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  “We were living a good life and we had to start from zero. I had to become a mother at the age of eight to my younger sisters.” These were the words of Mari Malek, who headlined a United Nations Foundation event this past Friday on the world’s refugee crisis. She is extraordinary in many ways: a woman who has overcome adversity; a renowned supermodel who is using her platform for great purpose; and a member […]

Today I am on my way to New York for a special kind of convening, the convening has moms in its title, Moms+SocialGood, but it is really about something we all can relate to: childhood. I will be presenting a powerful video series that was brought to my attention a few weeks ago about Syrian refugee children, something I can’t get out of my head. While meeting with colleagues from UNICEF, we talked about the ongoing situation

Editor’s Note: This post is part of the blog series, “Her Goals: Our Future,” which highlights the connections between girls and women and the Sustainable Development Goals. Guest blogger views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the UN Foundation. As the global community looks to 2030, advocates and leaders are putting women at the center of their development agendas. The gender focus of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) illustrate leaders’ belief that

Momentum continues to grow around the world for strong climate action. In 2015, world leaders reached a historic climate agreement in Paris. Last month, 175 leaders signed the agreement on Earth Day in New York, breaking a world record for the number of countries to sign an international agreement in one day. Now, as we move forward, multi-sector leaders have come together at Climate Action 2016 to discuss how we can capitalize on this momentum to set the

Where you are born should not determine whether you have access to the health services you need to stay healthy. This is everyone’s right and something world leaders committed to achieving as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Today, millions of children around the world don’t have access to vaccines that can protect them from polio, measles, and other diseases. Globally, a child dies every 20 seconds from a vaccine-preventable disease. Two year ago, Bloom + Grace,

Around the world, 225 million girls and women who want to choose when, whether, and how many children to have face barriers accessing contraceptive information and services. When girls and women can’t plan their families, they face numerous challenges – from an increased risk of death, to a greater risk of dropping out of school, to a reduced ability to earn an income, and more. Expanding access to modern contraceptives is a key priority for the United

The numbers of the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan are daunting, with more than 5 million people in need of assistance. Some of the most vulnerable are children, many of whom face malnutrition, violence, or recruitment as child soldiers. Recognizing this, officers with the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) are ardently working to safeguard the wellbeing of children in South Sudan. This year, UNICEF plans on treating 166,000 children living with severe acute malnutrition, giving 400,000

Editor’s Note: This post is part of the blog series, “Her Goals: Our Future,” which highlights the connections between girls and women and the Sustainable Development Goals. Guest blogger views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the UN Foundation.   The end of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) era in 2015 has provided the world with valuable and lasting lessons about what needs to be done differently and what can have a major impact

Editor’s Note: This post is part of the blog series, “Her Goals: Our Future,” which highlights the connections between girls and women and the Sustainable Development Goals. Guest blogger views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the UN Foundation. 12-year-old Shrity lives in one of the largest slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh, but she doesn’t want your pity. “I’m not sad,” she told me last summer after brushing her teeth and putting on her