Highlights

Chad is currently facing simultaneous, acute emergencies which are stretching capacity and current funding levels. UNICEF and partners have responded well to the most recent refugee and returnee influxes but we remain vigilant given current political turmoil in neighboring countries as well as a high risk for epidemics.

Twenty-one million children in school thanks to efforts

NEW YORK, 17 June 2013 – UNICEF, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Peter Krämer Foundation today kicked off a new fundraising drive to raise US$80 million to help Africa’s girls, orphans, children living in extreme poverty and other vulnerable children go to school and get a quality education.

UNICEF urgently requires close to US$ 116.5m to undertake the following priority interventions over the next three months:

Highlights

The violence inside Syria continues to escalate with UNOHCHR reporting that the number of deaths due to the conflict has now reached over 93,000 since March 2011. Of these, 6,561 are children, of whom 1,729 are under the age of 10. During the reporting period, the UN launched a revised appeal for US$4.4bn for its response to the crisis. UNICEF requires some $470 million to the end of December to maintain its lifesaving support to the children of Syria.

Bamako, 12 June 2013 – As part of response to humanitarian emergencies, the UNICEF Representative in Mali, Françoise Aackermans and the WHO Representative in Mali, Dr. Ibrahima Socé Fall, met on 11 June 2013 to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two agencies of the United Nations. The MoU sets out a framework for collaboration, specifying the roles of each agency in the implementation of the joint plan.

Comme tous les enfants, ceux qui sont handicapés sont dotés de nombreuses capacités mais ils sont souvent exclus de la société à la suite de discrimination ou de manque de soutien, ce qui les place parmi les enfants les moins visibles et les plus vulnérables de la planète.

Syrian children in Turkey get education despite language challenges

By Najwa Mekki URFA, Turkey – It is 10 o’clock in the morning and the children waiting in the front yard of the Information and Education Center for Syrian Guests school in Urfa are getting restless. They’re hot, thirsty and impatient to see what their new classrooms are like.

Yet they manage to sit politely and listen as the town officials welcome them to the school, and look on in anticipation the ribbon-cutting ceremony gets under way.

Highlights

• Mauritania is the single largest recipient of refugees fleeing the conflict in Mali. 74,108 refugees are living in the Mbéra camp.

• 60% of the refugees are children and many have been in the camp for over a year, resulting in overlapping emergency and medium term needs.

• A storm damaged school tents and child friendly spaces and as the rainy season commences, there is a higher risk of diseases including malaria and diarrhoeal disease.

Headlines

• Access to those in need improves as humanitarians continue to increase emergency response in zones around the country.

• On 15 May, UN envoy urges Security Council to bolster security and consider sanctions against perpetrators of human rights violations.

• Law and order has yet to be restored in the capital and throughout the country.

• Attacks on civilians continue, as does intimidation, crime, kidnapping, arbitrary arrests and theft.

• The UNICEF warehouse was broken into again on the night of 10 May.