Lady to Lead Science, Education, and Culture

The UN is getting serious about its pledge to help achieve gender equality by putting a woman in charge of the UN Education, Science, and Culture Organization (UNESCO).

Irina Gueorguieva Bokova of Bulgaria won a hotly contested election against the Egyptian candidate. A vote on Monday had the two candidates deadlocked with 29 votes each. Apparently, if no one had one today's fifth round of voteing the winner would have been decided by a drawing of names out of a hat.

UNESCO has some really interesting projects including its list of World Heritage Sites, which promotes preservation of cutlural and natural landmarks around the globe.

Learn more about UNESCO at www.UNESCO.org

Oh! The Aches and Pains!

Couldn’t we all use a massage now and then to get out all the knots and kinks from a long night of studying or a difficult day in the office?

With funding from a UNHCR program aimed at teaching local and refugee women the skills they need to work as community rehabilitation workers, 29 women are learning how to treat disease, injury and deformity through exercise and physical methods at the Physiotherapy Educational Institute in Peshwar, Pakistan. Of these women, 22 are refugees from Afghanistan, who hope to apply their new skills in Afghanistan if they return.

The course is part of UNHCR’s Refugee Affected Hosting Areas (RAHA) program. There are 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan. After the devastating earthquake in northern Pakistan in 2005, which affected both Pakistanis and Afghans, the program was necessary because few people had the skills to help the thousands of people in need of rehabilitation.

For more information, check out this article.

Play safe-Help stop HIV

UNAIDS Country Coordinator, Dr. Bernhard Schwartlander, has participated in the launch of the “Play safe-Help stop HIV” campaign. This initiative to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS during the Olympics in Beijing provided 100,000 condoms accompanied by HIV prevention and anti-discrimination information at the launch in Olympic Village. Additionally, all Olympic games participants will receive an AIDS fact sheet and two AIDS videos spots featuring China’s Yao Ming and Germany’s Michael Ballack who serves as a UNAIDS Special Representative.

A 'Swish' Heard around the World

He dribbles, he shoots, he scores!

With that swish of the net, the Bulls forward Luol Deng gets the crowd cheering, and gets Sudanese kids on their feet as well. Luol donates $50 for every basket he scores to Ninemillion, a campaign created two years ago by the UNHCR, with Nike and Microsoft as invaluable team members. It hopes to give over nine million children, many in South Sudan, better access to education, sports and technology by 2010. Not only does the campaign strive to secure donations, but it wishes to give a voice to the refugee children and to inspire people of every nation with their undying courage and limitless strength.

Team up with Luol and the UNHCR in guaranteeing a brighter future for refugee children and in inspiring a new generation alive with their own hoop dreams!


JOIN OUR TEAM!

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Looking at aid on google

Google and many UN humanitarian aid agencies have now teamed up so that you can use Google Earth to look up the locations of aid distribution around the world. The UN High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) has now posted maps that show the refugee camps located in primarily Darfur, Iraq and Colombia.

This partnership is a tool to show Americans and the world the actual work that the United Nations is performing. It brings the work of humanitarian aid home.

This project is a continuance of a number of programs, in partnership with Google, that operate as tools to connect developed countries with the stories of people in developing countries and with the work that international organizations are performing. Such other projects include UNICEF's initiative to share children's stories on www.ourstories.org, a website where children from developing countries can record their journey and share it with the world.

To learn more about this:

Read the original news article:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24966&Cr=child&Cr1=

Over 6 million children to start a new school year in Afghanistan with the help of the UN

