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Kid's Corner: Just What Does the United Nations Do?
We're all hearing a lot about the United Nations in the news lately. But many of the things the UN does rarely make headlines.
From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, the United Nations - usually just called the "UN" - is made up of 191 countries. Representatives from each country debate critical matters of war and peace around the world.
But most of the UN's work goes on behind the scenes. One of the UN's most important missions is to help the world's poorest and undeveloped countries. These are countries with little modern industry or agriculture, countries where people are hungry and sick, many without homes or jobs to help them feed their families.
The UN says that 1.5 billion people - that's one-fourth of the world - live in "absolute poverty" and 13 to 18 million people, mostly children, die from poverty and hunger every year.
One of the well-known UN programs that helps children around the world is UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.
For instance, UNICEF emergency aid helped Kim Pok Nan, a 5-year-old in North Korea. She was among thousands of children and families hurt by two years of devastating floods, storms, droughts and crop failure in the 1990s.
The child, who had lost both her parents, was so tiny she looked only 3 years old. "She had on a bright pink dress and her little arms and legs were like sticks coming out of it. She gave me a look that was very, very sad," a worker at a children's home said. "At least the little girl had a place where she was getting some food and high-energy milk."
The UN says 1.3 billion people live on less than $1 a day. About a billion people can't read or write and more than a billion don't have access to clean water. That's where the United Nations Development Program comes in. Its efforts include helping villages build safe water systems and teaching people how to grow their own food.
A woman in Vietnam told how a UN training program turned her family's life around. Unable to produce enough rice, they began a fishery using techniques the UN taught them.
"This gave us more protein in our diet, as well as $330 from the sale of surplus fish," she said. "We used the money to buy livestock, repair the house, purchase furniture, pay fees for the children's education and our parents' health care, and restock the pond. Now I am teaching other women in the community to raise fish."
A similar program is the FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Its mission is to increase nutrition and living standards, improve farming and help rural populations. Even though there are still far too many hungry people in the world, food production has gone way up since the FAO began its efforts in 1945.
FAO aid helped farmers in Zambia after drought cost them three crops in a row. "We were forced to sell our cattle and most of our neighbors left the region to look for water," farmer Samuel Mono said. But after the FAO stepped in, things changed. Farmers diversified their crops and learned to use less water while growing more food.
A UN program especially important to labor unions is the International Labor Organization. The ILO fights for justice for workers and basic human rights. For instance, the ILO is trying to help Joseph, a wrongly fired man in Haiti, get his job back. Joseph and his coworkers decided to form a trade union to improve their wages and quality of life. But when his boss found out, he was fired.
The stories of children, farmers, workers and other people helped by these programs and many others are told in a book called "The United Nations in Our Daily Lives." The $5 book and others like it can be ordered from the UN website, www.un.org, where you can also learn a lot more about the United Nations.
To hear from children around the world, take quizzes, play games and participate in online discussions, check out the UNICEF "Voices of Youth" page. It's at www.unicef.org/young.
From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, the United Nations - usually just called the "UN" - is made up of 191 countries. Representatives from each country debate critical matters of war and peace around the world.
But most of the UN's work goes on behind the scenes. One of the UN's most important missions is to help the world's poorest and undeveloped countries. These are countries with little modern industry or agriculture, countries where people are hungry and sick, many without homes or jobs to help them feed their families.
The UN says that 1.5 billion people - that's one-fourth of the world - live in "absolute poverty" and 13 to 18 million people, mostly children, die from poverty and hunger every year.
One of the well-known UN programs that helps children around the world is UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.
For instance, UNICEF emergency aid helped Kim Pok Nan, a 5-year-old in North Korea. She was among thousands of children and families hurt by two years of devastating floods, storms, droughts and crop failure in the 1990s.
The child, who had lost both her parents, was so tiny she looked only 3 years old. "She had on a bright pink dress and her little arms and legs were like sticks coming out of it. She gave me a look that was very, very sad," a worker at a children's home said. "At least the little girl had a place where she was getting some food and high-energy milk."
The UN says 1.3 billion people live on less than $1 a day. About a billion people can't read or write and more than a billion don't have access to clean water. That's where the United Nations Development Program comes in. Its efforts include helping villages build safe water systems and teaching people how to grow their own food.
A woman in Vietnam told how a UN training program turned her family's life around. Unable to produce enough rice, they began a fishery using techniques the UN taught them.
"This gave us more protein in our diet, as well as $330 from the sale of surplus fish," she said. "We used the money to buy livestock, repair the house, purchase furniture, pay fees for the children's education and our parents' health care, and restock the pond. Now I am teaching other women in the community to raise fish."
A similar program is the FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Its mission is to increase nutrition and living standards, improve farming and help rural populations. Even though there are still far too many hungry people in the world, food production has gone way up since the FAO began its efforts in 1945.
FAO aid helped farmers in Zambia after drought cost them three crops in a row. "We were forced to sell our cattle and most of our neighbors left the region to look for water," farmer Samuel Mono said. But after the FAO stepped in, things changed. Farmers diversified their crops and learned to use less water while growing more food.
A UN program especially important to labor unions is the International Labor Organization. The ILO fights for justice for workers and basic human rights. For instance, the ILO is trying to help Joseph, a wrongly fired man in Haiti, get his job back. Joseph and his coworkers decided to form a trade union to improve their wages and quality of life. But when his boss found out, he was fired.
The stories of children, farmers, workers and other people helped by these programs and many others are told in a book called "The United Nations in Our Daily Lives." The $5 book and others like it can be ordered from the UN website, www.un.org, where you can also learn a lot more about the United Nations.
To hear from children around the world, take quizzes, play games and participate in online discussions, check out the UNICEF "Voices of Youth" page. It's at www.unicef.org/young.