We are in the Chiaquelane camp near Chokwe, the city in Mozambique that was devastated by the flooding of the Limpopo River. Most of the city’s 70,000 residents escaped with whatever they could grab, as violent waters engulfed their homes.
Arsenia is 15 years old, and the day the waters came, Arsenia fled her home with three aunts and 12 cousins, most of them under the age of ten.
With no tent for shelter, Arsenia and her family spend long days at Chiaquelane exposed to the elements, come hellish heat or rain. But things are getting better at the camp. Even morning classes have started, a relief for Arsenia, who says she misses school and her schoolbooks.

In September 2011, two months after famine was officially declared in the Horn of Africa by the United Nations, Freelance journalist Abdi Aziiz Abdi Nur was in the southern region of Somalia—the hardest-hit area. He reports on what he experienced then, and how now—almost a year later— the situation has changed. He also meets up with five-year-old Abdi again, who was being treated for severe malnutrition when Nur first met him last year.

Sports fans, rejoice: Today marks the opening of the 2012 Olympic Games! My family and I are definitely going to spend the next two weeks gathered around the TV—and we’re not even big sports fans. But that’s what makes the Olympics so special: they’re not just about athletic achievement. The games are an expression of global unity and a celebration of human endurance.
UNICEF knows all about the power and importance of sports, especially in a child’s life, and uses sports in very targeted ways to improve the lives of children.

One year ago, a humanitarian crisis was taking place in the Horn of Africa. Two million children were at the risk of dying of starvation, and on July 20, 2011 the United Nations declared famine in parts of Somalia. Thanks to the generous support from donors and sponsors, 1 million children have been treated for malnutrition in the region.
On this anniversary we wanted to go beyond just the numbers and get a more personal perspective on the situation. So I sat down with Lisa Szarkowski, Vice President of Public Advocacy and Strategic Communications for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, who had been in the region during the crisis. Lisa told me some very moving stories of the
on-ground situation and the work that UNICEF does.

I recently had the opportunity to organize a roundtable discussion on the emergency in the Sahel region of Africa. The event, co-hosted by the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and the Corporate Council on Africa, provided corporate participants an overview of the crisis and the impact of the drought and malnutrition on the region. Guillaume Sauval, Emergency Specialist at UNICEF’s Office of Emergency Programs, explained that the causes of hunger and malnutrition in the region are deeply rooted, with chronic underdevelopment and multiple droughts in recent years leaving the population vulnerable, even to small shocks.

Mauritania—one of the nine Sahel countries that are grappling with a life-threatening nutrition crisis—is facing a double emergency. In addition to the food crisis, the country must handle an influx of refugees from neighboring, conflict-torn Mali. All told, some 700,000 people in Mauritania are struggling to get enough to eat. U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s Managing Director of Communications, Mia Brandt, recently traveled to Mauritania and witnessed firsthand the challenges facing families.