A photographic time journey: How UNICEF supplies have helped children
In images, the decades-long work UNICEF has been carrying out to ensure that essential supplies reach children and their families.
On 5 October 2022, UNICEF will celebrate 60 years since its global supply and logistics operations were set up in Copenhagen, Denmark. Images captured throughout this period are a testament to the work UNICEF has been carrying out for decades to ensure that essential supplies reach children and their families.
Trinidad and Tobago
Circa 1960: A child carefully receives a cup of milk at the Cunupia Government School near Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. UNICEF shipped powdered skimmed milk to support nutrition programmes run by the government of Trinidad and Tobago.
Nigeria
In 1969, local staff pack UNICEF medical supplies at the World Council of Churches Central Store in Ubulu, in the Biafran region of Nigeria. The medical sets contained disinfectants, antibiotics and other drugs to combat malaria, dysentery, parasites and anaemia. They were sent to refugee camps and healthcare centres.
Bangladesh
In 1972, crowds gather to watch the unloading of UNICEF-supplied blankets from a transport plane in Bangladesh. As part of the United Nations relief and rehabilitation programme for the country, UNICEF provided urgently needed food, medicine, shelter and clean water supplies to assist children and women.
Viet Nam
In 1972 in South Viet Nam, boys in a school in the suburbs of Saigon drink soy-corn milk, a protein beverage, delivered by UNICEF. For many years, UNICEF allocated resources to equip orphanages and nurseries while distributing high protein food in schools and refugee camps.
China
In 1981, health workers in China distribute UNICEF-supplied vitamins to women and their children in Hebei Province as part of a programme to provide primary health care services.
Türkiye
In 1987, a small girl, held by her mother, is vaccinated by a nurse in the village of Köskköy, Turkey. This was part of the final round of a UNICEF-supported child immunization campaign, delivered through UNICEF’s Child Survival and Development Revolution, a global initiative launched in the early 1980s.
Peru
In 1993, a health worker gives oral rehydration salts (ORS) to a boy at the UNICEF-assisted Juan Velasco community health project, in the Amazonian town of Tamshiyacu. The distribution of ORS was part of a UNICEF supported primary health care programme aimed at reducing child malnutrition, iodine-deficiency disorders and diarrhoeal disease.
Kenya
In 1998, a health worker draws blood from a young man at a UNICEF-supported centre for AIDS prevention, which offered free HIV testing for youths in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
Sri Lanka
In 2005, Grade 2 students and a teacher unpack a UNICEF school-in-a box kit containing supplies like rulers and exercise books at Sudharma College in the southern district of Galle, Sri Lanka. The school had been damaged by the tsunami that hit the country in 2004.
Venezuela
In 2006, an indigenous Wayuu girl receives an oral polio vaccination during an immunization campaign in Maracaibo City in the north-western state of Zulia, Venezuela. The campaign was part of the Ministry of Health's Trio por la Vida programme, a UNICEF-supported initiative to promote children’s health.
Pakistan
In March 2016, a little boy tastes RUTF (ready-to-use therapeutic food) in a health care centre in the Muzuffragrah District.
RUTF is a life-saving essential supply that treats severe wasting in children under five years old. It is made from powdered milk, peanuts, butter, vegetable oil, sugar, and a mix of vitamins and minerals.
Cote d’Ivoire
In 2017, in the village of Parhadi in the northeast of Côte d'Ivoire, Pauline Kouissi Kossia, and one of her children sit under a mosquito net delivered by UNICEF. Her family had been sleeping under mosquito nets for years to reduce the chances of contracting malaria and, as she explained, this was because “they are a lot cheaper than malaria medication.”
Syria
In December 2020, UNICEF staff help a young girl open a box of winter supplies in Ghernata village in rural northern Aleppo in the Syrian Arab Republic.
UNICEF and partners distributed winter clothing kits for children aged 0-14 years of age. Each clothing kit contained a thermal outfit, a winter jacket, woollen hat, scarf and gloves, as well as winter shoes.
Jordan
"I wash my hands so germs don't get on them," says Dareen, 6, who cleans her hands in a handwashing demonstration in Al Khader primary school, Jordan, in 2020.
With the emergence of COVID-19 and declaration of pandemic, UNICEF and partners scaled-up hygiene awareness, and distribution of soap and community engagement activities, particularly in vulnerable communities so children and their parents could protect themselves.
Cameroon
In 2021, children celebrate receiving their new backpacks in a UNICEF-supported public school in Founangué, Maroua, in the extreme north of the country. Due to the pandemic, their school was closed for several months.
