“To survive war requires intelligence and I want you to use that intelligence now for your future” – author & former child soldier, Ishmael Beah After the UNICEF-negotiated release of over 500 children in South Sudan in mid-January 2015, scores of children were seized by armed men from a village in the north of … Continued

It started as just another day of boys’ play. ‘I was with my friends at a quarry that is used as a shooting range; it was seven of us. We’ve played there many times before’, recalls Maksim* somberly, lying in a hospital bed in his native Donetsk city. ‘We spotted a cluster bomb that was … Continued

“There’s not only the loss of possessions, a home or the lives of family members…there’s the trauma of insecurity, the sense that they don’t have any safety. They wonder: Will we wake up in the morning?” – Mia Farrow, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador speaking on her fourth visit to Central African Republic An estimated 535,000 people … Continued

Meet Assia, 10, one of 423,000 people who has fled Central African Republic to escape escalating violence. Now living at a returnee site in Chad with her grandmother, what Assia misses most about her old life is her sister: “My sister lives in another town and it has been a long time since I have … Continued

UNICEF Ireland intern, Karl Boos, reflects on the fourth anniversary of the Syrian Crisis and the impact it’s had on children. Sunday the 15th of March 2015 was the 4th anniversary of the on-going conflict in Syria. Over these four years, 2 million Syrian children, have been forced to flee their war torn country to … Continued

  Heavy fighting in Eastern Ukraine has left children and families vulnerable and in need of urgent support. Despite limited access, our Unicef colleagues continue to provide aid to communities such as Donetsk and Luhansk. But as with any conflict situation, it’s children who’ve been hit hardest. Here are five facts that you might not have heard about the situation … Continued

  Falak (12) is one of more than 1.9 million children who have been forced to flee their homes because of the conflict in Syria. When the fighting reached their street, Falak’s family attempted to flee Syria by car. A sniper fatally shot her father and a tank then fired at the car, killing her … Continued

UNICEF Ireland Executive Director reports from Za’atari Refugee Camp on the Syrian/Jordanian border.    

“We had a garden in our house with lemon trees and grapevines. I loved those trees. I used to climb those trees. I used to watch them from my balcony. My father built our home, and my sisters and I had our own rooms, but they have destroyed it. A rocket landed in the middle … Continued

  What is life like in a rural village in South Sudan? Unicef spoke to children and women in Kiech Kuon, a remote village, to hear their stories, to learn about their lives and to find out about their hopes for the future. These are South Sudan’s everyday voices: 1. Nyibol Jul, age 14 (pictured above) “I … Continued

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