An estimated 160,000 people in Gaza now face going hungry as the escalation of violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and across the border into Israel, continues into its second week, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.
In addition to seeing that they get enough to eat, another priority for the agency’s Country Director in Palestine, Samer AbdelJaber, is making sure that his aid team stays safe, as he explains to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.
Yasmin Ali Haque has worked for UNICEF for almost 25 years and is now the UNICEF Representative in India. In this episode of Awake at Night, she describes the current situation: COVID is bringing communities together, but it is also bringing back negative coping mechanisms such as a returning rise in child marriage.
3 May 2021 - The United Nations has deployed all the personnel and resources at its disposal to help Indians deal with the deadly surge in COVID-19 that has seen more than 300,000 reported new cases per day, for almost two weeks now, and left many hospitals overwhelmed.
“I returned from Bangladesh...and sent all of my dresses for dry cleaning. I have not worn these dresses again. I can't wear them. There's too much pain...because I came out and I was wet with all the women crying. I like to open the wardrobe and remind myself of the survivors at all times. They are my moral compass and I have to keep fighting for them. This is what keeps me going.”
In this episode of Awake at night, we meet Pramila Patten, the Secretary General's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict whose work aims to end rape as a weapon of war, making it a crime that is both preventable and punishable. Pramila travels the world to meet survivors, carrying back the harrowing stories they entrust her to retell. She then advocates tirelessly on their behalf for accountability and justice.
"When you talk to Yazidi women, they tell you they want justice and reparations, in addition to support services [...] Whether it is Iraq [...] Nigeria [...] Somalia or Sudan, they tell you they want to have their day in court. And for me, that is very frustrating that so far, for example, where sexual violence is used as a tactic of terrorism, no single person belonging to Boko Haram or ISIS has been prosecuted for sexual violence. They are getting prosecuted under the counter terrorism legislation, but not for sexual violence. And that is a frustration."
“[There are] two iconic images of the 20th century: Diana walking through the minefield in body armour and then with a little girl who lost a leg to a mine. I was proud to...highlight the incredible work that's been done by deminers around the world by hosting that visit.”
In this episode of Awake at night, we meet Paul Heslop, Head of the UN Mine Action Team in Afghanistan. Paul has been clearing mines in conflict zones for nearly 30 years. He shares the remarkable progress deminers have made in removing explosive devices across the globe with Mozambique (his first post back in ‘94) declaring itself mine-free 2 years ago. Paul also recounts his time as a field officer for the Halo Trust when Princess Diana came to visit a minefield in Angola where he was working back in 1997. He recalls that epochal moment and how his quick thinking led to the non-profit gaining huge worldwide exposure through the iconic photographs of the trip.
By 2030, two billion people are expected to rely on so-called “assistive” technology aids in their daily lives to eat, see, hear and even get dressed, according to UN patent experts at WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization.
It will also be possible to flag when anyone suffering from severe depression or other degenerative brain conditions might need help from a relative or carer, as Irene Kitsara from WIPO tells UN News’s Daniel Johnson.
“As long as they are treated in hospital, you see them communicating. And as soon as they get out of the hospital, they are pointing a gun at each other.”
Aboubacar Kampo is UNICEF’s Director of Health Programmes, but he has also worked as a physician and surgeon in some of the world’s most complex emergency zones, from Afghanistan to the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this episode of Awake at Night, Abou shares with Melissa Fleming his experiences from the ER wards of Chad, where the government is forced to share beds between the rebel forces. He also recounts the harrowing story of Irene, a victim of rape and violence in Liberia. Abou’s life-changing work is proof that, even in areas facing gross atrocities, we can see the good side of human nature.
“The one thing that we learn with complex emergencies is that the condition of the peoples is always the same. In Liberia, they have been fighting a war for more than 10 years... [but] ...if you meet the local population, as poor and as deprived as they may be, they still share a meal with you.”
The gigantic cargo ship that ran aground and blocked the Suez Canal last week is afloat once again after a Herculean salvage operation, but the damage to global trade will take months to fix.
"I remember sitting on the porch… with the local principal and I said, 'You need food and you need medicines. Why exam papers?' And he said, 'Look, that's for now. But the exam papers are our future. Our kids are our future. This is more important to us than food and medicines.'"
David Shearer is the UN Secretary General's Special Representative for South Sudan (United Nations Mission in South Sudan - UNMISS) but has also served in crisis areas across the Middle East and Afghanistan. In this episode of Awake at Night, he shares his captivating career stories from a posting in an occupied Palestinian territory, the nerve-wracking negotiations to release his wife from gunpoint in Somalia, and his incredible work entering behind Sri Lankan government lines to deliver exam papers to its schools.
He also recalls how he narrowly missed out on becoming the Prime Minister in his home country of New Zealand.
"It was a Close Protection Officer...who heard me. Had I not decided to knock exactly at that point in time, they would have repaired the backhoe [and] started to dig. They would’ve destabilised the area over which I was lying and I would not be sitting here today."
In this episode of Awake at Night, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at the World Health Organisation (WHO), shares her insights on how lessons from other infectious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV have shaped our response to the current COVID-19 pandemic. The clinical scientist also discusses how new technologies have given us the possibility to control diseases in ways we’ve never had before.
Alice Nderitu, the Secretary General’s Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, speaks candidly, in this episode of Awake at Night with Melissa Fleming, about her experiences mediating in areas of conflict and how her powerful storytelling techniques built a peace agreement between 56 ethnic communities that still stands today. She also shares the indicators that can lead to violence and the importance of being an active listener.
"[In Yemen] the situation is quite desperate. We have probably two thirds of the population which relies on our humanitarian assistance for their daily survival. We have half of the health facilities that have been destroyed by five years of the conflict.
The work of the UN and its partners never stops against human traffickers in West and Central Africa, who force people to risk their lives on dangerous journeys across the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea.
