The United Nations Department of Global Communications (DGC) promotes global awareness and understanding of the work of the United Nations through its network of United Nations Information Centres (UNICs) around the world. The UN Regional Information Centre (UNRIC) in Brussels engages with local audiences in 21 countries as well as the Holy Sea and European institutions.

Holocaust survivor lifts lockdown spirits with jazz

Simon Gronowski serenades his neighborhood from his windows in Brussels, Belgium.

On 17 March 1943, an 11-year-old Simon Gronowski was taken by the Gestapo in Brussels, Belgium with his mother Chana and sister Ita. The young Jewish boy was being deported to the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz when, “by a miracle, I jumped from the train and escaped,” he recounts. His mother and sister died in Auschwitz and his father, Leon, left devastated by their deaths, also passed away within months of the end of the war. The young Gronowski was left alone in the world.

During the pandemic, students rely on solidarity

A vacant amphitheatre near the Peoples' Friendship Arch in Kyiv, Ukraine is normally a popular spot for students. Under COVID-19, students face increased socio-economic pressures including isolation and food insecurity. United Nations photo: Volodymyr Shu

Isolated, abandoned, depressed. Those are the words used to describe how students feel during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of them must study online with very little social interaction. Unprecedented solitude leads to psychological suffering, in addition to growing impoverishment.

Spreading kindness to end 2020 on high note

Volunteers for the association Solidarité Grands Froids with Father Christmas at a present giving event for homeless children in Brussels, Belgium. Photo courtesy Solidarité Grands Froids

After a turbulent 2020, households are bracing for a muted holiday season. Families may be separated by Covid-19 restrictions, and many will be remembering lost loved ones.

Elite chefs cook for special clientele during Covid-19: frontline workers and the elderly

What makes France so uniquely French? Its cuisine would be at the top of any list and, with apologies to the many gifted home cooks across the land, its world-class chefs are the epitome of French cuisine.