation at a hospital--Specialist Hospital--in Bauchi, Nigeria.

In Nigeria, malaria is responsible for approximately 25 percent of all under-five deaths, and at Specialist Hospital, malaria patients represent an estimated 46 percent of the case load.

Though malaria is largely preventable and treatable, an estimated 250,000 children under the age of five die every year of malaria in Nigeria.

UNICEF's strategy to combat malaria is twofold: prevention, including widespread use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, and treatment, including distribution of affordable medicines.

Want to help? You can send mosquito nets to the field though UNICEF's Inspired Gifts program. Check it out here.

It's in quotes because I'm already, from week 1, wondering if I'll really be able to keep to the schedule. But the idea is to give you all something stunning to look at on Mondays: something to look forward to, something to bring home visually what UNICEF's work is all about, something to inspire you in your own efforts to make the world a better place for children and for us all. Here goes:

© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0916/Sokol

In this photo, you're seeing people--including some young ones--through a car windshield, carrying bundles of fodder for cattle as night falls in Saharsa District, India. The global economic downturn could result in increased poverty in India, particularly in Bihar State, where many already live at the edge of subsistence. Child malnutrition in Bihar is 56% higher than usual, and 8% of children suffer from severe acute malnutrition, which is life-threatening.

If you would like to make a donation to support UNICEF's work for children in India, please click here.

If you'd like to see more Fieldnotes posts referencing India, click here.

And if you've got ideas for a better headline, let me know.

The U.S. Fund for UNICEF and RugMark Foundation USA are cosponsoring Faces of Freedom, a photography exhibit touring North America throughout 2009. This collection of photographs, taken by acclaimed documentary photographer U. Roberto Romano, depicts illegal child labor in South Asia’s handmade rug industry and RugMark’s innovative efforts to eradicate it.

© facesoffreedom.rugmark.org

Visit facesoffreedom.rugmark.org for the complete exhibition calendar and a preview of the photos.

Every day, 25,000 children die from preventable causes, simply because they don’t have access to clean water, immunizations, proper nutrition, or protection from exploitation and during emergencies. The lifesaving work of UNICEF and likeminded organizations such as RugMark are bringing us closer and closer to the day when the number of children dying from preventable causes is finally zero.

Faces of Freedom will be on public display in the San Francisco Design Center from May 13 to June 13, as well as the Danny Kaye Visitor’s Center, located in the lobby of UNICEF House in New York City, from September 23 to October 16. Visit facesoffreedom.rugmark.org for the complete exhibition calendar and a preview of the photos.

I recently had the great fortune of spending over a week in Uganda with a friend. She was considering working at a hospital located in the Bwindi region in the southwest corner of the country, and she asked if I wanted to join her in a scouting trip of the hospital.

My answer? “I’m packing my bags right now!”

For a photographer like myself, the opportunity to see "the pearl of Africa," as Winston Churchill once described Uganda, was one I could not pass up. I was also excited to visit the Bwindi Community Hospital which, I learned, bordered the Impenetrable Forest. With a name like that, I imagined magical and wonderful things must happen there. But what I experienced in Bwindi was beyond my wildest imagination.

© Kate Horton

Anna and her 11-month-old daughter, Rachel, arrived at the Bwindi Community Hospital after a five-hour walk from their home village of Kyishegeri. Anna sought medical treatment at the hospital for Rachel’s severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhea.

Working for UNICEF, I have seen countless photos and videos of children suffering from fatal diseases, unimaginable poverty and unavoidable catastrophes. Many evoke anger, supreme sadness and heartache. But none could fully prepare me for meeting children suffering from all of these problems face-to-face. As I walked passed the beds in the children’s ward, a mother wearing a bright, daffodil-colored dress, cradling her tiny infant, caught my eye. I approached them and saw that the little girl had a tube placed in her nose. Between long, labored blinks, she stared intently at her mother.

The honor of first place in the 2008 “UNICEF Photo of the Year” competition goes to young Belgian photographer Alice Smeets. Her winning picture shows a girl in the largest slum in Hait's capital city, Port-au-Prince, following a series of multiple hurricanes that left much of the city under water for weeks. Although she has to live between dirt and rubbish, the girl is wearing a clean white dress with matching ribbons in her hair, while also walking barefoot through the mud.

