Poems for Peace
Young people living in conflict use poetry to express their hopes for a more peaceful future.
Around the world, millions of children are growing up in conflict. Caught in the crossfires of war, these children are uniquely vulnerable. They are often uprooted from home or exposed to extreme trauma. It is much harder for them to access healthcare or education. And too often, warring parties flout one of the most basic rules of war: the protection of children.
With Poems for Peace, UNICEF gives children a platform to explain in their own words the impact of conflict and war on their lives – and their hopes and dreams for the future. By amplifying the voices of children, UNICEF is highlighting the extraordinary strength and courage of young people longing for a more stable future.
Haiti
One day I wish to hear no more guns shoot.
Nigeria
Let’s embrace diversity,
Let differences unite.
For in unity, we find strength and light.
Sudan
We long for peace, not battles fought.
And the peace will illuminate the darkness.
Sudan, may happiness bloom in your heart.
Ukraine
But I believe that happy days will break through the pain.
The war will end, the air raids will stop forever.
Ethiopia
What I miss?
The day to pass without hearing a shot.
The day to pass without disturbance.
Myanmar
We ask for peace,
Which in fact we exchange with our last breath.
Mali
The farewell in our eyes,
Our worries take their leave,
Frustrations go astray,
Peace is not delayed.
Yemen
Oh my Messenger, show him peace
May peace always dispel the darkness
More about Poems for Peace
Since the initiative’s inception in 2020, UNICEF has received thousands of poems from 8 year-olds to 24 year-olds around the world including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Haiti, Iraq, Mali, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Stop attacks on children
Ultimately children need peace to thrive. It is critical for children that efforts to end today’s seemingly endless armed conflicts are redoubled. But children cannot wait for protection – while wars continue, we must never accept attacks against children.
Thirty years since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and 70 years since the four Geneva Conventions – the international legal bedrock to protect civilians in war – it is time to say “Enough! Stop attacks on children.”
