The Pandemic Diaries: Amplifying the Voices of Asia-Pacific Children and Youth in the Global COVID-19 Crisis

The Pandemic Diaries: Amplifying the Voices of Asia-Pacific Children and Youth in the Global COVID-19 Crisis is a collection of diary entries from youth in Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Fiji, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Solomon Islands documenting their experiences during the first and second waves of COVID-19 in 2020. Part of a participatory research project led by the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth (UNMGCY), the collection aims to capture the perspectives of children and youth facing compounding crises in the Asia-Pacific region.

The diary entries, written by contributors aged 12 to 25, use life writing to illustrate how the pandemic intensified existing social and economic vulnerabilities. For example, Kritika, a 16-year-old from Kathmandu, Nepal, reflects on the limitations of virtual learning and her anxiety about its long-term impact on education. This concern recurs across the diaries, particularly among those in regions with unreliable internet access and limited digital infrastructure.

The entries also express deeper anxieties about environmental degradation and systemic inequality. Kritika criticizes humanity for “using our intelligence to destroy other creatures’ shelters, food, freedom and also destroying nature” (UNMGCY 17), while 24-year-old Akangkha Gogoi from India worries about her family’s domestic workers, “who are paid daily wages but due to lockdown were paid off and had no source of income” (UNMGCY 20).

Yet amid these hardships, the diaries resonate with hope. Many diarists describe a renewed closeness with family and a revaluation of relationships. As Atkia writes: “I also got to spend a lot of time with my family. It is really nice that everyone now shares the household chores. Above all, I got to see relationships and people evolve. It has been an experience. I saw myself grow as a person, as a daughter, as a sister, as a friend, and as a social worker” (UNMGCY 14).

These accounts allow youth across developing nations to narrate the pandemic’s impact and articulate resilience on their own terms, foregrounding their determination to confront structural inequities and sustain community well-being amid crisis.