© Alice Smeets/Belgium/2008

First place winner of the UNICEF Photo of the Year 2008 competition, taken in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Alice Smeets, a 21-year-old photographer from Eupen, Belgium, is the youngest winner in the history of the contest.

“The photo shows us the courage and energy of a little girl who is growing up in the face of adversity. Children from the poorest backgrounds often demonstrate the greatest strength,” said UNICEF patroness Eva Luise Köhler at a recent award ceremony, held in Berlin, Germany.

Second prize in the competition went to Israeli photographer Oded Bality of the Associated Press. His photo was taken 10 days after the catastrophic May 12 earthquake in the Chinese province of Sichuan—in which 70,000 people lost their lives.

© Oded Bality/Israel/2008

Second prize winner, taken in China 10 days after the Sichuan earthquake.

The photo shows survivors in a camp near the city of Mianzhu. Even though Chinese authorities and aid organizations were relatively quick to supply emergency food and housing, all the survivors will struggle for a long time with the psychological effects of the earthquake. UNICEF supports the psychosocial care of children who lost their parents, teachers and friends in the catastrophic earthquake.

It’s not always easy to have your picture taken. You’re exposed, feel self-conscious, and if you fuss too much about the photo, then you’re considered vain. So when I’m asked to take photos of my colleagues for, let’s say, an internal inspirational poster (at right) based off our recent "Believe in Zero" campaign, or portraits of the executives for the website, I know I have a challenge before me.

Unlike our wonderful celebrity ambassadors, many U.S. Fund for UNICEF employees are reluctant to stand in front of a camera—let alone have their picture reproduced and distributed or visible to anyone tooling around on our website.

But I’ve discovered a technique that works quite well to get people in the mood and get the results I’m looking for in a portrait. I insist: “Think ZERO!” and sure enough, they straighten up, dip into their reservoir of patience and adopt a look of resolve.

In fact, when I made my command to one of the executives I was photographing, she spoke to me a bit about what it means to her to "believe in zero." She had recently returned from a field trip where she painfully witnessed a child die from tetanus. This was one of many trips she has made over the years—and the majority had been to some of the most deprived places on the planet. But this particular experience had obviously impacted her on a particularly deep level. After a few moments, she gathered herself and we went on to take a number of portraits that, I think, were very successful in conveying the mood and power of believing in zero.

It impresses me how U.S. Fund employees have embraced the sentiment of Believe in Zero. I pass by cubicles daily that have the internal poster, containing portraits of several of their colleagues, prominently displayed. For me personally, the posters have served as a daily reminder that, not only have we accomplished a lot (child mortality has gone down by nearly 60 percent since 1960) but—as the poster points out—“Our work will not be done until the number of children dying is zero.”

Being a photographer assigned to shoot reluctant subjects has certainly been a test of will, but rewarding in its own way. I appreciate the opportunity to work one-on-one with people in different departments, and get an understanding of their own approaches to our unified mission of bringing the number of preventable child deaths down to zero!

This is part three of a three-part series on UNICEF photography workshops for kids.

A camera can be a key to the future.

For the children who have participated in UNICEF’s photography workshops, the act of taking pictures not only empowers them to tell their own stories—it unlocks their potential and reveals new life opportunities.

“These workshops help children establish a vision of the future where they see themselves as capable, confident contributors,” says Amanda Melville, Child Protection Specialist with UNICEF Headquarters.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2007-2088/Gilbert Tuyishime

RWANDA: Galet, 10, dives into Lake Kivu, in the city of Gisenyi in West Province. The photograph was taken by Gilbert Tuyishime, 13, one of 20 students who participated in a UNICEF-organized photography workshop to increase awareness about malaria and related issues. Gilbert was part of the 'environment' theme group.

Take UNICEF’s Eye See II photo workshop in Pakistan. Young survivors of the monstrous earthquake that struck northern Pakistan in October 2005 were given cameras and challenged to capture their vision for rebuilding the region. Among the 30,000 images they compiled, 35 were selected by professional photographers for an international exhibition. Beginning in Islamabad, the exhibition went on to New York, London, Tokyo and Rome.

The children were also asked to identify some of their communities’ most urgent needs. The young photographers said that homes and schools should be reconstructed and that paved roads should be built, so their mothers wouldn’t have to spend as much time gathering food and water. The government vowed to incorporate the children’s concerns into reconstruction plans.

