April 2022 - The volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami that hit Tonga in early 2022 is a stark reminder of the reality of disasters, and the fact that a disaster, can hit anywhere at any time and render communities vulnerable to massive damages. Mele Moimoi, a disaster risk reduction trainer at Tonga National Council of Churches (TNCC), and an alumna of UNITAR programme in 2021, tells her story.

Hosna is a 19-year-old Afghan alumna of UNITAR’s 2021 digital upskilling programme, and she is distressed about the gender gap in Afghanistan. Hosna was attending university in Kabul when the Afghan regime changed overnight, in August 2021. Fearing for her safety, she fled to Iraq, where she now continues her undergraduate studies. Hosna worries about her sister and friends back home.

Maureen Nduta was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. Having lived in the city all her life, she wanted a fresh experience and moved to Mombasa in the coastal region. Her plans were all set: first get a small restaurant running, then start a small farm to supply produce for the restaurant, and later on enrol for a business degree. Everything seemed to be going to plan. Then COVID-19 happened.

March 2022 – Raghad Hav started with a small idea and brought it to life with the help of the 2019 UNITAR training programme Empowering Social Entrepreneurs and Youth Leaders. Raghad founded She Codes Too, where she teaches Iraqi women to code.

Mohamadou Bello is driven to apply his extensive experience in education and digital learning to make a broadly accessible, multilingual e-learning platform for the people of Cameroon. The UNITAR Sahel Region Digital Reskilling Programme is helping him bring this dream to reality.

Amaraa Erdenebaatar, a diplomat of Mongolia, learned skills to become a better negotiator in the 2021 UNITAR Hiroshima Training Programme on Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation. Mongolia is the only country in the world with a self-declared nuclear-weapon-free status. Their status has been recognized internationally. The online UNITAR training combines theory with practice. The theory is taught by world-renowned experts. Participants also meet with hibakusha (atomic bombing survivors). The course ended with an online conference simulation. Participants negotiated a paragraph of an NPT Foreign Ministers Communiqué. Amaraa hopes to meet his course mates in person one day. He will continue promoting security and disarmament to make the world safer for his children.

Passion and prayers – that’s how Everlyn Fiualakwa of the Solomon Islands got into disaster risk management. Everlyn had just graduated from university and was looking for a job when an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Temotu Province, on 6 February 2013. A tsunami followed, killing 10 people. Reading about the disaster in the papers, Everlyn knew then what she wanted to do with her life: to help communities in her country become better prepared to deal with emergencies.

"I plan to open my own cafe where I can employ single mothers and young people and teach them everything I learnt about developing simple business ideas that, hopefully, they will be able to apply to their own lives.”

Khamis Bol Ajak Aguar of South Sudan is passionate. Passionate about passing on the knowledge and skills he learned from UNITAR and his studies, educating youth, and bringing peace and prosperity to his country. UNITAR is delighted to have Khamis as a volunteer coach for South Sudanese youth in our entrepreneurship programme and to see how our remarkable alumni are bringing about positive change in the world.

As part of the AGFUND and UNITAR Global Learning Platform on Financial Inclusion initiative, two e-workshops were organized to enhance the capacities of professionals in the areas of financial inclusion and sustainable development. The e-workshops "Financial inclusion and sustainable development" and "Training of Trainers for financial inclusion" were delivered in November and December 2020, over four weeks each. The e-workshops targeted professionals working in microfinance or financial institutions from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).