Is malnutrition an issue in East Asia & Pacific region?

Children eats a meal of sticky rice and a small selection of other foods. This staple food of rural areas fills the stomach but if not accompanied by other nutritious foods can add to malnutrition, LAO PDR © UNICEF/LAOPDR00933/JIM HOLMES

By Christopher de Bono, Chief of Communication, UNICEF East Asia & Pacific

When I visit some areas and even some countries in our region, I feel tall. But I am not. Much as I enjoy the strange sensation of being able to easily see street signs and watch movies and football games over the heads of everyone around me (I am most definitely not considered tall in my own country, Australia) I look forward to the day when all children in Asia and the Pacific are sufficiently well-nourished in childhood to tower over me in stature as they grow to adulthood, and to develop to their full intellectual and physical potential.

A chance for change: young people learn a trade

This article was first published in the Bangkok Post on 19 January 2013.



At a university dormitory in Bangkok, 21 young people from disadvantaged communities line up to pull the name of a top hotel out of a bag. Behind them, teams of hotel staff in uniforms wait to meet their new apprentices. For 19-year-old Daojai, a cabbage farmer from a Mon hill tribe village in Petchaburi province, it’s an exciting moment. She reaches in and pulls out a piece of paper saying ‘JW Marriot’ and her new life begins.

Local heroes: Cambodian communes fight poverty

Leak, 12, and his mother outside their new commune-built home
© UNICEF Cambodia/2012/Andy Brown

Twelve year old Kong Leak used to sleep with his mother and two brothers underneath other people’s houses. The family was homeless and didn’t have enough money for food and shelter. “It was a very difficult time for us,” his mother Soun Nai, 42, says with tears running down her face. “I couldn’t find enough food for the children and they got sick all the time. I couldn’t send them to school. It was a struggle just to survive.”

Children recover from the Cambodia floods

Chantou, 13, is back at school following the worst floods in a decade
© UNICEF Cambodia/2012/Andy Brown

Thirteen-year old Loinh Chantou attends Preak Cham School in Prey Veng Province, Cambodia. In September 2011, both her school and home were engulfed in the worst floods to strike Cambodia in a decade. Three-quarters of the country and over 1.2 million people were affected. Nearly 250 people died, mostly children who drowned in the flood waters.

One month in… an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD) in Bangkok

AYADs out for dinner (from left); Becky, Verity, Rebecca, Tang (ICM), Miranda and me. Photo courtesy of Mike Nedelko 2012 – also an AYAD who is taking the photo

By Anna Richardson, an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD) with UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office, Bangkok

One month in Bangkok. Two weeks of In-Country Orientation. Two weeks of working with UNICEF. So far it’s been a blast. Our In-Country Orientation helped us to find a home and learn more about security and working in the region. We started speaking Thai language and eating amazing Thai food! The four AYADs in my intake are all wonderful people with equally exciting assignments. So we got to know each other and our new home, Bangkok. We also had the opportunity to meet with the AYADs already living in Bangkok and learn about their NGOs. 

Development Dose - 9 January 2013

Hi everyone. Welcome to a New Year of compelling ideas and analysis of international aid and development. This month we have some excellent insights form some of the top global thinkers. And to start the new year off, an excellent animation to accompany the ideas of  Roman Krznaric on the power of cognitive empathy to spark a genuine human revolution. Spend 10 minutes now, then put into practice my friends.

VIDEO: The Critical Importance of Cognitive Empathy for Social, Political and Economic Transformation