Elissa Miolene
For many, the crumbling silos are emblematic of Lebanon’s continued decay. Two years on from the blast, corruption and economic mismanagement remain endemic. The country has cycled through a series of governments, and negotiations with the International Monetary Fund toward a rescue plan have plodded along, slowed by the country’s banks.
A few weeks before Christmas, Angeline stands in the video game aisle of Best Buy. Brightly colored stacks line the shelves, and as she walks from one section to another, she studies the covers closely.
“Anything Mario Kart, he loves,” says Angeline, 43. She smiles as her eyes land on a disc with the mustachioed character bursting through the sky. “This is the one.”
Angeline has never actually seen her eldest son, Amal, play a video game. But after countless pictures, videos and phone calls, she knows the gift will be just right.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, East Bay Dr. Stephanie Brown began noticing a startling trend. Many of her Black patients were getting worse, even while their oxygen measurements said the opposite.
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At just past 10 on a Saturday morning, two dozen Afghan students began to write.
Some could understand the prompt, which was printed on the handouts before them in English. Others simply stared at it and tried to untangle the words. There were furrowed brows and jittery hands, but every face was set in focus.
The day before Thanksgiving, Sayed Hofioni finally opened the door to his family’s new home. His daughters, Kowsar, 5, and Zainab, 3, rushed inside, eyes wide and giggling. His wife, bundling their 3-month-old baby in her arms, followed closely behind. It had been three months since they fled Afghanistan on a military plane — and almost as long that they had spent waiting in a single room at a Contra Costa County hotel.
In the lazy hours of a late Sunday afternoon, a steady stream of customers passed under the dark green awning of Polynesian Island Luau. According to its patrons, the takeout-style restaurant and retail shop — where shark tooth necklaces dangle from the ceiling, racks of floral shirts line the walls, and the owner’s granddaughter runs the register on the weekends — is the last of its kind in the Bay Area.
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From a cliff overlooking the Port of Benicia, Cole Burchiel pumped his fists in the air. It was a silent, solitary celebration – born not of happiness, but of vindication. As a field investigator at the San Francisco Baykeeper, an environmental watchdog group, Burchiel had been conducting one of his regular patrols of the bay. As he maneuvered his drone around the port, black plumes towered from the ship beneath it.
And as he hit record, the drone – affectionately named Osprey – captured what for months had been impossible to prove.
more features
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The Mercury News ‘Shock to the education system’: This AI chatbot could rewrite the future of learning
Washingtonian Magazine Transgender Patients Say Georgetown Hospital Is Denying Them Care
The Mercury News Will $1 billion for California be enough to end nomadic life for teachers?
The Wall Street Journal Dragons, lizards and cobras pop up in England’s suburbs
The Stamford Advocate Italian village calls Stamford a sister city from 7,000 miles away
The Wall Street Journal The fast-food chain with a sold-out fashion line
The Mercury News In Oakland, music is helping immigrant students connect at school
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ruling Conservative Party lost two seats in the country’s parliament, dealing a fresh blow to his leadership as he struggles to retain support.
The U.K. recorded its highest-ever temperatures on Tuesday with readings of over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, as a heat wave scorched the nation and sparked fires around the capital
Tens of thousands of transport workers brought the U.K. to a standstill Tuesday during the country’s largest rail strike in three decades.
Women are rallying behind the prime minister and her ‘work hard, play hard’ message; ‘How is a woman criticized for doing something almost every human being enjoys?’
Spain, France and Croatia are also facing blazes as large parts of the continent experience intense heat wave.
humanitarian storytelling
I was contracted by the UNICEF Regional Office of South Asia to create this package, which tells the stories of eight children from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and beyond. This package was presented to high-level policymakers to galvanize support for child rights programming and raise awareness of the challenges children in the region were facing.
Displaced by climate change:
Save the Children
I prepared this proposal to highlight Save the Children's programs targeting climate change adaptation, resilience, and emergency response efforts while working for the agency as a communications specialist.
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While working for Alive Medical Services, a small HIV clinic in Kampala, Uganda, I created a package of success stories to help with fundraising and advocacy efforts in both Uganda and internationally.
While at the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, a UNICEF-hosted fund, I wrote stories about our 600+ partner organizations and the work they were doing across the world to protect children.
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For three months, I was consulted by UNICEF Maldives to interview staff, visit programs, and relaunch their communications work with the creation and launch of a new Drupal website. While there, I wrote stories about programs across the country and the impact UNICEF Maldives was having on children.
more HUMANITARIAN WORK
End Violence Partnership/UNICEF Youth in Brazil explore violence, discrimination in schools
UNICEF South Asia The cost of education in Punjab, Pakistan
Save the Children Save the Children's emergency health unit: a fact sheet
UNICEF South Asia The right to an identity for Rohingya children
End Violence Partnership/UNICEF No deaf child should scream in sign language
Save the Children European migration crisis: one year on report
UNICEF Maldives UNICEF visits Gulhi School to talk plastic