© UNICEF/NYHQ2006-1759/Michael Kamber
Students attend class at Ayany Primary School, a free government primary school on the outskirts of Kibera, a slum area of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

Nairobi, August 13, 2010 — Friday evening and I was flicking through the Daily Nation catching up on the post-mortem of the recent (August 4) Constitutional Referendum, when photographs of dancing and singing Somali girls from Mandera Arid Zone Primary School and a Kenyan boy from Friends School Kamusinga playing a recorder caught my attention.

© Manoocher Deghati/2009
Somalia 2009.

Systematically Addressing Gender in Funding Appeals – How the Education Sector can get Full Marks

The Gender Marker Initiative was launched by the Sub-working Groups on Gender in Humanitarian Action and on the Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) to improve humanitarian programming and to make humanitarian response more efficient.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0207/Noorani
Haiti, 2010.

22 June 2010 – Prioritising gender equality in educational systems is vital to addressing the needs and concerns of women, girls, boys and men alike. Programmes that integrate gender equality are also effectively undertaking issues of access to power and resources. Ignoring gender equality, particularly in times of crisis, can hinder a students’ ability to learn and engage, and thus negatively impact broader recovery efforts, not only within education systems, but also for entire communities.

© UNICEF Haiti/2010/Van den Brule
Haiti. 2010. A group of students at L'Ecole des Infirmieres in Belval, Léogâne.

By Arnaud Conchon

La Vallé Bourdon, PORT-AU-PRINCE. 14 April 2010 – I watch in awe as a boy of 5 tinkers with a kite he made out of an old plastic bag, sticks and muddy string. Almost half of the population of Haiti is under 18 years of age and more than a million children have been touched by this disaster. Many of them are living in make-shift settlements, without parents to help promote their full development potential. Still, these children find amazing ways to create toys and invent games in an attempt to socialize with those living in the tents next to them, to get to know their new neighbours.

©2010 Carlos VasquezVictor and Father Louis, Montagne Jaquot-Merlin, Haiti.

23 Feb 2010 – Victor Vincent Kinyanjui, from Kenya and WASH specialist for UNICEF Sierra Leone, and I set out early in morning to visit a rural school on top of mountain Jaquot-Merlin. The school is run by Father Louis Marrie from France. In order to get there we had to cross a dry river that shows clear signs of bank erosion due to heavy water flow during the rainy season.

© 2010 Carlos Vasquez
Port-au-Prince. Water bladder.

By Carlos Vasquez

March 2010 – Water and sanitation seem to be the one of the top priorities in cases of emergencies. Health and nutrition are also part of the core services that people require most urgently.