Press releases

London, wednesday 12 June - Soccer Aid for Unicef players including Usain Bolt, Niall Horan, Jamie Redknapp and Sir Mo Farah joined more than 250 guests for a star-studded gala tonight at the Science Museum in South Kensington, raising a staggering £425,000 to support Unicef’s vital work protecting children in danger around the world.

At least 19 children have reportedly been killed in Sudan and another 49 have been injured since June 3rd.

10 June 2019 -  In 2018, UNICEF responded to 285 humanitarian emergencies in 90 countries around the world, providing vital life-saving support to millions of children.

7 June 2019 – Fifty-five tons of UNICEF health supplies have reached Venezuela since the beginning of the year, the United Nations children’s organization said today.

7 June 2019 – An estimated 115 million boys and men around the world were married as children, UNICEF said today in its first ever in-depth analysis of child grooms. Of these, 1 in 5 children, or 23 million, were married before the age of 15.

3 June 2019 –  More than 5 million families across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean spend over 40 per cent of their non-food household expenses on maternal health services every year, UNICEF said today in a new analysis on maternal health.

As The Lancet launches its new Series on Gender Equality, Norms and Health, which finds that governments and health institutions have persistently failed to make progress towards gender equality, UNICEF is calling on the international community to work together to eliminate gender inequality.

30 May 2019 – UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Orlando Bloom visited Mozambique this week, where 1.1 million children remain in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of tropical cyclones Idai and Kenneth.

30 May 2019 – “Tens of thousands of children in northwest Syria are at imminent risk of injury, death and displacement because of a significant escalation in fighting. Violence has intensified over the past few days, especially in villages in northern Hama and southern Idlib. 

28 May 2019- Among the 2 million children under the age of five years who are suffering from acute malnutrition, 600,000 children are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

28 May 2019 – Attacks on schools in Afghanistan tripled between 2017 and 2018, surging from 68 to 192, UNICEF said today. It was the first time school attacks had increased since 2015.

26 May 2019- “Seven children between the ages of 4 and 14 were killed on Friday in an attack on the Mawiyah district, in the southern Yemeni city of Taiz.

24 May 2019 – “UNICEF condemns the brutal killings of civilians during recent attacks by armed groups on villages in the northwest of the Central African Republic. The attacks left at least 54 people dead.

23 May 2019 - As the Ending Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Humanitarian Crises conference in Oslo gets underway, UNICEF is calling for stronger political commitments from international governments to protect and improve life-saving services for those women and girls affected by violence worldwide.

22 May 2019- We are concerned that the UN Special Rapporteur’s findings show that the fifth wealthiest country is failing to fully comply with its obligations under the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) – to provide children and families with enough to eat and a safe place to live.

21 May 2019 – “The thousands of children of foreign fighters languishing in camps, detention centers or orphanages in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere are among the world’s most vulnerable children."

Tuesday, 21 May - Actor David Harewood met members of parliament at a Soccer Aid for Unicef event at the Houses of Parliament to support the Great Big Kickabout.

16 May 2019 -  Hundreds of thousands of children affected by deadly Cyclone Idai in Mozambique have been vaccinated and received vitamin A supplements in the past week, with UNICEF and partners, including the World Health Organisation (WHO) supporting the Government-led Health Week in the 21 most affected districts of Sofala, Manica, Inhambane, and Zambézia provinces.

London, Saturday 11 May – Rita Ora will perform an exclusive live half time set at Soccer Aid for Unicef 2019 at Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge Stadium in London on Sunday 16th June, broadcast exclusively on ITV and STV.