At just 15 years old, Zunaira Qayyum has already emerged as a climate champion and a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Youth Advocate for Climate Action and Girls’ Empowerment in Pakistan.

In 2022, she began researching how floods and heatwaves in her hometown of Hub, Balochistan, were forcing girls out of school. Her work earned her recognition as one of the winners of UNICEF’s Policy Research Challenge the following year.

Today, children across Pakistan face mounting threats from floods, heatwaves, and other extreme weather events, which are making access to education increasingly difficult.

UN News’s Hareem Ahmed spoke with Zunaira about her advocacy for gender and climate justice, as well as her views on the importance of youth inclusion in climate action.

Audio credit: Hareem Ahmed, UN News

‘Our Voices Matter’: young climate leader calls for girls’ empowerment

A larger and more robust force in Haiti could help “turn the tide” against murderous gangs and give Haitians hope for the future, according to the UN’s designated expert on the human rights situation in the Caribbean country, William O’Neill.

Up to 90 per cent of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince is controlled by numerous gangs who murder with impunity and take hostages for ransom.

A UN-backed Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) has been unable to stem the violence, but it is hoped the transition to a new, larger and better equipped Gang Suppression Force could prove decisive. 

UN News’s Daniel Dickinson asked Mr. O’Neill how important it is to establish the new force.  

Audio credit: Daniel Dickinson, UN News

‘More robust force needed to turn the tide’ in Haiti

Obeah Opera is a powerful retelling of the story of Tituba — an enslaved Barbadian woman at the center of the Salem Witch Trials. 

Through music, dance, and storytelling rooted in Caribbean & African spirituality and resistance, this all-female cast delivers a breathtaking experience that celebrates culture, endurance, and truth. 

🎶 Selected songs "Di Moon Song" & "Blood (moans from the Dead)" featured in this programme are informal cast recordings from the musical odyssey Obeah Opera written, composed and arranged by Nicole Brooks c/o Asah Productions Inc. © 2014 & 2024 All Rights Reserved.  

For more information please go to www.obeahopera.com 

INSIDER'S REPORT | OBEAH OPERA - THE STORY OF TITUBA

UNICEF's Tess Ingram met Jana in Gaza when she first fell sick last year. Here's a transcript of her message recorded shortly after finding out that the nine-year-old had succumbed to malnutrition amid mass starvation in the Strip: "I just received the news that Jana died. A little girl forced to endure so much pain because of deliberate decisions that were made to restrict the entry of food into the Gaza Strip. 
"I met her in the north in Kamala One Hospital and we were moving her to the south of Gaza in an ambulance to get the life-saving treatment that she so desperately needed. I remember holding her frail little hand and helping her into the ambulance. And after that day, I wondered so many times, where is Jana now? Is she okay? Just a couple of weeks ago, and in Gaza City, I walked into a hospital and found her, again, acutely malnourished. 
"The world failed Jana so many times. Failed her on food. Twice. She recovered and then relapsed. And then the health system, decimated by this conflict, wasn't able to give her the care that she needed. And then, her last hope, medical evacuation out of the Gaza Strip, failed her. No country stepped up and was able to get Jana out of the Gaza Strip. 
UNICEF stands in solidarity with her family, her mother, Nesma, and the rest of their family, for the death of Jana, and also her two-year-old sister, Jouri, who died from malnutrition just a few weeks before Jana did. 
"This war must end now. Aid must be allowed into the Gaza Strip, including food and nutrition supplies. Humanitarians must be allowed to do their jobs. The children of Gaza are being punished by these decisions and it's killing them."  

Gaza: Jana, 9, dies from malnutrition, UNICEF says

Antonio Thomas of the Barbados Licensing Authority shares practical advice on what steps to take if your vehicle is stolen.

SPOTLIGHT ON THE BARBADOS LICENSING AUTHORITY | STOLEN VEHICLES

• Gaza children among latest medical evacuations from war zone
• ‘Trust crisis’ threatens vaccine confidence and global uptake
• Haiti: Security Council approves new force to target gang violence

Audio credit: Daniel Johnson, UN News

UN News Today 01 October 2025 - Gaza, vaccine confidence, Haiti violence

Catch up on information you might have missed during the week.

This week's programme features:
1.	Village Builders Programme
2.	NHC on SurePay
3.	Barbados Job Register

This Week’s In Case You Missed It Opportunities – October 1 - 7:
-	Graydon Sealy Secondary Canteen Tender (to download)
-	Barbados Employment and Career Counselling Service – follow on Instagram @molbarbados246
-	NCF Writer’s Clinic  - follow on Instagram @thencfbarbados and website ncf.bb

To download a copy of these opportunities, go to https://gisbarbados.gov.bb/download/in-case-you-missed-it-october-1-7-2025/


IN CASE YOU MISSED IT OCTOBER 1 - 7 (2025)

In Gaza City, families still ask the same question they’ve been repeating for two years: “where can we go that’s safe?” The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) insists that the answer is “nowhere”.

The south is desperately overcrowded, sanitation is collapsing, and air strikes continue to hit so-called safe zones. Many families cannot afford to leave, nor do they have a tent or a place to put it, insists UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.

“There’s a real level of fear and stress among the community here in Gaza City and in the south,” he told UN News. “People don’t have a choice. They’re well aware of the lack of safety.”

Hospitals are also overwhelmed. At Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, Mr. Elder described child trauma cases and injuries as “as bad as I’ve ever seen”, while at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younes he saw corridors lined with mothers and newborns as wards buckle under the devastation of Gaza’s health system.

UNICEF warns that with nowhere safe to go and health facilities collapsing, children face unrelenting trauma and danger. Without urgent protection and humanitarian access, their suffering will only deepen, the agency maintains.

Audio credit: UN News
Picture Credit: UNICEF/UNI820856

CLIP – ‘Where can we go that’s safe? Nowhere’: UNICEF on Gaza’s children

• Haiti: Human rights chief Türk condemns use of drones on gangs: #HRC60
• Gaza’s maternity wards full, mothers and babies in danger: UNFPA, UNICEF 
• Syria prison survivor’s pursuit of justice for those still missing 

Audio credit: Daniel Johnson, UN News

UN News Today 02 October 2025 - Haiti crisis, Gaza update, Syria

The Barbados Government Information Service has been established since 1958 as the Barbados Government's public relations and information arm.   This dynamic channel profiles Barbadian people, places and programmes which make up this Caribbean island surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.  We hope you enjoy and feel free to comment.  We want to hear from you.

INSIDER'S REPORT | OBEAH OPERA - THE STORY OF TITUBA

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