Beginning November 25, 2008 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Third World Congress against the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents seeks global protection policies to prevent the sexual abuse of children. A guiding principle is that silence on this abuse is a form of acceptance.

Click here to launch a new UNICEF photo essay on the sexual exploitation of children.

This is part two of a three part series on UNICEF photography workshops for kids.

Kids in the developing world and in crisis situations are no strangers to cameras. Often, as they're lined up for water or navigating the debris of war, there are photojournalists on hand to document their plight. The images that result, though captured with the best of intentions, often emphasize the great gap between the children pictured and us, the viewers.

© UNICEF/ HQ07-2141/Archie Pah

LIBERIA: Two-year-old Mending covers one eye at a therapeutic feeding centre in Virginia, a suburb of Monrovia, the capital. She is malnourished and also suffers from malaria. The photograph was taken by Archie Pah, age 14.

Ellen Tolmie, Director of UNICEF's global photography operations, explains how UNICEF photography workshops flip the relationship. "Children in developing countries are used to being photographed. Now they get to photograph. It's an empowerment tool, but it's also a demystifier." Suddenly the camera isn't an invasive tool used to further objectify the children, making them symbols of suffering. Instead, cameras give them the power to capture and document their own experience.

Working in the Communications Department of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, I often get intimate glimpses of people’s lives all over the world. Part of my work entails researching photos of children and their families, many who live in developing countries and suffer from poverty, disease, disaster and other ills.

The images range from the horrible to the hopeful: a child succumbing quietly to fatal malnutrition, preschoolers in rapt attention as a teacher explains how to spot landmines, mothers in colorful wraps with rosy infants waiting for lifesaving vaccines.

© UNICEF/HQ06-1234/Zubair

PAKISTAN: Child’s View – Zubair, 8, photographs himself in the village of Haji Abad in Mansehra District in North Western Frontier Province. “I wanted to see my own image so I took this picture to see what I look like,” he said. “The three main needs in our community are shelter, food and water.” Zubair is one of 160 children who participated in the EYE SEE II project for earthquake-affected children.

Even among these powerful images, a few stand out as extraordinary. These are pictures not just of children, but by them.

These photos are the product of UNICEF photography workshops, week-long events that take place around the world and focus on local children. Collectively coordinated by UNICEF photographers, country offices, local NGOs, corporate sponsors, and, of course, children, the program empowers young people to document the world around them—to tell their own stories.

You’ve read our blog postings during the weeks leading up to Halloween asking our volunteers and supporters to get involved in a variety of ways: host a Halloween Party, Text-to-Treat, and share pictures at flickr, and more.

© Yenny Darmajaya, 2008

This Atlanta-based youth group had a smash hit Halloween Party for UNICEF and posted their photo to the flickr group.

The 2008 campaign was our best year yet! While we are still receiving all the coins everyone collected, we offer a special thanks to all our volunteers for all your efforts in participating in Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign.

We asked our volunteers to host Halloween Parties, and are thrilled to report more than 625 registered their parties with us and have already started sharing their photos. Check them out, and if you haven’t already, post your party photos as well!

Thank you for your support of UNICEF!

UNICEF Ambassador Mia Farrow just returned from a week-long trip to the Central African Republic. She brought back some pictures that we wanted to share with you below. She also brought back some sobering news, describing the people of the Central African Republic as, "without question, the most abandoned people on the earth."

© UNICEF/ HQ08-0580/Pierre Holtz

Mia Farrow takes notes during a visit to a "bush school" in the northwestern province of Ouham-Pendé. Working with the Italian NGO COOPI, UNICEF reopened 104 schools in 2007, serving some 32,000 primary school students. More than half of the schools are located in the bush where families have taken refuge, afraid to return to their villages following attacks by armed groups.

The Central African Republic (CAR) has been ravaged by civil war for a decade now, in addition to being affected by the conflict in neighboring Sudan. What's even worse, the people of CAR are terrorized by gangs of bandits who loot property and kidnap children. As a result, many families with children hide in the bush where they are threatened by disease and rape, have little to eat or drink, and have no school for their children to attend. More than 300,000 people are now refugees in their own country, and almost a million people have been affected by the ongoing violence.

