As COVID-19 With the pandemic continuing to enter its second year, it’s no surprise that many of the exceptional people we’ll be introducing in 2021 are healthcare workers who put themselves at significant personal risk to ensure members in their communities survived the pandemic.
‘We prayed to God to save us from starvation’
These risks are exacerbated in conflict zones, where workers continue to provide health services at large disparities.
In Yemen, Asia El-Sayeed Ali and her family had to leave their home in Aden and move in with relatives. Today, she works at a health clinic supported by the World Food Program (WFP), where she cares for children, and their mothers, who are malnourished.
Ms El-Sayeed Ali said: “When a mother brings a child who is malnourished, I do nutritional therapy and advise her to bring them back the next week. “When she returned, I saw that the baby had gained weight, looked healthier with full cheeks, I felt reassured.
“I love working in the clinic. It breaks my heart to see children crying out of pain or hunger, but I can make a positive difference, help mothers, and bring smiles to the faces of the children.”
Stay to help the people of Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, after the Taliban took over, Dr Khali Ahmadi * told UN News in a exclusive interview from the Afghan capital, Kabul in August, that he and other medical staff were continuing to work despite the ongoing insecurity and instability in the country, and called on the international community to continue working. continue to support Afghanistan.
Dr. Ahmadi was in Kabul caring for the thousands of people who poured into the city to escape the fighting. “Our workday is long and hard,” he told us. “I start around 7 a.m. and can sometimes work until midnight, which means, as a team, we can treat up to 500 people a day.
Sometimes the security situation means I’ll stay home. If there were reports of gunfire or other disturbances as well as obstacles, team members decided it was too dangerous to work. It can be very stressful on the street. ”
* Real name is withheld to protect identity
UNAMA / Eric Kanalstein
In Afghanistan, despite favorable growing conditions for crops, many people still do not have enough to eat.
‘I was thinking about my children’
Throughout the year, UN News spoke with many others who chose to work in high-security countries. Among them are Fezeh Rezaye, a 26-year-old mother of two, and a member of a 19-member female demining team, was honored in April for their efforts in demining in the Afghan province of Afghanistan.
“I used to know some people in my village who were injured or killed by landmines in Bamyan,” she recalls. “Even our landlord lost his leg in a landmine accident. But the deaths of seven children, all from the same family in our village, really affected me.
“They were together in the mountains when they were all killed by a landmine explosion. I was thinking about my kids, that this could have happened to them.”
Copyright 2021
Soldier Jake Drake, is a service driver on the UK’s MINUSMA team.
I have to take my A game’
For the soldiers, aka the ‘green helmets’, who are part of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali – for a number of years now, the most dangerous UN mission in the world. world – every patrol could be their last.
Military Jack Drake, a young soldier from the United Kingdom, is the driver of a military reconnaissance team tasked with protecting civilians in trouble spots in northeastern Mali. “I really had to focus on choosing the best route for the car and knowing when to put my foot down to avoid getting stuck,” he explains.
“Mali is a dangerous place right now, so I really have to patrol in my A-game. It’s important to recognize any threats and stay on. You rely on other members of your crew to stay safe.”
UNAMID
Kenyan peacekeeper Steplyne Nyaboga conducts basic gender training for Pakistani troops in Darfur. (file)
‘Peacekeeping is a man’s job’
Since being deployed in Sudan’s Darfur region in 2019, Kenya’s Military Advisor, Major Steplyne Nyaboga, has worked hard to promote the rights of women and girls, organizing campaigns and associations. workshops for staff and civil society activists.
In recognition of the excellence of her work, the United Nations presented Major Nyaboga with the United Nations Military Advocate of the Year Award 2020. She replied: “Peacekeeping is a job. human affairs”. “Putting women and girls at the center of our efforts and concerns will help us better protect civilians and build a more sustainable peace.”
Major Nyaboga was in charge of sex education for other army peacekeepers during her deployment, training nearly 95% UNAMIDof the army last December. She also advises the force on how to better identify the needs of vulnerable men, women, boys and girls, and improve the way peacekeepers protect them. .
© Enaleia
Lefteris Arapakis, co-founder of Enaleia.
Earth Champion
In the year that COP26 was postponed in Glasgow, the most important UN climate conference since Paris in 2015, finally took place after a postponement related to the pandemic, the climate crisis and the work of grassroots activists received more attention.
From August to the end of October, the UN featured 10 young activists, engineers and entrepreneurs, showing how we can all create positive change, in our popular podcast series. , No Denying It.
Changemakers include Nzambi Matee, a Kenyan entrepreneur who produces low-cost sustainable building materials made from recycled plastic waste and sand. Her company, Gjenge Makers, has financially empowered 112 individuals, through the supply and primary stages of production.
Greek activist Lefteris Arapakis founded the first fishing school in his country, and convinced fishermen to transport plastic from the ocean. In this episode of No Denying It, Mr. Arapakis explains that he founded the school after hearing from his fisherman father that, despite Greece’s economic crisis, there was a shortage of labor for fishing boats. .
Thanks to the school’s initiatives, the fish stocks and the ecosystem are recovering, plastic waste has been returned to the circular economy, and the fishermen in his community have an additional source of income. .
Many of the activists featured in Don’t Deny It have been identified by the United Nations Environment Program as Earth’s Young Champions (UNEP) announced the latest champions in December.
This year’s all-female cohort, including Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, who was honored for being a powerful voice from the global south, argues for a sustainable world and continually delivers on the scene. report on the vulnerability of Small Island Developing States.
UN News / Daniela Gross
Joenia W megapixelana is a member of the indigenous W megapixelana people, from the state of Roraima, in Brazil
The battle for rights
Human rights types continue to come under attack in 2021, and many brave individuals have fought back to protect them.
UN News has illuminated the 30-year struggle of Brazilian activist Joenia W megapixelana to secure land rights for the country’s indigenous people in Brazil.
In 2018, at the conclusion of a long campaign, funded at the grassroots level by crowdfunding, she became the first indigenous woman elected to Brazil’s federal parliament and awarded United Nations Human Rights Award.
In a special interview, Ms. W megapixelana called for more resources for the fight against institutionalized discrimination. “Society needs to understand that discrimination against indigenous people always exists in Brazil,” she explains.
“I believe that when a person is racist, or is being discriminated against, it should be protected to the fullest extent of the law. Report the incident, even if it has nothing to do with it. It’s important for us to make a record of this phase that we’re going through.”
UN photo
New Sustainable Development Goals Advocate, Edward Ndopu, Founder, Global Strategy for Inclusive Education, Republic of South Africa.
‘Poverty is both a cause and a consequence of disability’
Eddie Ndopu, an award-winning disability activist from South Africa, lives with spinal muscular atrophy and faces many hardships on a daily basis. Now in his late 20s, Mr Ndopu says his parents told him when he was born that he would not live past five.
Mr. Ndopu told the UN that he has overcome his barriers to travel the world advocating for other people with disabilities. “Poverty is both a cause and a consequence of disability, and the majority of people with disabilities live in poverty,” he said in an interview, excerpted from an episode of the UN podcast Awake at Night.
“I think we don’t talk about disability because we emphasize perfection. And I think disability reminds people that actually, imperfection is more in our nature than perfection.”
UN News presents the inspirational stories of exceptional individuals in our First Person group. You can find them in our archive, here.
Listen again to the United Nations climate action podcast, Don’t Deny It, featuring 10 young people making change, here.
