Note to Correspondents

Photo Exhibit on 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

 

Opens at United Nations Headquarters 5 March

 

An exhibition of 160 photographs on the 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and UNICEF’s emergency work will open with a formal ceremony on Monday, 5 March, in the Main Gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby at 6 p.m.

On 11 March 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami hit eastern Japan, causing unprecedented levels of damage.  The United Nations and the rest of the world immediately offered support.  On the morning of the disaster, while the images were just starting to filter in from the affected area, the Secretary-General pledged that the United Nations would “do anything and everything we can at this very difficult time …”  The various entities of the United Nations, as in other disasters worldwide, stepped in to help Japan.  The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), focusing on the plight of Japanese children, announced within two days that it would provide whatever support it could through the Japan Committee for UNICEF, one of 36 National Committees that work in industrialized countries to raise funds to support the organizations’ programmes.  This would mark the first time that UNICEF would be providing assistance to Japan in nearly half a century.

The exhibition shows a small part of what the Japan Committee for UNICEF was able to do for Japanese children in a very complex emergency.  This assistance was possible as a result of donations provided by thousands of people from around the world.

The photographs in this exhibit consist of contributions by 23 renowned independent Japanese photographers and 25 Japanese newspapers and wire services.

Please visit the Japan Committee for UNICEF’s designated website on its humanitarian work, www.unicef.or.jp/kinkyu/japan/en/2011.htm, or for further information, contact:  Information and Public Affairs, Japan Committee for UNICEF, tel.:  + 81 3 5789 2016; or e-mail:  jcuinfo@unicef.or.jp.

The United Nations exhibit galleries are free-of-charge and open to the public seven days a week.  For more information on United Nations exhibitions, call Jan Arnesen at +1 212 963 8531, or Liza Wichmann at +1 212 963 0089; e-mail at arnesen@un.org, or wichmann@un.org; and visit our website at visit.un.org.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record