This time, it's the children themselves who are taking the pictures. Recently, two groups of kids participated in UNICEF-supported photography workshops in Liberia and Rwanda. The children were given digital cameras so they could document their lives and, by working on specific themes, get a better understanding of the difficulties their countries face. UNICEF has just received the extraordinary images these children took, and we'd like to share some of them with you. The photos will also be shown in a traveling exhibition in Canada, Liberia, Rwanda, Japan and other countries.

© UNICEF/ HQ07-2164/Gay Handful

Liberia: An adolescent boy walks through standing water, a common breeding ground for malaria-bearing mosquitoes, in Fiamah, a slum area of Monrovia, the capital. The photograph was taken by Gay Handful, 14.

The situation for children continues to worsen in Myanmar as thousands of children have been separated from their families, many more are living in desperate conditions in relief camps, and some are drinking water from ponds covered with dead bodies.

Below, a man collects wood near the carcass of a cow killed by the cyclone, some 50 kilometres south-west of the township of Kunyangon. As bodies decompose, the water supply is further contaminated.

Here, a woman breastfeeds her infant in the temporary shelter of a monastery near the village of Pyanpon in the southern Irrawaddy Division. Behind them, another woman and child share the same bed. They have all been displaced by the cyclone.

UNICEF has distributed pre-positioned supplies to hard-hit areas. Below, a man secures a UNICEF aid package to the back of his bicycle, with the help of his two sons, in the cyclone-affected township of Kunyangon in the southern Yangon Division.

More to follow.

In the meantime, if you want to help, please consider making a donation or posting a badge on your website or blog.

Thank you for your support.

Children and their families living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory of Gaza are facing particularly hard times this year. Because of ongoing conflict in the region, Israel began limiting its fuel supply to Gaza in early 2007. This means that families have limited power and running water in their homes and hospitals are run on emergency generators. School supplies, building materials and even food are also no longer regularly distributed. UNICEF and its partners have stepped up to try and fill this gap by distributing safe drinking water, medical supplies, and education and recreation kits.

In the pictures below, meet some of the children of Gaza.

© UNICEF/ HQ08-0198

Above, a father and three of his children sit in the window of their destroyed home in the southern city of Rafah. They would like to return permanently and rebuild their former home, but under the current restrictions, no building materials are allowed into the territory.

UNICEF just received some new photos from the Pacific Islands that we wanted to share with you. Kiribati, where the photos below were taken, is one of 14 Pacific Island countries, which spread across 12 million square miles in the Pacific Ocean.

Because the population lives on so many small islands, and because the area is vulnerable to natural disasters like typhoons and volcanoes, this region has some unique challenges when it comes to reaching its children. UNICEF is working across all the islands to bring medical services, vaccines, clean water, and education to the children of the Pacific Islands.

© UNICEF/ HQ06-2470/Giacomo Pirozzi
Above, Kavarerei holds his six-month-old baby brother, Naonao, in front of their home in Tarawa, the capital of Kiribati. Their father died and they live with their mother and four siblings.

Almost every year Mozambique is hit by floods during the rainy season, and thousands of families must often leave their homes. This year, 50,000 people have so far been displaced. The government of Mozambique is working on relocating people to safer areas permanently, but until then, UNICEF and many other agencies are on the ground helping out.

With your support, we're able to supply safe drinking water and proper sanitation, distribute mosquito nets to prevent malaria, set up temporary schools, and make sure that children are protected during this difficult time. Here are some pictures from the Baue resettlement centre in Mutarrara, Tete Province.

© UNICEF/Thierry Delvigne-Jean
A UNICEF communication specialist speaks with Rita Mello, 10, and her mother to help identify the needs of the people in the resettlement center. Rita and her mother are waiting to be registered in order to receive a plot of land and basic material to build a shelter.

© UNICEF/Thierry Delvigne-Jean
A boy named Tcholo, 10, stands in front of his shelter. Tcholo and his family were relocated to Baue in early January after their house and plot of land along the Zambezi River were flooded by the rising water.

© UNICEF/Thierry Delvigne-Jean
Several thousands people have been displaced to Baue Resettlement Centre over the past few weeks from low-lying areas along the Zambezi River. The center was set up as a permanent resettlement area. However, since January 2008, the number of people in the centre has doubled due to the current flooding.

© UNICEF/Thierry Delvigne-Jean
A young girl holding a plate waits for her family to be registered.

