Merolyn Tuwasa is a physiotherapist and team leader for the Community Based Rehabilitation programme at Cheshire disAbilty Services Papua New Guinea (PNG). UN Women has implemented a COVID-19 Disability Inclusion Project, in partnership with the organization, to raise COVID-19 awareness among people living with disabilities, their parents, caregivers, and communities. The project has reached more than 200 beneficiaries across the capital.

In a statement for World AIDS Day, 1 December, UN Women highlights the need to accelerate action towards gender equality, ending violence, supporting leadership and the full enjoyment of their human rights for all young women and girls, especially those affected by both coronavirus and HIV

In a statement, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka calls on governments to recognize both the enormity of the contribution women make and the precarity of so many in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today, as we commemorate the International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation, UN Women calls for intensified efforts to stop the practice in all its forms. We pledge to increase support for efforts to prevent female genital mutilation, and advance gender equality and human rights, including the right to sexual and reproductive health and to live free of violence and discrimination.

193 member States of the United Nations elected me by acclamation to serve as 68th President of the United Nations General Assembly. It was a poignant moment in that I was about to assume a huge responsibility, while at the same time taking the next step on a journey that began purely by happenstance.