'Unseen' News and Views
Eat your greens! A new cookbook is reviving old, nutritious traditions of Mayan families in Guatemala. ©FAO/Jorge Rodríguez Baeza
Responding to the violent deaths of five children in the Yemeni port city of Hudaydah on Thursday [28 February 2019], Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that Yemen’s civil war continues to take a “horrific toll” on children.
In a statement released on Saturday [2 March 2019], Ms. Fore said that “in Yemen, children can no longer safely do the things that all children love to do, like go to school or spend time with their friends outside. The war can reach them wherever they are, even in their own homes.”
The warring parties in the country signed a UN-led partial ceasefire agreement last December, but this did not spare the five children from being killed in an attack on the Tahita District, to the south of Hudaydah, which is a crucial gateway for the entry of aid, desperately needed to save millions in Yemen from starvation.
UNRWA* — The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Pierre Krähenbühl, on 29 January 2019 called for a total of US$ 1.2 billion to fund the Agency’s vital core services and life-saving humanitarian aid for 5.4 million Palestine refugees across the Middle East. It is the amount needed to keep UNRWA operations at the same level as in 2018.
Ten countries accounted for approximately three-quarters of the total increase in measles in 2018, including significant outbreaks in Brazil, Madagascar, the Philippines, Ukraine, and Yemen
UNICEF/UN0284080/ Dyachyshyn | Maryana Dzuba, 9, receives her first dose of MMR vaccine on 21 February 2019 in the medical centre of the Lapaivka village school, Lviv region, Ukraine, as part of a three-week long catch-up vaccination campaign to increase MMR coverage among school aged children in the region. Photo: Yurko Dyachyshyn
NEW YORK, (UNICEF)* – UNICEF on 1 March 2019 warned that global cases of measles are surging to alarmingly high levels, led by ten countries accounting for more than 74 per cent of the total increase, and several others that had previously been declared measles free.
1 March 2019 (FAO)* — Knocking on closed doors is something Renu Bala is very good at.
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Renu Bala is one of thousands of Bangladeshi farmers befitting from agricultural investment programmes supported by FAO with funding from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP). ©FAO/Mohammad Rakibul Hasan
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First, it was the doors of her neighbours in Panjor Bhanga, her home village in northern Bangladesh. She had an idea for them: what if they formed a milk cooperative?
They didn’t have much to lose. “The women of this village are very poor and raise only local Deshi cattle,” Renu explains. “I thought that if I could start a dairy business, and encourage other women to join, if I could make them aware, then we could all profit.”
Youth Climate Strike US co-leader Isra Hirsi. © Adam Iverson | Photo from Greenpeace International.
Isra Hirsi just turned 16 years old. To celebrate, she came home from school and spent three hours on conference calls.
Isra, a student at South High School in Minneapolis, is one of thousands of students around the world planning a massive Youth Climate Strike for March 15. With a few weeks to go, there are already strikes planned for 47 countries and almost all 50 states. Isra is one of three organizers who are bringing the movement — inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg’s weekly climate strikes — to the United States.
1 Match 2019 (UN Environment)* — The Samburu, a pastoralist indigenous tribe from the vast semi-arid and arid rangelands of Northern Kenya, face many of the same challenges as other indigenous communities around the world.
They have few opportunities to influence or manage activities that affect their environment, and insufficient information and understanding of their entitlements and rights when large development and infrastructure projects come to do business on their lands.
1 Match 2019 (UN Environment)* — Wild for Life is UN Environment’s campaign against illegal trade in wildlife. International and national laws protect many species because their populations are at risk. If animals, plants or their parts are taken from the wild or killed, then they are part of the illegal trade.
This trade is not only pushing species to the brink of extinction, it also poses environmental, economic, development and security risks.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 