Children have been especially affected by the devastating cyclone that hit the Bangladesh coast on November 15. We've been reporting on UNICEF's emergency response, and below is a series of images that illustrates one young girl's experience in the aftermath of the cyclone: Lisa, a nine-year-old in the village of Amua.

If you want to donate to support relief efforts to save kids' lives, click here.

© UNICEF/HQ07-1809/Shehzad Noorani

Above, Lisa stands near her home. Amua is in Barisal District, one of the areas hardest hit in the storm. Below, she's gathering wood debris from the house. It can't be used for rebuilding, but can be used as fuel for cooking.

© UNICEF/HQ07-1811/Shehzad Noorani

Below, Lisa stands with a younger brother and her grandmother in front of her uncle’s house. They survived the cyclone by standing with her uncle’s family on a platform under the roof of the house.

© UNICEF/HQ07-1812/Shehzad Noorani

Lisa helps her father lay fishing nets, and is also taking care of the younger children in her family.

© UNICEF/HQ07-1814/Shehzad Noorani

© UNICEF/HQ07-1817/Shehzad Noorani

We'll share more photos from Bangladesh as they come in...

UNICEF runs vaccination campaigns around the world. We've been reporting on some of them recently -- in Afghanistan, in Indonesia... The campaigns are tailored to the locations, but one thing always seems to be the same: kids don't enjoy them. Here's three-month-old Vishal, crying as he's vaccinated against polio, at a community health center in India's Rajasthan State.

© UNICEF/HQ05-2387/Anita Khemka

Forty percent of the world's children receive immunizations through UNICEF's leadership. That's a lot of tears, but also a lot of young lives saved.

In Afghanistan, insecurity and violence continue to impede recovery from decades of war and limit progress for all the country’s 25 million people—particularly its children and women.

© UNICEF/HQ07-1080/Shehzad Noorani
A health worker vaccinates a child at Torkham, a town on the Pakistani border. He is part of a mobile team immunizing children as they leave or enter the country. Wild poliovirus is known to still circulate on both sides of the border. The boy is held by his father, who also pulls a cart carrying his three daughters. Nearby, other people carry goods and belongings along the Kabul-Torkham Highway, one of the country’s main roads, linking the port of Karachi in Pakistan to the Afghan capital, Kabul.

© UNICEF/HQ07-1091/Shehzad Noorani
(Left-right) Two girls operate a UNICEF-provided handpump, while several of their classmates wash their hands at Phool-e-Rangeena Government School in the north-western city of Herat.

© UNICEF/HQ07-1086/Noorani
Girls raise their hands in a tent classroom at Phool-e-Rangeena Government School in the north-western city of Herat. Like many schools throughout the country, the facility has been overwhelmed with children returning to classrooms after years of conflict. Some 7,000 children attend class in three daily shifts. Aside from the main building, there are 30 tents on the school’s grounds, donated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The hot, harsh, windy climate has damaged many of the tents. UNICEF supports the school with water points, latrines, teacher training and school supplies.

© UNICEF/HQ07-1241/Rich
A girl who is not wearing a scarf covers her face with her hands in a gesture of modesty, in a classroom with other girls at Qalai Sayedan Girls’ School in Qalai Sayedan Village in the central Logar Province. At least three girls have been killed in four separate attacks on the school by anti-government forces.

© UNICEF/HQ07-1246/Sebastian Rich
Rahmatuallah, 14, sits holding his crutches at a UNICEF-assisted reintegration and rehabilitation center for war-affected children in the southern city of Kandahar. Rahmatuallah’s father was killed in the war, and the rest of his family, including his mother and six siblings, were forced to flee their village. Rahmatuallah lost his leg in a landmine explosion last year and is waiting to be outfitted for a new prosthetic. He comes to the center every day on the back of his brother’s bicycle. “I love coming to the center,” he said. “With my new leg and skills, I will be useful again and will be able to help my family.”

© UNICEF/HQ07-1082/Noorani
Noor Ahmad, 15, uses a hand saw to cut a piece of wood while his teacher supervises, during a carpentry workshop at a UNICEF-assisted reintegration and rehabilitation center for war-affected children in the Sara Jama neighbourhood of the southern city of Kandahar. Another boy (left) shaves wood. Noor has never been to school due to poverty and constant conflict around him. He remains traumatized by the death of a cousin, killed in an explosion. And his brother lost a leg in a landmine accident. Some 3,000 children, including former child soldiers, attend such centers, where they learn vocational skills and receive psychosocial counseling.

