UNICEF Gets Results: A Look Back At Humanitarian Impact In 2024
In Amhara Region, Ethiopia, 1-year-old Dagem visits the Shumsheha health center, where he receives his vaccinations. Support from the European Union through the CARE4Health project — which focuses on restoring health facilities affected by conflict and natural disasters — enables children like Dagem to receive the vaccines and care they need to survive and thrive.
In the face of relentless conflict, climate emergencies and natural disasters, an estimated 183.5 million children required humanitarian assistance last year. And UNICEF teams around the world responded.
Alongside partners, UNICEF reached tens of millions of children and families in 2024 through humanitarian action supporting children's health, nutrition, education and protection, according to its latest results report.
As children were forcibly displaced; as they were killed or injured or suffered other grave violations of their rights; as they were left malnourished or without health care, their education disrupted — UNICEF delivered:
The totality of this impact was made possible with $3.02 billion in humanitarian funding — voluntary contributions from a range of public- and private-sector partners and supporters that included the kind of flexible funding UNICEF depends on to be able to respond swiftly to unfolding emergencies and to address chronic needs of children in some of the world's most challenging environments.
The Power of Unrestricted Giving: How UNICEF leverages flexible resources to drive impact for children
Meet some of the children behind these numbers.
Seraphin in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Seraphin, 10, carries his new UNICEF school bag received at the Bulengo primary school for displaced people in Goma, North Kivu province, DR Congo, on Feb. 28, 2024.
Seraphin, 10, fled with his family to escape violence in Nyamitaba and settle in Bulengo. UNICEF, with partner support, facilitated the construction and rehabilitation of 17 temporary classrooms and the distribution of 3,000 school kits at the Bulengo primary school, where Seraphin, who is in his third year of primary school, can now continue his education.
"When I fled the war, I had to leave my notebooks behind," he says. "When I arrived in Bulengo, I could attend classes, but I didn't have any supplies to take notes. From now on, I'll finally be able to take notes and revise lessons at home."
Shaila in Bangladesh
Shaila, with her mother in January 2024, lives in an urban slum in Rajshahi city, Bangladesh, where UNICEF is working with partners to provide clean water and sanitation.
Shaila and her family reside in an urban slum in Rajshahi city, home to 200 low-income families. They have long endured living conditions contaminated by foul sewage. The latrine pits, which stored waste, leaked untreated feces and wastewater into drains, eventually contaminating a nearby pond.
Climate change-related droughts, floods or cyclones exacerbate the situation, as low-quality latrine pits and septic tanks become inundated or severely damaged, increasing health and safety risks, especially for children.
UNICEF supported the construction of a drain in front of the house, while also providing clean water as part of an ongoing initiative to health concerns caused by unsanitary conditions and improve the overall well-being of the children.
Now, with cleaner surroundings and access to clean water, Shaila and her elder sister, Ria, can play safely without the risk of falling ill.
Maribel in Colombia
Maribel, 17, who was permanently injured after stepping on a landmine, stands on the beach in Tumaco, on the Pacific coast in southern Colombia, in March 2024. UNICEF supports survivor recovery and rehabilitation and reached millions of children worldwide last year through explosive ordnance risk education programs.
Maribel, 17, lives with her family in Tumaco. She dreams of becoming a lawyer to defend others against injustice. At 16, she faced war head-on: armed confrontations, explosions, crossfire. She stepped on a land mine and lost part of her right leg.
Colombia is one of the countries most contaminated by anti-personnel mines in the world, with more than 100 victims per year, 60 percent of them civilians. Many mines have accumulated during years of armed conflict, and new ones appear every day due to the increase in confrontations and new hostilities between armed actors.
Learn about how UNICEF protects children from unexploded ordnance and landmines
With UNICEF support, Maribel was able to enroll in a local school — taking an acceleration course to make up for lost time — and finished high school in one year. She now hopes to go to university and continue her higher education.
"I want to be a lawyer to fight injustice," Maribel says. "But if I can't study for that career because it's difficult to go to university, I want to help other young women like me who have been injured by landmines to get ahead.'
Nanvuma in Uganda
Nanvuma, 12, participates in a UNICEF-supported life skills course at her primary school in Uganda.
Nanvuma, a 12-year-old pupil at Bugoma Primary School in Kikuube district, Uganda, says she has gained confidence and has learned to socialize and make friends both at school and outside school thanks to a life skills course supported by UNICEF in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Sports. The program focuses on helping adolescent girls acquire 21st-century skills that will make them resilient to a range of vulnerabilities, including the risks of teenage pregnancy and gender-based violence.
More about how UNICEF helps youth build life skills — and why it matters
Fatima in Syria
Fatima, 12, holds one of her drawings, at her home in Arbin town, Rural Damascus, Syria on Dec. 1, 2024.
Fatima, 12, of Arbin, Rural Damascus, Syria, was born with limb deformities. 'I used to feel overwhelmed speaking to anyone outside my family," she says. "I had never spoken to a large group of people." Connecting with a UNICEF-supported mobile child protection team led her to receive a range of mental health and psychosocial support activities, including drawing lessons — all of which helped her overcome her feelings of isolation and social anxiety. 'I've always dreamed of becoming a painter, and now I feel like I'm taking real steps toward making that dream a reality."
In November 2024, the mobile team organized a celebration in Hammorieh village, where Fatima participated and recited poems, receiving a standing ovation. 'For the first time, I truly felt equal to the other children my age,' Fatima said. 'I felt like wings sprouted on my back, and I was flying."
For a more detailed look at the humanitarian situation of children in 2024, and how UNICEF engaged with partners at the local, regional and global levels to save lives, protect childhoods and ensure that children's rights were upheld, read the full report:
UNICEF's Global Annual Results Report 2024: progress achieved and lessons learned
Your unrestricted contribution to UNICEF is more important than ever. Please donate today.
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