Permanent Representative of Mexico to the UN Claude Heller (left), UN Special Representative Radhika Coomaraswamy, UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sign ‘red hands’ petition.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0105/Markisz

NEW YORK, USA, 13 February 2009 – Children from 101 countries have appealed to international leaders to take stronger action to end the use of child soldiers.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-1630/PirozziStudents listen to a lecture in a life-skills class in Keren Junior School in the city of Keren, Anseba Region

By Miriam Mareso

Halima, a shy 11-year-old, is among the first groups of children who have been enrolled in a new elementary school in Jengerjiba. A small village located 110 kilometres from the capital Asmara, Jengerjiba is dotted with mud huts and concrete houses. The closest primary school is more than 10 kilometres away, a distance which has long hampered access to primary education for many local children.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-0211/RasoamananaOn 20 February, high winds from Cyclone Ivan damaged the roof of a school in the rural commune of Vavatenina in the north-eastern district

MENABE REGION, Madagascar, 28 January 2009 – The southern part of Madagascar has been brutally affected by Cyclone Fanele, which hit the island in the early hours of 21 January. A recent World Health Organization assessment notes that over 20,500 people have been affected by Fanele and Tropical Storm Eric, which arrived on the 19th.

A girl inspects the damage to her school on the student’s first day back following the ceasefire in Gaza.
©UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0061/El Baba

NEW YORK, 26 January 2009 – With the return of hundreds of thousands of children to school in Gaza, UNICEF is providing essential educational equipment and materials to re-establish learning and recreational activities, create safe environments, and help restore a sense of normalcy for children in Gaza.

Children walk on destroyed houses in south Gaza City on the fourth day of the cease-fire
©UNICEF HQ/2009/El Baba

By Roshan Khadivi

JERUSALEM, 23 January 2009 – The recent and extreme levels of conflict in Gaza have affected the lives of some 800,000 children and young people. Many have lost their schools, health facilities, play areas and even neighbourhoods, which have been destroyed in the violence.

In Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, a page from a school notebook that bears the UNICEF logo lies amid other burnt papers and books.
©UNICEF/NYHQ2003-0557/Brooks

KABUL, Afghanistan, 14 November 2008 – UNICEF has condemned the increasing number of attacks on schools and students in Afghanistan. A recent acid attack on 15 female students walking to school in the southern city of Kandahar blinded two of the girls and injured two others.