First Person

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

UN News' Abdelmonem Makki and his nephews in the village where he was raised in South Darfur, Sudan.
UN News/Abdelmonem Makki

First Person: family tragedy and the UN as ‘saviour’ in Darfur

30 December 2020
Peace and Security

The people of the restive region of Darfur in Sudan have seen the joint United Nations and African Union peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) as a "saviour" according to a writer for UN News who grew up in Darfur.

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.  

Volunteers at work in the quarantine facility on the Thai border with Myanmar.
Migrant Monitoring Group (MMG)

First Person: supporting migrants on the COVID-19 frontline in Myanmar

1 November 2020
Women

One of the far-reaching effects of the global lockdown brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has been the return of migrant workers to their home countries.  The UN is assisting the authorities in Myanmar in facilitating this homeward migration, with a focus on providing for the needs of women. 

Luis Jose Faife, is a driver for UNHCR in Beira, Mozambique.
© UNHCR/Hélène Caux

First Person: ‘I’m happy to be able to give back’

3 October 2020
Humanitarian Aid

Luis Jose Faife, a UN refugee agency (UNHCR) worker from Mozambique, survived the devastation of Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which killed more than 600 people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, and displaced some 2.2. million people, in March 2019. Now COVID-19 is posing a new challenge to humanitarian workers, and the people they help.

Hawaii's natural beauty attracts tourists from across the world.
ILO Photo/Kevin Cassidy

First Person: Tourism in Hawaii grounded during pandemic

25 August 2020
Economic Development

Tourism is Hawaii’s biggest industry, with some 10 million visitors to the lslands ever year. But that has all changed since the COVID-19 pandemic, and many businesses on the archipelago have been forced to shut down for good, according to a helicopter pilot who flies pleasure trips for tourists.

Dennis Chimenya (left) meets a family in Pakistan whose children have received the oral polio vaccine.
© UNICEF Pakistan

First Person: Fighting anti-vaccination rumours in Pakistan

24 August 2020
Culture and Education

Polio, a deadly, debilitating, yet easily curable disease, is eradicated in most countries, but is still endemic in Pakistan, partly due to a reluctance to vaccinate amongst some parts of the population. Dennis Chimenya, a health worker with the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, is part of a team trying to counter misconceptions, and save lives.