September 2014 - The Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF

Children laugh, sitting in the back of a flat-bed truck in a cane field where their parents are working, near their home village of San Juan del Carmen. The truck is used to take villagers and their children to and from the fields. The children spend most of their day playing, but sometimes help their parents work. Although children in the village no longer have to work in the fields, many help their parents plant cane or clear the fields to supplement the family income.

In June 2011 in Bolivia, legislative reforms and government efforts in health, education and other basic social services are improving the lives of children and families. Nevertheless, over half of the countrys 10.4 million people more than 40 per cent of whom are children live in poverty, with 26 per cent living in extreme poverty. An estimated 310,000 children work, sometimes in dangerous conditions, to help support their families. Tens of thousands of children, some as young as six years old, have traditionally worked in the sugar cane harvest and in mining, the two harshest jobs in the country. Children working in the sugar cane harvest also frequently drop out of school. Over the past decade, however, the number of children working in the sugar cane harvest has dropped from 8,000 to less than 1,000 thanks to initiatives providing stable schools and basic infrastructure in communities. For example, the impoverished village of San Juan del Carmen in the eastern department of Santa Cruz, now has permanent schools and teachers. The village is surrounded by cane fields and has no electricity, but residents live in their own homes instead of in temporary harvesting camps on the lands where they work. And its children attend school, as well as work part-time to help their families. Two of the villages four schoolhouses have been built with support from the regional government and UNICEF, which has also helped install a well and build a football pitch there. UNICEF and its partners

As 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child approaches, UNICEF asks: Is the world a better place for children?

NEW YORK/ HONG KONG, 26 September 2014 – Looking ahead to the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on November 20, UNICEF today released new trend data and essays that ask a critical question: “Is the world a better place for children?”

Increased investment in education and protection helps safeguard the future of a generation of children affected by Syria crisis

Emergency Relief, Global News, Syria Crisis 00:51

Millions more children at risk as the crisis deepens NEW YORK/ HONG KONG, 24 September 2014 – Over the last year, an additional 770,000 children affected by the Syria crisis benefitted from some form of education and almost 660,000 children received psychological support. “Helping the children of Syria is investing in the future of Syria, […]

Change for Good raised over HK$13.1 million in 2013 to help underprivileged children worldwideUpcoming focus will be on helping malnourished children in Cambodia

Change for Good, Latest News, Press Release 10:02

Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF HK) and Cathay Pacific Airways today announced that more than HK$13.1 million was donated by passengers to Change for Good inflight fundraising programme, in 2013. Every year, Change for Good donations are channelled into different projects to improve the lives of underprivileged children in more than 150 developing countries worldwide. An approximate of HK$2.34 million of the 2014/15 donations will go to health projects in Cambodia to address the malnutrition issues among children and women in deprived urban areas of the country.

New global data expose acute prevalence of violence against children: UNICEF

Global News 00:52

NEW YORK/ HONG KONG, 4 September 2014 – The largest-ever compilation of data on violence against children shows the staggering extent of physical, sexual and emotional abuse — and reveals the attitudes that perpetuate and justify violence, keeping it ‘hidden in plain sight’ in every country and community in the world. “These are uncomfortable facts […]