Results for UNICEF

Around 14,000 Tongan students will be able to return to school soon with new emergency education supplies provided by UNICEF in partnership with the NZ Defence Force, after Cyclone Gita damaged around 129 classrooms in 83 primary and secondary schools in southern Tonga last week.

Over 100 children ended their Malie Va'inga "Just Play" tournament with a parade through Nuku’alofa promoting an end to violence on Saturday, 16 December.

‘The Beginning of Life’ a documentary focused on giving children the best possible start to life and reinforcing the proverb "it takes a village to raise a child", screened for the first time in the Pacific region on August 30, in Suva, Fiji.

The depletion of water sources in places around the world by 2040, will affect up to 600 million children worldwide, warns a UNICEF report released on March 22 to mark World Water Day. The report focuses on how the wellbeing of children is threatened by lack of access to safe water and how a changing climate will worsen the situation in the future. Pacific Island countries face particular challenges.

Tonga has made an investment in its children by making a commitment to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the visiting UNICEF Representative to the Pacific Mr Sheldon Yett observed. He attended an event celebrating United Nations Day and the launch of Cyber Safety week at Fa’onelua Convention Centre in Nuku'alofa.

A new cyclone is threatening children and families in Fiji, UNICEF warned this afternoon. Only weeks after Category 5 Cyclone Winston ripped through the Fiji Islands, affecting 40% of the population, Fiji is once again facing extreme weather conditions due to the presence of three tropical disturbances, one of which has formed into rapidly-intensifying Cyclone Zena.

A severe Tropical Cyclone Pam that was upgraded to Category 5 early this morning is expected to hit Vanuatu tonight, Friday March 13 and emergency plans have been activated.

One in three Pacific children under the age of five are stunted, UNICEF's Olav Kjorven, told the Small Islands Developing States conference in Samoa this week. “Under nutrition early in life contributes directly to a propensity for obesity in adulthood. We need to address both sides of this issue,” he urged.

Widespread coverage by Pacific immunisation programmes is a significant reason why deaths to children under the age of five have dramatically declined in the Pacific countries and territories. But there are still too many children who are not fully vaccinated and not only are they at risk, but they tend to be in groups who are susceptible to an outbreak, warns Dr Karen Allen, the Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund in the Pacific, at the start of World Immunisation Week, today.