First Person

Blessing Ojukwu is now a chef.
UNDP Nigeria

First Person: Learning a recipe for freedom in Nigeria

31 May 2021
Women

When Nigerian Blessing Ojukwu became pregnant after she was raped, her family disowned her. She was forced to live with her abuser, who continued to attack her. Now, a UN-backed initiative is giving her, and others in similar situations, a chance to become financially independent, and start new lives. 

Sacha Dench prepares to follow Bewick’s swans on their annual migration in 2016.
Angharad Barlow

First Person: The ‘Human Swan’ inspiring climate action

30 May 2021
Climate and Environment

Australian biologist Sacha Dench has been nicknamed “the Human Swan”, in recognition of her record-breaking, 7,000 kilometre, paramotor (motorized paraglider) flight, tracking Bewick swans across 11 countries, from Arctic Russian to the UK. Ahead of International Day for Biological Diversity, Ms. Dench explains why a drastic shift is needed in the global economy, to save endangered wildlife.

British Army driver and UN peacekeeper, Trooper Jack Drake pilots a Jackal 2 vehicle on patrol in the Gao region of Mali.
Crown copyright 2021

First Person: British UN peacekeeper stays on ‘A-game’ to keep Malians safe

23 May 2021
Peace and Security

A young soldier from the United Kingdom says he must stay on his “A-game” on patrol with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, to keep himself, colleagues and Malians safe in one of the most dangerous UN postings anywhere in the world. 

A beehive in Domino Park in Brooklyn, New York City.
Hazel Plunkett

First Person: Gardening is ‘political’ says Irish celebrity horticulturist

16 May 2021
Climate and Environment

For Diarmuid Gavin, a renowned Irish gardener and TV personality, horticulture has a role to play in all contemporary affairs, from the Black Lives Matter Movement to the ongoing pandemic, because “everything is connected, and everything is political”.

India begun the world's biggest COVID-19 vaccination programme in January 2021.
UNICEF/Ruhani Kaur

First Person: Panic as COVID-19 ‘tsunami’ hits India

29 April 2021
Health

A UN staff member in India has described the huge upsurge in COVID-19 infections in her country in recent days as a “tsunami”, and has spoken of the “panic” she felt, as her immediate family became infected with the virus.

Some shelters have been rebuilt in Camp 9 of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh following a fire in March.
IOM/Mashrif Abdullah Al

First Person: Rohingya refugees traumatized again, after devastating camp fire

25 April 2021
Human Rights

A Rohingya refugee and volunteer for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), has been telling UN News how his community has been “once again traumatized” as a result of a massive fire which swept through the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh in March, killing at least 11 people and making more than 45,000 homeless.

Climate youth activist Marie Christina Kolo of Madagascar.
© Rakotondrazafy A. M. Ny Aina

First Person: ‘Youth won’t stay silent’ says Madagascar climate activist

22 April 2021
Climate and Environment

Young people around the world “won’t stay silent” about the global climate crisis according to a youth activist from Madagascar. 

A female deminer at work in Bamyan, Afghanistan.
UNMAS

First Person: The Afghan woman putting her life at risk to rid her home of mines

4 April 2021
Peace and Security

Thanks to the bravery and hard work of deminers such as Fezeh Rezaye, the Afghan province of Bamyan has been declared free from mines. On International Mine Awareness Day, she shares her story.

Children in Eswatini play at a primary school in Lobamba region.
© UNICEF/Giacomo Pirozzi

First Person: A diabetes fighter in Eswatini pours all her efforts into beating COVID-19

3 April 2021
Health

Dumsile Mavuso, the founder and head of Eswatini’s first national association for people with diabetes, is now bringing her knowledge and experience to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, in collaboration with the Government and the UN.

Teachers at the Al-Fateh girls’ high school in Kabul Afghanistan receives the shot of COVAX facilitated COVID-19 vaccine that were enrolled in Afghanistan..
© UNICEF

First Person: Prepare for the next pandemic, says WHO scientist

20 March 2021
Health

New technologies have given us new ways to control diseases - crucial to fighting the COVID pandemic, and future global outbreaks, says the World Health Organization’s Chief Scientist.