Restoration Reaches 252 Million Hectares, Sierra Leone Cuts Maternal Deaths, Two Million Nigerian Children Reached | Oct 29, 2026

Today on Humanitarian Explorer: a new United Nations report finds about 252 million hectares of land and water under restoration across 149 countries, linked to more than one million green jobs. Sierra Leone reports deaths of mothers down about 31 percent and deaths of children down about 13 percent, and more than 10,000 never-vaccinated children reached. A UK-funded learning programme in northern Nigeria closes after reaching more than two million children and training more than 25,000 teachers and facilitators. A solar-powered water system brings safe water to about 1,200 people in a coastal Bangladesh village. And in South Sudan, more than 2,100 farming households are turning seasonal floodwater into rice harvests. Sources: UN Environment Programme (global restoration report): https://www.unep.org/en/news-and-stories/press-release/nature-making-comeback-world-must-move-faster-meet-restoration Sierraloaded (Sierra Leone maternal and child health): https://sierraloaded.sl/health/health-minister-reduce-maternal-child-deaths/ Leadership (Nigeria PLANE education programme): https://leadership.ng/plane-reaches-over-2m-children-as-uk-funded-programme-closes/ Business Times Bangladesh (solar water system, Bagerhat): https://www.businesstimes-bd.com/bangladesh/12182 Xinhua (South Sudan floodwater rice): https://english.news.cn/20261028/1bd29c16b1bc4e5ba3dc2e39b95a20d8/c.html How to help: charity: water, funds safe water projects with local partners: https://www.charitywater.org/ World Food Programme, provides food assistance and helps farmers grow more: https://www.wfp.org/ Photo: John Englart / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0, file photo, cropped and softened (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Planting_trees.jpg) Humanitarian Explorer is an initiative of The Human Family: https://thehumanfamily.org