First Person

Some displaced people in Yemen have become scapegoats for the COVID-19 pandemic.
© UNHCR/Jean-Nicolas Beuze

First Person: Yemen ‘cannot even afford to worry about the coronavirus’

28 February 2021
Humanitarian Aid

In Yemen, whose people are living through a long-running, brutal war, which has led to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, COVID-19 is far from being a top priority, says the top UN refugee agency (UNHCR) official in the Arabian Peninsula country.

A teacher explains how to use the application that will allow students to access educational material.
El Origen Foundation

First Person: The Colombian youth fighting for digital education for all

20 February 2021
SDGs

Tania Rosas, a Colombian education advocate from an afro-indigenous background, is hoping to improve learning outcomes for disadvantaged communities in her country, with a digital application tailored to their specific needs.

Sarah Copland with her son, Isaac, in New York.
Sarah Copland

First Person: A mother’s ‘indescribable’ pain six months after the Beirut explosion

13 February 2021
Peace and Security

Six months after a massive explosion destroyed much of the centre of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, a mother has been talking about the “indescribable” grief she has experienced at losing her two-year-old son to injuries sustained in the blast.

Chef Louise Mabulo, 2019 UNEP Young Champion of the Earth.
UNEP

First Person: Digging for victory in the Philippines

3 February 2021
Economic Development

Some farming techniques can have a devastating and negative effect on the environment, as farmers seek to harvest the maximum amount of produce from their land, but the efforts of a Filipino chef and activist are demonstrating that, with the right approach, agriculture can help to regenerate land, offer protection from the effects of climate change and extreme weather, and improve livelihoods.

Fatima Hussein Al Ahmad, a Syrian refugee, is now living in Jordan.
© Abdel Hameed Al Nasier

First Person: Cheese proves key to survival for Syrian refugee family amid pandemic

16 January 2021
Migrants and Refugees

Syrian refugee Fatima Hussein Al Ahmad, a mother of four, lives on a farm with 50 other workers in Sahba, Jordan. COVID-19 travel restrictions meant that she didn’t work for two months in 2020, and feeding her family became a daily struggle.

Nguyen Trong Hung (right) opened a café for the LGBT community in Son La, Viet Nam.
UN Women/Nguyen Minh Duc

First Person: Vietnamese man finds ‘true voice’ in gay community

31 December 2020
Human Rights

A Vietnamese man has told the UN he has found his ‘true voice’ in the gay community, despite the discrimination and harassment that LGBT people face in his country

UNICEF volunteer, Rasa Pattikasemkul (centre), interacts with a young boy in a rare face-to-face meeting during the COVID-19 lockdown.
UNICEF/Nipattra Wilkes

First Person: COVID education is child’s play for Thai UN volunteer

5 December 2020
Health

An innovative initiative to provide child-friendly information about COVID-19 has been launched by a UN volunteer (UNV) in Thailand who recognized that children needed to know more about the dangers of the virus but also have fun learning at home during the lockdown. On International Volunteer Day marked annually on 5 December, UNICEF’s Rasa Pattikasemkul talks about motivation, family loss and keeping children safe.

Mike Hess, the founder of the US-based Blind Institute for Technology, is interviewed by Kevin Cassidy, the Director of the ILO Office for the United States.
ILO Photo/John Isaac

First Person: ‘people with disabilities are the greatest untapped resource on the planet’

29 November 2020
Economic Development

Worldwide, persons with disabilities experience higher levels of unemployment and economic inactivity than non-disabled persons. Ahead of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Mike Hess, US-based entrepreneur and founder of the Blind Institute of Technology, spoke to UN News as part of the International Labour Organization (ILO) photography project "Dignity at Work: The American Experience".

Aeham Ahmed playing piano.
Aeham Ahmad

First Person: Four years on, hopes of return still distant for refugee pianist

22 November 2020
Migrants and Refugees

When UN News first interviewed award-winning Palestinian pianist Aeham Ahmad in 2016, he was a recent arrival in Germany, having fled a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. Four years on, he wants to return home, but accepts that his chances are slim.

Refugee children show their support for a UN refugee agency anti-trafficking campaign at Wad Sharife camp in east Sudan.
© UNHCR/Osama Idriss

First Person: Fighting human trafficking in Malawi

15 November 2020
Law and Crime Prevention

Maxwell Matewere, a Malawian crime prevention expert with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has been active in the anti-human trafficking field for more than two decades. Today, he trains officials throughout Malawi to prevent and combat this crime: this year alone, despite COVID-19 restrictions, his work has led to the rescue of around three hundred human trafficking victims and 31 arrests.