© UNICEF/NYHQ2004-0338/Mariella Furrer
Two girls at Ruthimitu Primary School in Nairobi, Kenya.

8 March 2010 – This year, International Women’s Day is focusing on the theme: “Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all.” Though significant progress has been made towards gender parity and equality in education, many challenges remain.

© UNICEF Yemen/2010/Sethna,Abdullah Rozoom is the headmaster of the Yarmouk school in al-Mazrak village, north-western Yemen. The school has taken in more than 1,800 students displaced by conflict over the past few months.

By Zahra Sethna

HARADH, Yemen, 17 February 2010 – Just a few months ago, the Yarmouk school at the heart of al-Mazrak, a village in north-western Yemen catered to fewer than 200 students. Now it serves more than 2,000.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0167/NooraniSteve Cherival (left), 8, and Richard Cherival, 5, play with a board puzzle from a UNICEF Early Childhood Development kit at the Lakay Don Bosco Centre, a residential care facility for children in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.

By Roshan Khadivi

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 17 February 2010 – The first day of school in a UNICEF tent classroom was a happy day for Yolanda Senatus, 9 – and a far cry from the tragic day she had experienced just a month earlier.

“I like to draw, sing and play with my friends. I am so happy today,” said Yolanda, who lost both her home and her school in the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January.

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© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0178/NooraniDisplaced by the 12 January earthquake, Fabienne Pierre holds daughter Alexi Kerida, 5, at the UNICEF-assisted Lakay Don Bosco centre in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.

By Guy Hubbard

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 12 February 2010 – A month after the 12 January earthquake that levelled densely populated areas of Haiti, UNICEF Director of Emergency Operations Louis-Georges Arsenault travels by helicopter over the cities of Port -Au-Prince and Leogane, and on to the southern port of Jacmel.

© UNICEF Somalia/2009/MorookaHodan, 10, reads from a Somali language textbook during class at Sheikh Nur School, Hargeisa, Somalia.

By Iman Morooka

HARGEISA, Somalia, 14 January 2010 – Until the most recent school semester, every textbook at Sheikh Nur Primary School was shared by at least four students. But thanks to a new supply, students can now follow their lessons in their very own textbooks.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0161/NooraniDuring a visit to the Notre Dame des Victoires orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman talks to a woman carrying a child. The quake has left thousands of children either orphaned or separated from their families.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 5 February 2010 – UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman visited the Haitian capital yesterday, meeting with UNICEF staff, government leaders and survivors of the massive earthquake that struck here on 12 January.