© UNICEF Nepal/2012
Participants attend the opening session of the 'Schools as Zones of Peace' seminar in Kathmandu, Nepal.

By Rupa Joshi

KATHMANDU, Nepal, 16 May 2012 – Participants from five countries and various ministries and international NGOs gathered in Nepal last week to learn about the ‘Schools as Zones of Peace’ (SZOP) programme.

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NEW YORK, 24 January 2012 – The State of Kuwait has contributed $250,000 to UNICEF in Turkey to support UNICEF’s humanitarian response to victims of the Van earthquake. The support was announced by His Excellency Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi, Permanent Representative of Kuwait to the United Nations.

On 23 October 2011, an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale hit the province of Van in eastern Turkey. Some 604 people were killed and over 4,000 injured as dozens of buildings, including multi-story apartment blocks and schoolteachers’ lodgings, collapsed or were seriously damaged.

Africa’s teachers tell us about the progress of education in their country, and what they see as the biggest challenges and hopes for African teachers and students. Education features prominently in the millennium development goals, and MDG2 aims to ensure that all children complete a full course of primary education, measured by enrolment, the proportion who reach the last grade, and literacy rates for those aged 15-24.

By Mervyn Fletcher

Vavuniya, Northern Sri Lanka, 10 October 2011- In a region which, until recently, had been mired in conflict, the joyful sound of high-pitched laughter danced in the air, as an audience of rapt children enthusiastically responded to the travelling company, ‘Clowns without Borders’. Charming the gathering of youth with their engaging brand of slapstick and puppetry, the troupe was there to help celebrate the opening of a new school.

© UNICEF Yemen/2011/Rasheed
Amani Ali (standing second from right) and Saleh Salim (far right) teach other displaced children about hygiene. Amani and Saleh are members of a WASH committee of volunteers trained by UNICEF to provide awareness on hygiene and sanitation in the Belqis school, which is sheltering the displaced from Abyan.

By Ansar Rasheed

ADEN, Yemen, 15 September 2011 – It is the fourth day of Ramadan in Aden, a port city in the south of Yemen, and the temperature has reached over 40 degrees centigrade. Although it is summer holiday, the yard of Belqis School in Aden is full of children. Some play under the sun, while others attend educational sessions in a tent organized by UNICEF. The children are from families displaced by fighting in the restive region of Abyan between government troops and militants suspected of links to al-Qaeda.

By Manuel Moreno and Kyle O’Donoghue

DADAAB, Kenya, 9 September 2011 – For children around the world, the end of the school holidays usually comes with mixed feelings. That was surely the case as schools re-opened their doors this week in the Dadaab refugee camps in north-eastern Kenya.

The difference here is that many of the pupils are new arrivals who have travelled from Somalia with their families looking for safety from famine and violence. Most of them are not even familiar with formal schooling.