By Salam Abdulmunem

©UNICEF Iraq/2012/Abdulmunem
Hassan (14) with his younger sister and brother by his family’s tent at Domiz refugee camp, Iraq.

DOHUK, Iraq, 22 August 2012- The first thing that strikes you as you walk into the Domiz refugee camp is the number of children – running, playing or just sitting by their tents. When I mention this to the local camp administrator, he tells me that almost all the Syrian refugee families that have been registered here are young; no family members are over 50.

By UNICEF DRC

GOMA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 30 July 2012 – “In the centre, I learn how to knit gloves and make baskets. I love to participate in the discussion groups here,” said Zele Flora, 15. Since she arrived in Mugunga, a site for internally displaced persons (IDPs), last April, she has frequented one of the child-friendly spaces (CFS) that UNICEF and its partner AVSI established in order to give children affected by conflict a place where they can be what they are: children, who play, learn and hope.

By Simon Ingram

MASHTA EL HAMMOUD, Lebanon, 17 April 2012 – Stepping off their minibus in the mountain village of Mashta el Hammoud, in northern Wadi Khaled, a group of children scampers up the stone steps to their classrooms. While the prospect of maths and Arabic classes may not seem attractive, there’s no mistaking these youngsters’ eagerness for the afternoon that lies ahead.

There’s a special reason for their enthusiasm: Many of the students are Syrian, and this weekly visit to an NGO centre is helping them reclaim the educations that were forced to abandon when they fled the violence gripping their homeland.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-2138/Kat Palasi Philippines
Children displaced by Tropical Storm Washi look at UNICEF-provided colouring supplies, at a child-friendly space in a high school in the coastal city of Iligan, Northern Mindanao Region. The spaces offer safe places for children to play, learn, and regain a sense of normalcy after a disaster.

By Rudina Vojvoda

NEW YORK, USA, 1 March 2012 – More than one billion children live in urban areas according to UNICEF’s flagship report, ‘The State of the World’s Children 2012: Children in an Urban World’.

On the whole, children in urban areas typically have better educational opportunities than those in rural areas. But for many urban children from marginalized groups – including the children of migrants and children living in slums or on the streets – education remains inaccessible. Many fail to meet registration requirements to enrol in urban schools and others can’t afford education-related costs, such as uniforms, books and supplies.