What we do

How UNICEF works to protect the rights of every child in Europe and Central Asia

A child peers through his fingers towards the camera

Our programmes across the region

UNICEF works with and for disadvantaged children and adolescents in 21 countries and territories across Europe and Central Asia. Our ambition is to get the entire region working together - as one - on behalf of its most vulnerable children. Explore the different areas of our work below.

Students, some with disabilities, participate in a UNICEF photography workshop in Azerbaijan

Adolescents

A mother and her three children in Georgia. The family live in extreme poverty but with UNICEF's support they have managed to stay together.

Child poverty

A conflict-affected girl takes part in a celebration of the International Children's Day in Svyatohirsk, eastern Ukraine. The event was organized by the Community Protection Centre supported by UNICEF.

Child protection

Stanislava, 15, lives in a family type placement centre for children with disabilities and attends mainstream school.

Children with disabilities

A baby and her sister play together in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Early childhood development

Children at a refugee centre in Turkey draw on paper at a school

Education

Kindergarden children practice an emergency response drill at a school in Kyrgyzstan.

Emergencies

11-year-old Ajsa is photographed in front of a laptop, with her head in her hands.

Ending violence against children

A female student attends a networking meeting at a school in Tajikistan.

Gender

A newborn baby in a hospital in Kyrgyzstan that was entirely rehabilitated by UNICEF.

Health

A woman loads vaccine into a syringe

Immunization

Roma and ethnic minority children

Emergency response

Refugee and migrant crisis in Europe

In Serbia, two children wait their parents to finalize the registration procedure in the Reception Centre in the town of Presevo, close to the border with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Conflict in Ukraine

Sasha, 6, steps out of her cellar in eastern Ukraine where her, her sister, and their grandmother shelter when there is shelling.