Tag Archives: unicef

Martin Horwood

Martin Horwood MP writes…Reducing the negative impact of violence on international development

By Martin Horwood | Tue 21st October 2014 - 8:55 am

Every five minutes a child dies from violence.

This appalling statistic, released in a new report from Unicef UK today, shows that violence is not confined to an unlucky few or even to war zones. Across the world, millions of children bear the brunt of an epidemic of violence that is often hidden or ignored and that threatens their rights to a healthy, safe and fulfilling life.

Violence manifests itself in many forms. Unicef UK’s research reveals that more than 125 million women, most in early childhood or adolescence, have been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). In some regions, the child murder rate is shockingly high, especially for teenagers.  For example, an adolescent boy in Latin America is 70 times more likely to be murdered than in the UK.

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NewsHound

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown in Bangladesh: Stoves that save children’s lives

By NewsHound | Wed 30th April 2014 - 12:15 pm

Photo UNICEF BangladeshPaddy Ashdown has been writing over at UNICEF’s blog about his recent visit to Bangladesh. There, he saw the benefits of an initiative, supported by Marks and Spencer, to provide better ventilated, safer, fuel efficient stoves to 40,000 homes.

First of all, he outlines how dangerous simply cooking dinner could be:

I have just returned from a visit to the country and even in the tiny village of Daccope, children are exposed to potentially deadly air pollution in their own home every day. This dangerous mix of chemicals, including carbon monoxide,

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Caron Lindsay

Sir Menzies: “Unfortunate” that coalition will not let Syrian refugees come to UK

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 28th December 2013 - 3:09 pm

The Independent reports Sir Menzies Campbell’s comments on the decision by the Coalition Government not to join other countries in allowing 10,000 refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict where, let’s not forget, chemical weapons have been used. Sir Menzies was not complimentary, that’s for sure:

It’s unfortunate, to put it as mildly as I possibly can, that we have closed our minds to that possibility when other countries in Europe have taken a much more generous position.

The Independent’s view is that Sir Menzies represents the Liberal Democrat view:

Mr Campbell’s view represents that of many of his colleagues in the Liberal Democrats

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Martin Horwood

Martin Horwood MP writes… 1000 days of hunger

By Martin Horwood | Tue 16th April 2013 - 5:10 pm

The first thousand days of a child’s life – from conception through to their second birthday – are full of moments to cherish. First birthdays, first steps, first words. Whether these events are captured on film, or retold to maximum embarrassment in later years, they are treasured milestones in a child’s life.

A report published yesterday by UNICEF reminds us that those first thousand days aren’t only precious, they are the most critical in shaping a child’s future. Their health, their growth, their ability to learn and even their potential to earn are shaped during this period by one crucial …

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Malcolm Bruce

Malcolm Bruce MP writes: How UK Aid is being spent in the developing world

By Malcolm Bruce | Wed 16th November 2011 - 1:54 pm

Malcolm Bruce MP in Bangladesh
Photo courtesy of The Gavi Alliance.

I have just returned from Dhaka, Bangladesh, where I was part of a parliamentary delegation looking at Bangladesh’s rapidly improving healthcare system and in particular their immunisation programmes, which the UK Government through bilateral aid and the GAVI Alliance is helping to support.

Pneumonia and diarrhoea together account for about 40% of all under 5 mortality in the world and yet most of these cases could be prevented through the use of vaccines.

The GAVI Alliance was established …

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Helen Duffett

Lord Ashdown emails Lib Dem members in Horn of Africa appeal

By Helen Duffett | Tue 2nd August 2011 - 4:13 pm

Former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown has emailed Lib Dem members to appeal for urgent donations to help with the famine in the Horn of Africa:

As I write this, there is a crisis in the Horn of Africa that is claiming the lives of thousands of children. Famine has been declared. Millions face starvation. In Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia we are witnessing the worst humanitarian catastrophe in a generation.

It is a crisis that has unfolded slowly, so much so that the media has found little drama to force it to top of news bulletins – which have instead been dominated

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Mark Pack

Government gives £16m to help with Ivory Coast refugee crisis

By Mark Pack | Wed 30th March 2011 - 8:57 am

Some good news from the government on the unfolding international crisis that almost no-one in Britain is interested in, namely the Ivory Coast. The Department for International Development (DfiD) is giving £16m in emergency aid to help deal with the large numbers of people fleeing the violence.

Many of them are crossing the border to Liberia, a country itself struggling to recover from its own violence. As The Guardian reported,

Last week the UN high commissioner for refugees, António Guterres,visited Liberia and warned that the influx of refugees threatened the country’s eight years of peace, following a civil war that left

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