UNICEF Is There—Before, During and After a Crisis
War and natural disaster devastate children’s lives. They threaten children’s health and separate children from their parents. UNICEF is on the ground during an emergency to help children survive. We provide food, water, shelter, and health care. We help reunite parents with their children when they've been separated, and we make sure that children who are orphaned receive care and protection.
UNICEF's Lifesaving Influence and Innovation in Action
We pioneered the "Days of Tranquility," a cease-fire during which hostile forces put down their weapons so UNICEF can vaccinate the region’s children. In Sudan in 2005, we vaccinated over 5 million children against polio, and in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001 we vaccinated more than 35 million children--all during times of war.
We insist that, even during an emergency, children attend school and have a safe place to play and learn. Our School-in-a-Box kit, a portable classroom developed by UNICEF after the Rwandan genocide, allows children almost anywhere to attend class. Going back to school is a huge step towards restoring a child’s shattered life to normalcy.
Together with other relief agencies, we provide much-needed psycho-social support for traumatized children, help child soldiers, and give special attention to women and girls in crisis situations.
Time Is of the Essence
Because UNICEF is already on the ground in so many places, our field workers are often the first on the scene to relieve the suffering of children and families. And because UNICEF stays when others may leave, we help with long-term to recovery to restore the sense of an ordinary life to a child who survived a disaster.
Related Links
November 3, 2009
Building children's resistance to disease in the wake of emergencies
Emergencies like the tsunami that hit Samoa on September 29 leave children susceptible to disease. To increase children's resistance to measles as well as diarrheal diseases, UNICEF is conducting a national campaign to immunize 32,000 children in Samoa. Immunization campaigns are a cost-effective way to protect children against life-threatening illnesses.
October 31, 2009
Surviving the West Sumatra earthquake: A young girl's story
It was the sudden, eerie stillness at her family's small paddy field that gave Cici, age 11, an impending sense of catastrophe. Minutes later an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter-scale devastated her home. "The earth beneath me shook... all I could do was to collapse and whisper my prayers," she recalled.
October 25, 2009
Children increasingly vulnerable in Pakistan conflict
As conflict between the government and militant forces continues in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, over 112,000 residents of South Waziristan have fled their homes. The vast majority of displaced people are women and children. As military operations in the province intensified 32,000 people have had to flee their homes in the past week itself.
