Delivering better maternal health outcomes in Guinea-Bissau

Ami Campini says she’s lucky to be alive. The mother of four was seven months pregnant with her fifth child when she and her family moved from the northern part of the country to the Quinara region in the southwest, where they own farmland, for the start of farming season.

Within two weeks of arriving, Ami started bleeding – enough to warrant a visit to a health centre. But workers at the centre were on strike, so she was sent to another facility, which didn’t have an ultrasound machine to diagnose her condition. 

Facilitating access to justice and rights in the Sahel region

This year, the International Day of Peace calls for recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world. In the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are invited to reflect on how we can best help transform our world into a more equal, just, fair, inclusive, sustainable and healthy one. From the Sahel region, we share the impact of a partnership between the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN Volunteers (UNV) programme.

A new project in Burkina Faso offers hope in prison in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

 In Burkina Faso, UNODC, UNV and IOM launched a project supporting the prevention of risks of deterioration of social cohesion and peace in the context of the response to COVID-19 at points of entry and in places of detention, with funding from the UN Peacekeeping Fund. 

How volunteering can break down barriers and foster social inclusion