Our Stories

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In Georgia, vocational training equips youth for job market

By Sophie Tchitchinadze, a finalist in UNDP's second annual storytelling contest Last year, 19-year-old Nino Narmania learnt she needed computer skills to do her favourite job—sewing and making clothes. Intrigued and excited by the project, she enrolled in a college-level professional tailoring prog more

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In Benin, women cotton growers embrace organic agriculture

Each year, on average, Benin produces 220,000 tons of cotton, representing 45 percent of its fiscal income and 13 percent of its Gross National Product. Yet, in the northern municipality of Banikoara - Benin’s top cotton-producing region - the excessive use of chemical fertilizers by some cotton gro more

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In Venezuela, music provides hope for impoverished youth

Nehyda Alas, a teacher and director of Venezuela’s Teresa Carreño Youth Symphony Orchestra, believes that when children are exposed to music their behaviour improves. He should know. Alas has been teaching music education to at-risk youth from Caracas’ poor communities, where children and teens are more

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Emiliana helps herself by helping the elderly in Bulgaria

“Don’t take her away,” urged Emiliana, a Bulgarian social assistant who provided personal care to an 87 year-old woman in Pravetz municipality. The elderly woman had lost two of her three sons and was living alone with arthritis and diabetes until Emiliana intervened. Emiliana kept the woman company more

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Creating resilient economies in Mongolia

Tsetsegdelger Byamba and her husband Hatanbaatar, of Mongolia, were among those who lost everything following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Unemployment, a daughter’s illness and a fire in their home destroyed life as they knew it. Today, however, Tsetsegdelger is the proud owner of a more

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From one meal a day to three

Inside Asea Begum's home, shelves teem with jars containing pulses, grains, spices and dried biscuits. A little girl runs in with a small plastic bottle that Begum fills with cooking oil in exchange for a few coins. Asea Begum runs a small grocery store out of her one-room house in the Mymensingh di more

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Guaranteed job for Madvi Madka, India

Madvi Madka, from the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, has one thing in common with many international business tycoons: he is part of the construction sector that has been crippled by the global economic crisis. But Madvi Madka is no real-estate shark. He is a farmer and a daily-wage earner wh more

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In Nigeria, farm training yields fuller harvests for rural women

For Mama Nsedu, a young widow in Northern Nigeria, feeding her family was becoming harder every day. Like thousands of women in the rural communities of Nanka, Kyado and Yauri, Mama Nsedu faced poor crop yields due to harsh, dry weather, low rainfall, poor soil nutrients and overdependence on expens more

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A future for young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina

At 25, Aleksandar Vrhovac, a resident of Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina, had no previous work experience. He knew nothing about how to prepare a resume, look for a job or present himself in an interview—until he went to one of the new centres for information, counselling and education opening more

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DRC: Former combatants gain skills and income through reintegration

For 32-year old Wathum Ukecha, life has taken a turn for the better since he volunteered to be demobilized after four years as a fighter in the forests of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Wathum is one of 160 people – mainly ex-combatants, vulnerable women and school drop-outs– who were tra more

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