In Liberia, children continue to suffer the consequences of a 14-year civil war that displaced more than 800,000 people and decimated infrastructure and services. UNICEF and its partners continue to provide health care, education, protection, clean water and sanitation for thousands of children living in camps for internally displaced populations.

© UNICEF/HQ07-0642/Giacomo Pirozzi Children play outside Honduni Public School, a combined primary and secondary school in the village of Honduni in the north-western Lofa County. UNICEF supports the school’s Accelerated Learning Program (ALP), which condenses six years of primary schooling into three to enable children to make up for years lost to armed conflict. UNICEF also provides learning materials, teacher training, and water and sanitation services.

© UNICEF/HQ07-0628/Giacomo Pirozzi (Left-right) Moses, 12, and Patrick, 10, study together at Kobelema Public School, a combined primary and secondary school in the village of Kobelema in north-western Lofa County.

© UNICEF/HQ07-0644/Giacomo Pirozzi A girl points to the blackboard during science class at Honduni Public School, a combined primary and secondary school in the village of Honduni in the north-western Lofa County.

© UNICEF/HQ07-0572/Giacomo Pirozzi A health worker vaccinates an infant against polio at Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town, a neighbourhood of Monrovia, the capital. UNICEF supports the hospital’s breastfeeding, growth monitoring and immunization programs, and provides staff training, medical equipment and essential drugs and supplies.

© UNICEF/HQ07-0580/Giacomo Pirozzi An infant is weighed in a sling scale, as part of a UNICEF-assisted growth monitoring program, at Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town.

© UNICEF/HQ07-0589/Giacomo Pirozzi A mural shows two families in bed, one being attacked by mosquitoes, the other beneath an insecticide-treated bednet, with the words ‘Use Mosquitoes [sic] Bed Net to Avoid Malaria’, at Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town.

In Côte d’Ivoire, UNICEF supports children who continue to suffer the consequences of a civil conflict that broke out in 2002.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2763/Bruno Brioni Ilias, 2, a malnourished child, drinks a cup of fortified milk, while his smiling mother watches, in a health center the central city of Bouaké. UNICEF provides supplementary feeding and works with the World Food Program to provide monthly food rations, consisting of oil, soy and maize flour, rice, salt and beans, to area families. UNICEF also provides the center with voluntary HIV/AIDS testing and counselling, and essential medicines and supplies.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2800/Bruno Brioni An infant is weighed at a hospital in Yopougon, a neighbourhood of Abidjan, the country’s commercial capital. UNICEF supports the hospital’s primary care and antenatal programs, including an initiative to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2748/Bruno Brioni Maryam, 8 (left), and Aminata, 8 (right), stand outside their primary school in the north-eastern town of Bouna in the rebel-controlled zone. They are holding backpacks that bear the logos of UNICEF and the EU. Above their heads, the entrance to the school is decorated with the logos of the Ministry of Education, UNGEI, the EU and UNICEF, as well as with a campaign poster that shows a girl who wants to go to school. UNICEF helped rehabilitate the damaged school and now provides learning materials and teacher training.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2758/Bruno Brioni Students poke their heads into their classroom, through the decorative holes of a concrete wall, at a UNICEF-assisted primary school in the village of Douakankro, near the central city of Bouaké in the rebel-controlled zone.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2801/Bruno Brioni Boys watch their teacher write on the blackboard during a tutoring session at a primary school in the village of Béoué, near the western town of Man in the rebel-controlled zone. They are former child soldiers participating in a UNICEF-supported demobilization and reintegration program. The program, which has helped demobilize over 4,000 child soldiers, offers education, vocational training, psychosocial support and health care within an integrated community setting. One boy (foreground) wears a T-shirt showing a pink ‘X’ through the word ‘violence’ and bearing the program's slogan ‘Protect our Children’ (in French).

As new sanctions are imposed and G8 ministers prepare to discuss the situation in Darfur, UNICEF is continuing its lifesaving work for the millions of children caught in the crisis.

Clean water, nutrition, medicine -- these are all critical needs in the camps, and UNICEF is meeting them. Equally important for kids' survival are education and the opportunity to play.

