In March 2007, Nigeria launched the latest in a series of polio immunisation campaigns. Nigeria is one of four polio-endemic countries in the world and the last in Africa. Eradication of the disease calls for a multi-pronged strategy that engages the entire community, from parents and teachers to women’s groups, religious leaders and children.
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(Above) [NAME CHANGED] Marie, a 14-year-old girl, looks out the window of an interim care centre run by the NGO Samaritan’s Purse International Relief, near Monrovia, the capital in January 2004. Marie was separated from her mother almost a year ago during an attack on her village in north-eastern Liberia. In the resulting confusion, she and four other girls joined one of the fighting groups, where they underwent military training and were issued weapons. After leaving this centre, she hopes to finish school and become a doctor. Taped to the window beside Marie is a poster opposing domestic abuse of women. UNICEF-assisted interim care centres provide children who have been associated with warring factions with counseling and basic educational and skills training to help them reintegrate into civil society.
A social worker comforts a 12-year-old refugee girl from neighbouring Sierra Leone, Miata [NAME CHANGED], in an interim care centre run by the NGO Samaritan’s Purse International Relief, near Monrovia, the capital of Liberia in Janaury 2004. Miata came to Monrovia with her mother in July 2003, but her mother was killed one month later in a rocket explosion in the city. She did odd jobs and slept on the streets until she was brought to this centre (although she was not linked to any fighting group). Miata wants to return to her remaining family in Sierra Leone. UNICEF-assisted interim care centres provide children who have been associated with warring factions with counseling and basic educational and skills training to help them reintegrate into civil society.
A boy practises writing the capital letters A to G in an exercise book, at a UNICEF-assisted interim care centre run by the international NGO Save the Children-United Kingdom, in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia in January 2004. Formerly a child soldier, the 11-year-old boy, who is from the north-eastern part of the country, was recruited into one of the fighting forces by his peers. He has not seen his family in four years but wants to return to them and to school. He says the first thing that he will do when he returns home is ìrun to my mother. UNICEF-assisted interim care centres provide children who have been associated with warring factions with counseling and basic educational and skills training to help them reintegrate into civil society.
[NAME CHANGED] Julia, a 16-year-old girl, stands in an interim care centre run by the NGO Samaritan’s Purse International Relief, near Monrovia, the capital. Julia is from a village in the eastern part of the country. During the recent fighting, she joined one of the warring groups after being caught in attacks near her village. Her uncle was a soldier in that faction. With nowhere else to turn for protection, Julia began to cook for the soldiers and became the girlfriend of one of them. She is now five months pregnant. UNICEF-assisted interim care centres provide children who have been associated with warring factions with counseling and basic educational and skills training to help them reintegrate into civil society.
Rainfall is rare. Scorching heat regularly reaches 50 degrees celsius, even during the coolest part of the year. Land to graze the animals grows scarcer every year as the borders of the desert expand, pushing populations further south. The nomads of Niger live on bare necessities, no room for excess in lifestyle. Taking no more than they need from the land, they depend on its fruits for survival.
