Global perspective Human stories

Interviews

UN Australia

Online learning boosts struggle for equal opportunities in Afghanistan

When you are a girl, growing up surrounded by war and violence in a country like Afghanistan, it’s hard to study and finish your education, due to social barriers and sexual discrimination, one young Afghan has told UN News.

But a new online learning app is helping break through some of those barriers, allowing girls to learn about topics that enable them to feel confident, and to create business models that are more inclusive.

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7'25"
© UNICEF/Delil Souleiman

‘God forbid’ COVID-19 reaches Syria’s camps, warns WHO medic

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Syria are in the low hundreds, but it is only a matter of time before the disease reaches those sheltering in camps in the war-torn country.

That’s according to the World Health Organization’s Dr Akjemal Magtymova, who’s the UN health agency’s representative in Syria.

She’s been speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson from Qamishli in the northeast of the country, where she’s just visited Al Hol camp, that’s home to tens of thousands of youngsters caught up in the more than nine-year conflict.

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5'35"
University of New South Wales

COVID-19: Excluding people with disabilities leaves them without information that could save their lives

The importance of being informed about the coronavirus – from how to recognize the symptoms, to what to do to manage day-to-day life – is essential for all, and not to include people with disabilities is to leave them “without information that could save their lives”.

That’s according to Rosemary Kayess, vice-chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, who has spoken candidly to UN News from home in Australia, about her own fears and the intense challenges that people with disabilities are living with, during the pandemic.

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8'9"
ILO Photo/John Isaac

‘Earth’s last Defence’ against asteroids

An asteroid tracking programme in Hawaii has been dubbed the “Earth’s Last Defence” against potentially catastrophic impacts, the UN has heard ahead of International Asteroid Day marked annually on 30 June.  

Ari Heinz is an astronomer at the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy working on the NASA-supported ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) project which tracks small but dangerous asteroids which may strike Earth.

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8'7"
ILO Photo/John Isaac

Growing sustainability on a Hawaiian coffee farm

The sustainable production of coffee, and indeed other crops, is more of a cultural rather than environmental commitment according to the manager of the largest coffee farm in the United States.

Fred Cowell, the General Manager of Kauai Coffee Company on the Pacific Ocean island, Hawaii, says the way a company treats its workers, land and local community is as important as the steps it takes to ensure the health of the environment.

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6'10"
UN OCHA/Gema Cortes

Fact-checking becoming ‘as important as handwashing’

Whilst COVID-19 has posed a serious threat to food security overall, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) believes agricultural commodity markets are proving to be more resilient to the pandemic, than many other sectors.

But the real test in terms of food security will come now, “with lockdowns ending, and people having to go back to their jobs to support themselves”.

That’s according to Sridhar Dharmapuri, a Senior FAO Food Safety and Nutrition Officer from the Asia Pacific region.

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13'20"
© UNICEF/Prashanth Vishwanathan

20 years of gains in combating child labour at risk from COVID-19, warns ILO

If you had to guess at how many children are involved in forced labour round the world, does 152 million sound about right? And what if we told you that this is actually an improvement on the number of youngsters working illegally 20 years ago?

Today, these gains are at risk, as the devastating economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis affects millions of families already on the poverty line, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has warned.

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