First Person

Afghan female students participate in a theatre performance at a school in Herat, eastern Afghanistan (file)
UNAMA/Fraidoon Poya

First Person: The ‘bravery’ of Afghanistan's girls and women

22 September 2021
Women

Afghanistan’s girls and women are showing “bravery” in the face of real “fears and pressures” following the formation of the new, de facto authorities in Afghanistan,  according to a UNICEF member of staff, one of the few westerners to remain in Kabul.

Children and women remain highly vulnerable to trafficking in Asia and the Middle East.
© UNICEF/Shehzad Noorani

First Person: Human trafficking, migrant smuggling, still significant threats in Asia

12 September 2021
Law and Crime Prevention

Human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants are going to remain significant threats to human security, that’s according to a trafficking and migrant expert working in the Middle East and Asia region for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Hadeel Al-Zoubi is a Senior Camp Assistant for UN Women working in Za’atari and Azraq camps for displaced people in Jordan.
UN Women

First Person: A refuge from COVID misinformation

11 September 2021
Health

The COVID-19 inoculation is "just like any other vaccine" a UN Women staff member is telling the Syrian refugee women she cares for in camps in Jordan, as she tries to combat misinformation and false rumours, and avoid spikes in infection.

More than 400 families from Kunduz, Sar-e Pol and Takhar provinces have taken shelter in a high school in southern Kabul.
© UNICEF Afghanistan

First Person: Health workers in Afghanistan brave safety fears, to continue treating the sick

24 August 2021
Humanitarian Aid

An Afghan doctor has told UN News that he is committed to providing essential healthcare services to people who have fled their homes due to conflict in Afghanistan, but safety fears mean that his future and that of his colleagues, particularly women health workers, is uncertain.

Young people in Cameroon are key to promoting a peaceful culture in the West African country.
© UNICEF/Salomon Marie Joseph Beguel

First Person: From a life of violence to a culture of peace

12 August 2021
Peace and Security

A young peace campaigner from Cameroon who turned his back on the violence prevalent in his hometown and became a youth civil society activist, has been telling the United Nations about how he is helping other young people to reject conflict, and take a greater role in building peace in the country.

Elisabeth, now 16 years old, has been reunited with her family in Burundi.
© IOM 2021/Lauriane Wolfe

First Person: ‘I’m not old enough to be a woman’ says trafficked teen

29 July 2021
Women

A teenage girl who was sold for sex for the price of a few beers as a twelve-year-old, has told the United Nations how she was trafficked between Burundi and Tanzania in East Africa.

Some 220 former refugee families from Somalia are now farming in the US state of Maine.
UN News/Daniel Dickinson

First Person: The Somali refugees planting a new life in the United States

4 July 2021
Migrants and Refugees

After spending years living in UN-supported camps in Kenya, some 220 former refugees from Somalia now work as farmers in the US state of Maine, growing crops ranging from beets to broccolini.

Central African reporter Merveille Noella Mada-Yayoro reporting on conditions at Birao IDP camp. for Guira FM, the UN peace mission's radio in CAR.
MINUSCA

First Person: An on-air antidote to misinformation in the Central African Republic

12 June 2021
Peace and Security

The citizens of the Central African Republic (CAR) have endured decades of war and conflict. Merveille Yayoro, a young reporter at Guira-FM, the radio station run by the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (MINUSCA), says that she wants her work to provide an antidote to hate speech and misinformation, and help bring about a lasting peace.

Julian Omalla (centre right) with her employees at Delight Uganda Limited.
Delight Uganda Limited

First Person: Raising a glass to ‘Mama Cheers’

5 June 2021
Economic Development

A Ugandan woman entrepreneur who was left with just a wheelbarrow and a red dress, when a business partner ran off with all her money has been recognized with an award by the UN trade agency (UNCTAD) after she grew her company into a nationwide enterprise with five million customers.

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.