Disability rights

"Only by being true to my experiences will I be more effective in informing our programs. My experience has value, inside or outside UNICEF, but I am grateful that I am inside UNICEF to make use of it." Kristine Roda Alingod, Programme Officer (Children with Disabilities) Kristine wearing her glasses posing and smiling, Kristine Roda Alingod, Programme Officer (Children with Disabilities), UNICEF Philippines Roda, joined UNICEF through the UN Volunteer programme. As a Programme Officer, she helps the Child Protection team in the Philippines in developing programmes that are more inclusive and better respond to the needs of children with disabilities. As a person with a disability…, Delivering Results While Living our Core Values, If you could highlight just one, which of the six UNICEF Core Values (Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability) would that be? I would highlight integrity because I think it requires all the other values, individually or as a collection, to be present.   You can’t have integrity if you don’t care, if you don’t respect,…

I stopped compromising, I stopped cutting out the parts of me that made others uncomfortable, I stopped allowing the opposite sex to make me feel small, and I stopped hiding my mixed-race heritage and disabilities. Instead I began to challenge, I began to find the right language to speak about my truths and I began to feel a sense of empowerment…, Zoë Gan, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Malaysia "When I was 7, I landed in the white-washed, predominantly White Irish immigrant suburb of inner-city North Manchester, United Kingdom. I was darker skinned, had a strong Malaysian-English “Manglish” accent (splattered with Hokkien, Bahasa Malaysia and Tamil words of which I did not know the English…, Disabilities and COVID-19, Living with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic has completely unraveled all the coping mechanisms I have carefully put in place to manage my day-to-day challenges. I need a quiet place to work, with no distractions, a space where I can concentrate, order my thoughts and access my assistive software efficiently. However, now my lockdown home…, Thierry Beniflah, Senior ICT Business Relationship Manager, UNICEF Division of Information and Communication Technology, New York Headquarters. "I am 53 years old and have been a UNICEF HQ employee since November 2010. Between the ages of 20 and 45, I have experienced month-long mood swings: I would either radiate sparkling energy, sleep 3-4 hours a night and…, Impact of COVID-19 on mental health, More recently, I have experienced the impact of COVID - 19 on my mental well-being. I have been prone to more depressive episodes (this  study  showed that the prevalence of depression symptoms in the US was more than 3-fold higher during COVID - 19 than before the pandemic. The UN  estimates  that 49% of our personnel experience symptoms…, UNICEF's diverse and inclusive workplace, At UNICEF, we're constantly striving to be more inclusive. By building accessible offices, making our IT systems accessible, providing reasonable accommodation, to ensure that employees with disabilities can perform their duties without barriers. We strived to shift our culture and break stigma and discrimination to ensure that the number of…