Ann Veneman, Executive Director of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), is visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo where she is meeting victims of sexual violence and children who were kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army guerrilla group but managed to escape.
UNICEF's top official oversees annual resources of more than $3 billion, funded entirely from voluntary contributions. Since becoming executive director, she has travelled to more than 60 countries to witness the plight of children affected by natural disasters, conflict, disease and exploitation. Before joining UNICEF in 2005, Veneman headed the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Veneman will pass through London on her way back from Congo at the end of the week and will answer your questions about her trip, UNICEF and the issues faced by children around the world, including child labour, trafficking, sexual exploitation, the problem of child soldiers and orphans.
You can participate by using the comments section below or by using the #askunicef tag on Twitter .
Please send your questions by Tuesday, Sept 1, and we'll get as many of your questions to Veneman as possible. We'll be publishing her replies on AlertNet next week, so keep checking back!
New to Twitter? If you aren't using Twitter already but want to post a question or see what other people are asking Veneman through Twitter, just get yourself a Twitter account, search for the #askunicef tag and view all questions. You can post a 140-character question yourself, making sure to use the #askunicef tag somewhere in your post so it sits with all the other posts from people across the Twittersphere.
To post a question via AlertNet, please go to our blog section.
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