If you’re wondering what the UN is doing to help prevent the kind of disaster that’s befallen Beirut, the Organization has an entire office dedicated to lowering the risks.
For this latest Lid is On podcast from UN News, Conor Lennon’s been finding out how the Office for Disaster Risk Reduction works tirelessly to persuade governments to put it at the heart of their decision-making.
The manufacture of ukuleles by a company in Hawaii is helping to promote Hawaii’s culture of aloha - reflecting love, kindness, understanding and compassion, with the added benefit of reforesting the US Pacific Ocean state.
For this latest in our Lid is On podcast series, from UN News, Daniel Dickinson reports from the iconic US island state, where climate action is mingling with an ancient Pacific culture.
Music: Hawaiian Supaman by Del Beazley; He Alii Ka Aina
by Cody Pueo Pata.
Both songs played and sung by Joe Souza.
As the coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, in developing countries it’s rural girls who are proving to be the most vulnerable to abuse during economic collapse and lockdown.
That’s the view of a young woman activist from Uganda, Zahara, who in this special edition of our Lid is On podcast, hosted by the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, joins the agency’s chief Natalia Kanem, plus leading child rights NGO, Plan International’s AB Albrectsen, in conversation to talk about the challenges facing women and girls during this unprecedented health crisis.
While many in the developed world are home schooling via Zoom and other online tools these days, in South Sudan, it’s old-fashioned radio that’s proving the best way to keep children on track with schoolwork.
The country is still recovering from a brutal, seven-year civil war, in which hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed. The UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan, UNMISS, has a mandate to protect civilians and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, that includes providing advice on limiting the spread of the virus.
Countries must not forget routine lifesaving immunizations for diseases like measles, while racing to find a vaccine that will save millions of lives and end the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s the message from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) vaccination programme director, Professor Kate O'Brien, who’s been talking in-depth to UN News for this latest Lid is On podcast, stressing also the importance of getting the facts, as misinformation rages online.
Music credit: Ketsa, ‘Live With No Fear’
In this special edition of our Lid Is On podcast, from UN News, we hear from independent UN human rights expert, Tendayi Achiume, who warns that apart from the coronavirus that’s destroying so many lives and transforming societies around the world, a virulent xenophobia and tide of racial hatred has also been unleashed, aided by what she calls “entrepreneurs of intolerance”.
Music credit: Ketsa: “Within the Earth”, and “Awaiting Her Return”
Yuriko was just a 12 year-old growing up in Hiroshima, when the devastating mushroom cloud enveloped the city in the morning of 6 August 1945.
Kathleen Burkinshaw’s novel The Last Cherry Blossom, tells Yuriko’s extraordinary survival story, a journey inspired by the life of the author’s mother, laying bare the importance of nuclear disarmament.
For this edition of our podcast show, The Lid is On, Ana Carmo spoke to Ms. Burkinshaw when she came to talk about the book, at the UN Bookshop in New York last year.
A photography project to document the ‘humanity, and quiet dignity’ of workers in the United States has been launched by the UN’s specialized agency, the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The aim of the project, which comes as ILO celebrates its 100th birthday, is to look at the working lives of Americans across the country and listen to their hopes and fears for the future.
A group of survivors devastated by terrorism in the Lake Chad region of Africa, are taking small steps towards building new lives and livelihoods.
In Cameroon alone, there are some 250,000 internally displaced people and around 100,000 refugees, forced to flee their homes due to a brutal insurgency which was originally led by Boko Haram – it’s now splintered into a number of different extremist Islamist armed groups.
Ahead of the UN’s Climate Action Summit on 23 September, the Secretary-General urged Member States to come with “concrete” solutions to the climate crisis, not just speeches.
