Inspiring stories of people doing exceptional work in 2021

In the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the exceptional people were as you would expect, health workers who exposed themselves to considerable personal risk to ensure that members of their communities survived the emergency. This was particularly acute in conflict zones, where health workers continue to provide services against all odds.

In Yemen, Asia El-Sayeed Ali and her family had to flee their home in Aden and move in with relatives. Today, El-Sayeed Ali works at a medical centre supported by the World Food Programme (WFP), where she cares for children - and their mothers - suffering from malnutrition.
 

When a mother brings in a malnourished child, I give her a nutritional treatment and advise her to bring the child back the following week," says El-Sayeed Ali. "When she comes back and I see that the child has gained weight and her cheeks look healthier, I feel relieved. I love working at the clinic. It hurts my soul when I see children crying from pain or hunger, but I am doing something positive by helping the mothers and putting a smile on the children's faces."

Following the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, Dr Khali Ahmadi* told UN News in an exclusive interview from the Afghan capital, Kabul, that he and other health workers were continuing their work despite the lack of security and instability in the country, and called on the international community to continue to support his country.

Ahmadi is in Kabul to provide health care to the thousands of people who have arrived in the city fleeing the fighting. "Our working day is very long and hard," he said. "I start around seven in the morning and sometimes I can work until midnight, which means that as a team we can treat up to 500 people a day".
 

"Sometimes the security situation forces me to stay at home. If there are reports of gunshots or other disturbances, as well as roadblocks, the team members decide that it is too dangerous to go out to work. There can be a lot of tension on the streets.

They were all killed by a mine explosion. I thought of my own children

Other UN staff worked in high-risk countries, such as Fezeh Rezaye, 26, a mother of two children and part of a 19-woman demining team, who was awarded in April for her efforts to clear mines in the Afghan province.

"I knew several people from my village who were killed or injured by mines in Bamyan," she said. "Our landlord lost his leg in a mine accident. But what really affected me was the death of seven children, all from the same family, from our village. They were together in the mountains when they were killed by a mine explosion. I thought about my own children, what could have happened to them.
 

For the soldiers who are part of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, one of the UN's most dangerous assignments, every patrol they go on could be their last. Few, however, would change their profession.

Aviator Lieutenant Pilot Luis Alfonso Amaya Medrano, 29, who belongs to the Salvadoran contingent deployed within the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali, also known as MINUSMA, would not hesitate to "go back to serve in another UN mission, as I know that with the little I contributed, I am contributing to world peace," says the young Salvadoran.

We always start our flight missions here in Timbuktu, we fly to Doubouza, we check that all the streets are clear, that no explosives have been planted, that there is no suspicious activity. We land at the Duenza camp, we wait for the aircraft to be refuelled and then we do a convoy escort, protecting it from the air so that all the supplies that the camps need, especially Duenza, Timbuktu and up to Mopti, are provided without any problems".
 

Since deploying to Sudan's Darfur region in 2019, the military's gender advisor, Kenyan Major Steplyne Nyaboga, has worked diligently to promote the rights of women and girls by organising campaigns and workshops for staff and civil society activists.

In recognition of the excellence of her work, the UN awarded Nyaboga the 2020 Best Military Gender Advocate Award. "Peacekeeping is a human experience," she said. "Placing women and girls at the centre of our efforts and concerns will help us better protect civilians and build a more sustainable peace."

Major Nyaboga was responsible for gender education for other military peacekeepers during her deployment. She went on to train almost 95 per cent of UNAMID's military contingent until December last year. She also provided advice to better identify the needs of vulnerable men, women, boys and girls, and to optimise the way peacekeepers protect them.

Defending the Earth

After the initial postponement of the UN climate conference due to the spread of COVID-19, the long-awaited COP26 in Glasgow finally took place in 2021. The work of climate activists became more important.
 
From August to the end of October, the UN featured the work of ten young activists, engineers and entrepreneurs, showing how we can all do something, in the successful UN News podcast series No Denying It.

Among the change-makers is Nzambi Matee, a Kenyan entrepreneur who makes low-cost, sustainable building materials from recycled plastic waste and sand. Her company, Gjenge Makers, has economically empowered more than 112 people, from the supply chain to the production process.

Thanks to his school's initiatives, fish stocks and the ecosystem in his area are recovering, plastic waste has returned to the circular economy, and sailors in his community have an added source of income.

Many of the activists featured in Don't Deny It have been identified as Young Champions of the Earth by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which announced its latest winners in December.

This year's all-female cohort includes the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, who was honoured for being a powerful voice from the global South, advocating for a sustainable world, and for her relentless efforts to highlight the vulnerability of small island developing states to climate change.

The struggle for human rights

Human rights of all kinds remained under attack in 2021, but many courageous people persisted in their fight to protect them.

UN News interviewed Joenia Wapichana, an indigenous leader in Brazil, who has been defending indigenous communities living in the South American country's Amazon for more than 30 years. The fight for education, the fight against racism and the demarcation of indigenous lands have been her priorities.

In 2018, after a long campaign, Wapichana became the first indigenous woman to be elected as a member of Brazil's Federal Parliament. Her campaign was funded by a popular donation. That same year, she won the UN Human Rights Prize.

During the interview, Wapichana called for more resources for the fight against institutionalised discrimination. "Society has to understand that discrimination against indigenous people has always existed in Brazil. This discrimination exists and is not recognised," he said.

"When a person has suffered racial discrimination, or is suffering racism, it is necessary to protect them with the full weight of the law. The incident must be reported, even if nothing comes of it. It is important that we put on record what we are going through.

Eddie Ndopu, an award-winning South African disability activist, lives with spinal muscular atrophy and faces many daily challenges himself. He says that when he was born, his parents were told he would not live beyond the age of five.

Ndopu recounted how he overcame barriers to travel the world advocating for other disabled people. "Poverty is both the cause and the consequence of disability, and the vast majority of people with disabilities live in poverty, he said in an interview for the UN's Awake at Night podcast.

"I think we don't talk about disability because we insist on perfection. And I think disability reminds people that, actually, imperfection is more intrinsic to all of us than perfection."