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is implementing a program to ensure that both boys and girls in Afghanistan will be given access to quality education in a safe environment. UNICEF is partnering with local organizations in Afghanistan to build more schools, provide materials for both students and teachers, and providing quality training for teachers.
A major obstacle that remains is gender disparity among boys and girls in schools, child safety, and a limited number of quality teachers. Currently, 32 percent of boys complete primary school while only 13 percent of girls complete primary school. Both UNICEF and the Girls’ Education Initiative are working diligently to enroll an additional 330,000 girls in school this year. “This is a big challenge for all of us, the Afghan nation and the Afghan children, to bring about parity, or equality, for children and ensure that all children, whether they are girls or boys, continue to go to school, and complete their schooling, so that they can contribute not only to their own development, but also contribute to the building of the country,” UNICEF’s Deputy Representative in Afghanistan, Sikander Khan, said at a press briefing in Kabul today.
Recent concerns have arisen in Afghanistan as attacks on schools and community intimidation create serious obstacles that prevent children from attending school The government, local organizations, and UNICEF are partnering to implement ways to protect families and schools from extremist attacks and small progress has been made. This year the number of children enrolled in school is 6.2 million, up from 5.7 million last year. UNICEF and the Afghan government hope to continue making progress by working together to ensure access to education and a safe future for their country and its children.

Art in Action

The power of expression was celebrated as over 12,000 children across the globe created priceless pieces of art. After the United Nations Postal Association (UNPA) declared an art competition with the theme “we can end poverty,” children from about 130 nations participated in the International Children’s Art Competition. The competition was held in honor of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

The winners of the competition were granted the honor of designing stamps that will circulate internationally. The UNPA will use 5 stamp designs created by young winning artists from Armenia, China, Indonesia and Zimbabwe to represent the poverty eradication theme.

See the joyous pieces of art and visit the gallery where the pieces are displayed in a slide show.

To learn more about how are can be used as activism on behalf of the United Nations, contact UNDP-USA.

Youth: Lots of them, lots of opportunity

There are 1.2 billion people who are between 15 and 24. That's a lot!

To take a look at the major issues, opportunities, and challenges facing these young people, on Tuesday the United Nations released The UN World Youth Report 2007.

In addition to talking about youth as a postivie force for dealing with world problems, it identifies 15 priority areas inlcuding employment, education, health, poverty and violence.

Check it out at http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/wyr07.htm.

A Partnership for Empowerment and Awareness

The discrimination that children with intellectual disabilities face often means that they are less likely to have adequate healthcare and education, and more likely to encounter violence, abuse, and exploitation. UNICEF and Special Olympics International are now collaborating to reconcile these inequalities.

On October 3, 2007, they launched a partnership focusing on healthcare, education, recreational sports, and employment policies for children with intellectual disabilities. It coincides with the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai. While in the Chinese city, UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman stated, “This new partnership will help make the point that children with disabilities have the same rights as all other children. They are entitled to adequate health care and quality education, and to live in an environment that protects them from abuse, exploitation and disease.”

The partnership will initially concentrate on Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, El Salvador, Jamaica, Panama, and Uzbekistan, before expanding to more countries in 2008. Focusing on developing countries is especially important as children with intellectual disabilities in these countries run an even higher risk of being overlooked or mistreated.

Speaking about the partnership, Special Olympics International Chairman Timothy P. Shriver explained, “We are thrilled to partner with UNICEF to empower children with intellectual disabilities and their families and to increase public awareness about critical issues facing this population in the developing world.”

Education. Empowerment. Equality. Three words a developing country loves to hear.

UNDP Serves Up Education to Syria

Jabal Al-Hoss, a rural region in south east Syria, is comprised of 156 villages. The richness of color and natural beauty in the area provides stark contrast to the poverty in which the majority of the regions estimated 250,000 people live. Not only an area marked by drought and limited natural resources, the residents of Jabal Al-Hoss have limited access to educational opportunities. 80% of the villages have no middle schools and the entire region shares only 3 high schools!

The UNDP Rural Community Development Project is looking to change that. It has made considerable contributions to improving educational services in the area through literacy and vocational training courses, as well as recently establishing a new kindergarten.

The Jabal Al-Hoss project recognizes the vital role of women in development. Fully literate women are given the skills necessary to become teachers and help others learn to read and write. Women who are illiterate are taught to read as well as skills such as handicrafts, sewing, bee-keeping, nursing and hairdressing.

The project has been such a success that over the next year it will be expanded into other regions of the country to continue promoting women's empowerment through education.