Blog | UNICEF Canada

A World Inside a Refugee Camp: Children of Zaatari – Part 1

Posted by Guest Author · December 3, 2019

UNICEF Canada ambassador and teacher Bayan Yammout visited Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan – the world’s largest camp for Syrian refugees – in October 2019, to provide training for facilitators (Syrian refugees who run the UNICEF designated programs) at the camp’s Makani Centres. In a two part series, she shares her reflections on life for children in the camps.

Letter from the Future

Posted by Kids Of Canada · December 3, 2019

On November 20, youth activists from across Canada gathered in Toronto and collaborated on a letter from the future.

We didn’t know where to go: Syrian refugees on the move

Posted by UNICEF · October 30, 2019

Kawthar is a 25 year old mother, who fled airstrikes in Serekaniye (also known as Ras Al-Ayn) with her only daughter Barcham (2 and a half years old). They are some of the approximately 176,000 people (including almost 80,000 children) who have been displaced inside north-eastern Syria just in the last two weeks.

Syrian child sit outside a makeshift tent in Iraq

World Polio Day: Life as a Polio Survivor

Posted by UNICEF Canada · October 23, 2019

Safia Ibrahim is a 37 year old Somali-born Canadian. When she was 1 years old, she contracted polio that rendered her unable to walk. For World Polio Day, Safia spoke with UNICEF Canada about the choice she never got to make but one that has impacted her entire life.

2018 witnessed the highest reported deaths of children in armed conflict around the world

Posted by David Morley · October 21, 2019

Twenty-four thousand children were killed or maimed in conflicts in 2018. This is the highest number ever reported by the UN since it began monitoring the six grave violations affecting children nearly 15 years ago. David Morley comments on the situation and how Canada must make children’s rights, safety and wellbeing a global priority.

Children Uprooted: Walking in Ángel Gabriel’s shoes

Posted by UNICEF Canada · October 17, 2019

A Venezuelan migrant gets a surprise from his classmates in Ecuador.

Angel Ganriel holds his new uniform shoes.

Five brave girls say NO to marriage

Posted by UNICEF · October 4, 2019

Ayate, Ashe, Biftu, Anifa, and Asiya all said ‘no!’ to marriage. Each girl knew her rights and was brave enough to exercise them. And all of them plan to inspire others to do the same in the hope of stopping the harmful practice of men marrying young girls in their community.

Girls pose together outside their school in Ethiopia.

Learning how to bring families back together in Palu

Posted by UNICEF · October 3, 2019

More than 100 children were reported missing after a series of earthquakes struck Central Sulawesi province in September 2018. In the days following the disaster, UNICEF provided training for social workers on how to locate these children and reunite them with their families.

A baby sits in her mother's lap at a temporary shelter in Palu in 2018.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child at 30: A Reflection

Posted by David Morley · October 2, 2019

Our president and CEO David Morley was in New York City recently for the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). While on the plane back to Toronto, he crafted this letter, about the impact being at the UNGA had on him and the work that we do as UNICEF Canada.

A UNICEF installation highlighting the grave scale of child deaths in conflict during 2018 on the North Lawn at the United Nations Headquarters.

Foresight

Posted by Kids Of Canada · September 30, 2019

Foresight. I knew what the word meant; I am an English Literature major, after all. But I had never really thought of it in the context of the future of the world. That changed when I participated in UNICEF Canada’s Foresight Lab at the Women Deliver Conference.