Here in a UNICEF-supported children's center in the Al-Riyad Camp for the displaced, a teacher helps a young girl with her lessons. The dirt-floor classroom contains a large blackboard, as well as individual slates for children. The center also provides teaching and learning supplies, toys and games, psychosocial support, and a program of recreational activities for the kids.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2184/Georgina Cranston

The boys below are playing soccer at the Madinat-Al-Hujaj ("Pilgrims") Camp, where UNICEF is the lead agency for child protection. UNICEF's sport and recreation programs create safe environments and opportunities to play for these kids.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2173/Georgina Cranston

UNICEF staff are working to save kids just like Madiha and Maria below. If you'd like to help, please click here to make a donation.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2182/Georgina Cranston

The situation of children and women in the Darfur region of Sudan remains tenuous. The civil conflict that began in 2003 has killed up to 450,000 people and driven 1.8 million people from their homes. UNICEF is currently providing humanitarian assistance to some 2 million vulnerable children, who represent over 60 percent of the region’s population. These photos begin to speak to the broad range of services necessary for kids to survive in camps.

Below, children and women are filling jerrycans with clean water from a UNICEF-provided Mark II-type handpump at Ardamata Camp for displaced people, on the outskirts of El-Geneina. UNICEF has helped ensure that 60 percent of the conflict-affected population in Darfur has access to clean water, and 50 percent to improved sanitation. But water-borne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera are still responsible for one-third of under-five deaths in the region.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2208/Georgina Cranston

This boy washes his hands with a pitcher of water and a bar of soap after using a tent latrine at Al-Riyad Camp, also on the outskirts of El-Geneina.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2193/Georgina Cranston

Late last year, a UNICEF-supported nutrition assessment found that malnutrition among children under five in the Darfur region remained close to the global-emergency threshold of 15 percent. Supplemental feeding programs in the camps begin to address the situation, and children improve quickly with good nutrition.

Below, twenty-month-old Gassim Shak Juma has his arm circumference measured by a health worker (right) as he sits in his mother’s lap, at a UNICEF nutrition center in the Ardamata Camp. Gassim is being treated in a supplemental feeding program and health workers are monitoring his growth and progress.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2200/Georgina Cranston

This is six-year-old Halima Abaks Sanasi, at the same nutrition center. She has gained weight since starting the feeding program, but must still gain more. The infant behind her is also malnourished.

© UNICEF/HQ06-2197/Georgina Cranston

I'll post some more photos to give you a sense of UNICEF's education and recreation programs for kids in the camps of Darfur soon. In the meantime, if you'd like to support UNICEF's work for the children of Darfur, please click here.

Kristen Mangelinkx from UNICEF's Boston blogged on her trip to Madagascar. She's back in Boston now, and we've got some of her pix to share with you.

This baby is waiting to receive vitamin A and de-worming tablets at the health center in her village.

This mother and child are at one of the UNICEF health centers in the Sava region.

Members of the group taking advantage of the latrines at a school supported by UNICEF:

More to follow...

In May 2006, an earthquake hit the island of Java, killing some 5,700 people. More than 37,000 others were injured in the disaster, which severely damaged or destroyed infrastructure, transportation and communication systems, homes and schools. About 40 percent of the roughly 130,000 people displaced in the region were children. With the generous support of donors, UNICEF has been working to restore these children's lives.

© UNICEF/HQ06-1861/Josh Estey

Above, two girls play with hula hoops near a UNICEF tent at the children’s center in Wedi Village. They are among more than 1,500 young survivors receiving care and protection at UNICEF-established children’s centers in the earthquake-ravaged area. The centers provide trauma counselling and safe spaces for children to learn and play.

© UNICEF/HQ06-1837/Josh Estey

Here, UNICEF Project Officer Dr. Kinny Peetosutan explains the dangers of measles to families in Oepura Village and tells them how to protect their children from the virus. The area has experienced repeated outbreaks of the disease, which is a principal cause of blindness in children and can lead to pneumonia, encephalitis and other fatal illnesses. UNICEF is providing vaccines as well as vitamin A supplements for children under five, to boost their immune systems, as part of a national measles campaign to immunize at least 90 percent of the country’s children against the disease by the end of 2007. The two girls below are waiting to be vaccinated at the Kopeta "Puskesmas"’ (community health center) in the north-eastern port town of Maumere.

© UNICEF/HQ06-1798/Josh Estey