2019: A year in photos

A look back at some of the most striking UNICEF photos of the year.

By UNICEF
India. A mother holds up her newborn baby girl at Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi.
UNICEF/UN0269333/Mukherjee AFP-Services
27 December 2019

As 2019 draws to a close, UNICEF editors sorted through this year's photography archive and selected some of the most moving, striking and inspiring images from its work with children around the world. This collection is a mere fraction of the countless moments and issues that shaped this year, across the more than 190 countries and territories in which UNICEF works.

(Above): A mother holds up her newborn baby girl at Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi, India.

UNICEF/UNI214010/Souleimain/AFP-Services
UNICEF/UNI214010/Souleimain/AFP-Services

A girl cries upon her arrival in Hassakeh city, in the far northeastern corner of Syria, after fleeing her hometown on the Turkish border. 

 

Mali. hold hands at a newly created displacement site in Sevare.
UNICEF/UN0296766/Keïta

Two girls hold hands at a newly created displacement site in Sévaré, Mali, after they were forced to flee when their village of Oundou was attacked in March.

 

Cucuta. A boy rests on his mother’s lap at a migration centre in Cucuta, Colombia, at the Colombian-Venezuelan border.
UNICEF/UN0303660/Arcos

A boy rests on his mother’s lap at a migration centre in Cucuta, Colombia, at the Colombian-Venezuelan border.

 

Mozambique. Brazilian Military Firefighters carry children rescued during heavy flooding in the Pemba region of Mozambique in April.
UNICEF/UN0306047/De Wet

Brazilian military firefighters carry children rescued during heavy flooding in the Pemba region of Mozambique in April following Cyclone Kenneth.

 

Sudan. UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore speaks with children at the Umm Battah Girls School in Kadugli, Sudan.
UNICEF/UNI219981/Noorani

UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore speaks with children at the Umm Battah Girls School in Kadugli, Sudan.

 

des enfants donnent une conference de presse
UNICEF/UNI207485/Chalasani

Deborah Morayo Adegbile (left), from Nigeria, and Greta Thunberg (second from left), from Sweden, take part in a press conference at UNICEF House announcing the collective action being taken on behalf of young people over climate change.

 

Kazakhstan. A boy holds some vegetables in a supermarket.
UNICEF/UNI209821/Karimova

A boy holds out some peppers in the vegetable section of a supermarket in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

 

Bangladesh. A young boy navigates a river near the Cox’s Bazar camp in Bangladesh that is swollen from days of monsoon rain as he collects plastic bottles, which he sells for money to help his family purchase vegetables and fish to eat.
UNICEF/UN0326875/Nybo

A young boy navigates a river near the Cox’s Bazar camp in Bangladesh that is swollen from days of monsoon rain as he collects plastic bottles, which he sells for money to help his family purchase vegetables and fish to eat.

 

A boy talks with a UNICEF worker in his totally destroyed classroom.
UNICEF/UN0342041/Moreno Gonzalez

A student speaks with a UNICEF emergency specialist in the remains of a classroom in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas, following Hurricane Dorian.

 

Yemen. A woman sits with her daughter inside a tent for internally-displaced persons in Lahj governorate, southern Yemen.
UNICEF/UN0321663/Baholis

A woman sits with her daughter inside a tent for internally displaced persons in Lahj governorate, southern Yemen.

 

Bulgaria. A teenager living with cerebral palsy laughs with a friend.
UNICEF/UN0338737/Nabrdalik VII

Maria Alexandrova, who is living with cerebral palsy and who is an advocate for other adolescents with disabilities, laughs with a friend in a classroom in Vratsa, Bulgaria.

 

Viet Nam. A boy plays football in the backyard of his home in Lao Cai province in Viet Nam.
UNICEF/UNI220463/Viet Hung

A boy plays football in the backyard of his home in Lao Cai province in Viet Nam.

 

Nigeria. A girl stands in an open-air classroom at Sabo Garawi Primary School in Gwoza, northeast Nigeria.
UNICEF/UN0311775/Kokic

A girl stands in an open-air classroom at Sabo Garawi Primary School in Gwoza, northeast Nigeria.

 

Timor-Leste. A teenage boy walks through water carrying a spear gun as he searches for fish in Timor-Leste.
UNICEF/UN0186830/Soares

A teenage boy walks through water carrying a spear gun as he searches for fish in Timor-Leste.

 

Ukraine. Two sisters wait with a doctor before their mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) vaccination in the Lviv region of western Ukraine.
UNICEF/UN0284077/ Dyachyshyn

Two sisters wait with a doctor before their mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) vaccination in Lviv region, western Ukraine, in February during a vaccination campaign.

 

Democratic Republic of the Congo. A health worker holds hands with a child being carried by a caregiver at an Ebola treatment centre.
UNICEF/UN0311518/Tremeau

A health worker holds hands with a child being carried by a caregiver at an Ebola treatment centre in Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

 

New York. A UNICEF installation of 3,758 backpacks each representing the loss of a young life to conflict in 2018 is displayed at the United Nations.
UNICEF/UN0341982/Farber/Getty Images

A UNICEF installation of 3,758 backpacks, each representing the loss of a young life to conflict in 2018, is displayed at the United Nations in New York in September 2019.

 

 

Mexico. Migrant children awaiting their humanitarian visas draw pictures of the homes they left behind at a UNICEF-supported child friendly space Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, at the Mexico-Guatemala border.
UNICEF/UN0277463/Bindra

Migrant children awaiting their humanitarian visas draw pictures of homes at a UNICEF-supported child friendly space in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, at the Mexico-Guatemala border.