Local Govt Forum

© UNICEF/Rehab El-Dalil Mahmoud, who has autism, is holding the letter he was asked to find at the resource room in Egypt.         2 April 2020 Human Rights The rights of persons with autism must be taken into account in efforts to address the COVID-19 coronavirus: “a public health crisis unlike any other in our lifetimes”, the UN Secretary-General said on Thursday. António Guterres’s appeal came in his message for  World Autism Awareness Day , observed annually on 2 April. António Guterres ✔ @antonioguterres People with autism have a right to education and employment on an equal basis with others. We must ensure that a long disruption caused by the # COVID19 crisis does not result in rollbacks of the rights they have worked so hard to advance. 2,271 6:12 PM - Apr 2, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy 760 people are talking about this This year’s commemoration is being held as countries grapple with the pandemic, which is placing persons with autism at dispropor...

UNOCHA/Giles Clarke In Burkina Faso, the number of people facing a critical lack of food has increased.         2 April 2020 Humanitarian Aid Food insecurity levels in the Sahel region are “spiralling out of control”, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday, as it expressed concerns about the potential impact on humanitarian supply chains because of restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Across the Central Sahel in Africa – encompassing Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – more than five million people face severe food insecurity ahead of the coming lean season, according to data released by  WFP  and other humanitarian partners. World Food Programme ✔ @WFP The number of food-insecure people in # BurkinaFaso is expected to triple in the next lean season. And with # COVID19 reaching Central Sahel, Burkina Faso has seen the largest number of deaths anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa. This is a crisis layered on top of a crisis. 35 8:...

©IOM/Emrah Özesen A Syrian family prepares to huddle down by a fire out of the wind while children gather branches to burn, as they deliberate how to get home after a failed crossing attempt at the Edirne border with Greece.         2 April 2020 Migrants and Refugees With 23 migrants at an open accommodation site in central Greece testing positive for COVID-19, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) sounded the alarm on Thursday over conditions in crowded reception centres on five Greek islands where the virus risks taking hold. The Ritsona site – a one-hour drive from Athens - about 75 kilometres away - is one of 30 facilities on the Greek mainland that accommodate a total of more than 25,000 people. IOM - UN Migration ✔ @UNmigration Stay informed Wash your hands Stay at home Protect yourself and your family from # COVID19 : http:// bit.ly/33RrjmL   18 10:45 PM - Apr 2, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy See IOM - UN Migration's other Tw...

        3 April 2020 Migrants and Refugees Migrants and refugees hosted at UN-run reception centres in Bosnia-Herzegovina, are learning to cope with the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “We fled from home to save our lives, to escape war, and now we are faced with this new  coronavirus ”, says Rozhan, Along with her husband, Ibrahim, and her three children, she made a long and arduous journey from Iraq, her home country, to Bosnia-Herzegovina in Europe. The family are hosted at the Borići reception centre in Bihać, managed by UN Migration ( IOM ) along with 315 other migrants and refugees, who have escaped conflict and violence in countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria.