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Disaster Stalking Children in Africa’s Drought-Prone Sahel Region, Warns UNICEF

A young mother and with her malnourished child at a screening centre in Gamdji. UN Photo/WFP/Phil Behan

16 March 2012 – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is warning that more than a million children below the age of five in the Sahel are facing a disaster amid the ongoing food crisis in the drought-prone region of Africa.

They are among the some 15 million people estimated to be at risk of food insecurity in countries in the Sahel, including 5.4 million people in Niger, three million in Mali, 1.7 million in Burkina Faso and 3.6 million in Chad, as well as hundreds of thousands in Senegal, the Gambia, and Mauritania, according to UN figures.

UNICEF stated that the dry, ‘lean’ season in the affected countries is imminent, and will be marked by rising numbers of children in feeding centres who will need life-saving treatment.

“A multiple disaster is stalking children in the Sahel,” said the agency’s Regional Director, David Gressly. “Even in a best case scenario we are expecting more than a million children suffering from severe and acute malnutrition to enter feeding centres over the next six months.

“More extreme conditions could see the number rise to around 1.5 million, and funding is still not coming at the rate we need to prepare properly,” he added.

The agency noted that it has so far received $24 million against an emergency appeal of $119 million for 2012.

UN agencies and their partners have been responding to the food crisis in the Sahel, which is the result of poor rainfall and failed harvests. The renewed conflict between Government forces and the Tuareg in northern Mali that has uprooted civilians has also increased demand for emergency assistance not only there, but in neighbouring countries that have received refugees.

“The upsurge of fighting in Mali, as well the acute insecurity in northern Nigeria and elsewhere, are complicating the aid operation,” said Mr. Gressly.

“Without a good emergency response and a sustained effort to reduce risk in the medium to long term, an entire generation faces a future of dependency, poverty and threatened survival.”

Earlier this month, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) called for $69.8 million in additional funding to prevent a full-blown food and nutrition crisis from unfolding in the Sahel.

 UN News Center

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UN-backed Partners Help DR Congo Introduce Pneumonia Vaccine

4 April 2011 –The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) today added the vaccine against pneumonia to its national immunisation programme in a United Nations-backed initiative to drastically improve the chances of survival for children under the age of five.

The expanded programme is supported by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), which brings together governments, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and other key players in global health.

It will initially be rolled out in two of DRC’s 11 provinces as the country steps up the fight against pneumonia, one of the biggest killers of children worldwide, and is responsible for a quarter of all deaths of children under the age of five in the African nation.

DRC’s First Lady, Olive Lembe Kabila, and Health Minister Victor Makwenge Kaput joined parents and health workers in Kinshasa to witness the first child being inoculated as part of the official introduction of pneumococcal vaccine into the national routine immunization programme.

On the same day in Paris, GAVI founding partner Bill Gates launched a European-wide awareness campaign to highlight the extraordinary life-saving opportunity that vaccines represent for donor countries.

Globally, pneumococcal disease, the most common and serious form of respiratory infections, kills over a million people every year – including more than half a million children before their fifth birthday.

It is the leading cause of pneumonia, which is the major cause of death among children under the age of five, contributing to 18 per cent of the mortality of children in that age group.

“Today’s launch is an enormous moment for my country, where too many children die of this terrible disease,” said Mr. Kaput. “Pneumonia causes suffering and death. Therefore we celebrate a wonderful day today.”

Léodégal Bazira, the acting WHO Representative in DRC, said: “The introduction of the pneumococcal vaccine and the systematic immunization of the children could save the life of one in five children dying from respiratory infectious diseases.”

A 2004 study by UNICEF showed that that pneumonia killed at least 132,000 children under the age of five in DRC, making it the second biggest cause of death – after malaria – of children under the age in the country.

“With electricity, roads, and refrigerators in short supply, delivering vaccines to remote health centres in DRC is an enormous challenge,” said Pierrette Vu Thi, the UNICEF Representative in DRC. “Together with its partners UNICEF is committed to ensure that all children in this country have the same access to this life-saving vaccine.”

In the past five months, Nicaragua, Guyana, Yemen, Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Mali also introduced pneumococcal vaccines thanks to support from GAVI.

UN News Center

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In Water-rich DR Congo, 50 Million People Lack Clean Water to Drink – UN

22 March 2011 –An estimated 51 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – or three quarters of the population – have no access to safe drinking water, even though the country holds over half of Africa’s water reserves, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a new study released today.

The country’s troubled legacy of conflict, environmental degradation, rapid urbanization and under-investment in water infrastructure has seriously affected the availability of drinking water, UNEP said in the study, unveiled to coincide with World Water Day.

UNEP was among several participants at an event in the capital, Kinshasa, staged by the National Water and Sanitation Committee, which brought together government representatives, development partners, financial institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and researchers to discuss steps to address the DRC’s water challenges.

Speaking at the forum, UNEP’s DRC Programme Manager, Hassan Partow, said the study confirmed that despite recent progress, including water sector reforms, the scale of the challenge means that the country will not be able to meet its water targets under the UN-set Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which calls for reducing by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015.

The DRC would have to supply an additional 20.3 million people with safe drinking water by 2015 even to meets its national development goals, which are significantly below the MDGs water target, according to UNEP.

“Since peace was brokered in 2003, the Government has gradually managed to reverse the negative trend in water coverage that has plagued the DRC since its period of conflict and turmoil”, said Mr. Partow. “This represents an important achievement which should be applauded.”

“However, the stark reality is that the DRC has one of the fastest urbanization growth rates in the world and this is not being matched with adequate water and sanitation service delivery,” he added.

Based on extensive fieldwork and stakeholder consultations across the country, the UNEP study found that inadequate water and sanitation delivery in the DRC’s rapidly expanding urban centres is due to insufficient, aging and overloaded networks, combined with the degradation of critical water sources and watersheds, such as the Lukunga and N’Djili catchments, which provide millions of people with drinking water in Kinshasa.

According to the study, entitled “Water Issues in the Democratic Republic of Congo – Challenges and Opportunities,” in addition to major infrastructure improvements, an investment of approximately $70 million over a five-year period is required to help strengthen the water sector.

UNEP recommends innovative strategies such as community-managed water supply systems in urban fringe areas and low-cost technical solutions, including communal tap areas and rainwater harvesting.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), meanwhile, drew attention to an estimated 37 million rural residents in DRC who risk contracting disease because they have no alternative but to draw untreated water directly from rivers or lakes that are likely to be contaminated.

“A child living in a Congolese village is four times more likely to drink contaminated water than someone in town. Yet, all children have equal right to survival and development of which drinking water is a vital component,” said Pierrette Vu Thi, the UNICEF representative in DRC in a statement to mark the World Water Day.

More than 2 million Congolese children under the age of five, or one in five in that age group, are regularly sick with diarrhoea, according to figures from the country’s department of health cited by UNICEF.

“The fact that we are unable to provide each family clean drinking water is an affront,” said Ms. Vu Thi. “Too many children die because we do not respect our responsibility, and their deaths are ignored,” she added.

UN News Center

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Fighting Malaria With Nets Nets, Mandy Moore

Mandy Moore
Singer-songwriter, actress and PSI Ambassador
Mandy Moore, Singer-songwriter, actress and PSI Ambassador

I’m extremely grateful to be invited to share my voice alongside all these incredible women on International Women’s Day. As an ambassador for the global health organization PSI (Population Services International), I’ve been fortunate to have traveled to places like the Central African Republic and Southern Sudan where I have met amazing women who rival the likes of the women on this site today.

Last fall, I traveled to the Central African Republic — a country where malaria is responsible for approximately half of all hospital visits. I was there to help launch a United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign that would provide a net to every family in need in the country.

As part of the trip, I visited a local health clinic in a rural part of the capital city, Bangui. There, I met a woman named Sophie who was with her husband and newborn baby. Her baby was inconsolable, crying from pain and hot to touch with a high fever. This was the second time Sophie had been at the clinic with her daughter. The first time her daughter she was only mildly ill, but the health clinic didn’t have any anti-malaria treatment in stock. So they referred her to the local hospital, which was an expensive bus ride away. When Sophie arrived at the hospital she realized that they couldn’t afford the medication. So she took the little remaining money she had and purchased syringes. Then she walked back to the rural health clinic and begged the doctor there to give them the medication for free. Sophie was willing to inject her daughter herself if she thought it could save her life.

Mandy Moore in the Central African Republic

That’s when I met them. The health clinic had no medication, Sophie had no money, and her daughter’s fever was worsening by the minute. Luckily, in her case, we were able to give her the money needed to return to the hospital by cab and purchase the right treatments.

That was the last time I saw Sophie and her baby. I often think of them and hope that they’re okay. But I can’t help but wonder what will happen the next time her daughter is bitten by a malaria-carrying mosquito, when there’s no group of Westerners at the clinic willing to pay her way.

Thankfully, there’s hope for mothers like her. Long-lasting, insecticide-treated mosquito nets are one of the most cost-effective and cost-efficient ways of preventing malaria. Nets can prevent malaria transmission by up to 90 percent, and through the Nothing But Nets campaign that I helped launch, the government of Central African Republic and its partners at PSI and UNICEF were able to distribute nearly 1 million mosquito nets — one for every family in need.

At the same time, thanks to a grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the local health clinic where I met Sophie is now able to provide preventative malaria treatment to pregnant women, free of charge. Malaria contributes to the deaths of an estimated 10,000 pregnant women and 200,000 infants each year in Africa, so early and effective treatment can prevent a great majority of deaths.

But tackling malaria in a country like the Central African Republic is a huge uphill battle, and my experiences there have been a healthy dose of reality, fueling my own sense of urgency to do my part in reducing the preventable suffering of the incredible women I met. This year, I will be attending the Clinton Global Initiative University, a meeting for students and national youth organizations to tackle pressing global issues. I am excited about being a part of this growing community of young leaders who don’t just discuss the world’s challenges, but take real, concrete steps toward solving them — real, concrete steps to empower women like Sophie to protect herself and her family.

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Stopping Early Marriages in Africa

UNICEF helps to begin changing attitudes towards early marriage in Niger

In several communities across Africa, a young girl often does not have a say in whether and whom she will marry. It is the parents, both the man’s and the girl’s, who make the decision. In Niger, 1 out of 2 girls is married before the age of 15. But change is slowly taking place.

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New pneumonia vaccine targets leading cause of child deaths worldwide – UN

14 February 2011 –Hundreds of infants in Kenya received their first shots against pneumococcal disease today at a special United Nations-backed event to celebrate the global roll-out of vaccines targeting the world’s leading cause of child deaths – pneumonia.

President Mwai Kibaki joined parents, health workers, ambassadors and donors in Nairobi to witness children being immunised as part of the Government’s formal introduction of pneumococcal vaccine in its routine immunisation programme for all children.

Kenya is the first African country to introduce the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine which has been tailored to meet the needs of children in developing countries.

Nicaragua, Guyana, Yemen and Sierra Leone are also rolling out the vaccine with support from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) which brings together governments, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and other key players in global health.

Pneumococcal disease currently takes the lives of over a million people every year – including more than half a million children before their fifth birthday.

Pneumonia is the most common form of serious pneumococcal disease and accounts for 18 per cent of child deaths in developing countries, making it one of the two leading causes of death among young children.

“The pneumococcal vaccine can help us to dramatically reduce the number of children who die from pneumonia, a killer disease that is responsible for millions of deaths globally every year,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.

“By combining the power of immunisation with other measures like better nutrition and sanitation, we can change – and save – millions of children’s lives.”

The GAVI Alliance has committed to support the introduction of pneumococcal vaccines in 19 developing countries within a year and, if it gets sufficient funding from its donors, plans to roll them out to more than 40 countries by 2015.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan noted that the rapid roll-out of the pneumococcal vaccine shows how innovation and technology can be harnessed, at affordable prices, to save lives in the developing world.

“The payback, as measured by reduced childhood mortality, will be enormous,” said Dr. Chan.

GAVI needs an additional $3.7 billion over the next five years to continue its support for immunisation in the world’s poorest countries and introduce new and underused vaccines, including the pneumococcal vaccine and the rotavirus vaccine which tackles diarrhoea – the second biggest killer of children under five.

“Routine vaccination is one of the most cost-effective public health investments a government can make and we are counting on our donors to continue their strong backing for our life-saving mission,” said Helen Evans, interim CEO of the GAVI Alliance.

Since it was launched at the World Economic Forum in 2000, GAVI has prevented more than five million future deaths and helped protect 288 million children with new and underused vaccines.

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Measles Campaign Planned for Liberian Villages Hosting Ivorian Refugees – UN

1 February 2011 –The Government of Liberia, with support from United Nations agencies, will launch a week-long measles vaccination campaign on Wednesday targeting all children in Nimba County, which hosts over 30,000 refugees who fled the political turmoil in neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire.

As of the end of January, five Liberian children between one and five years old had died of measles, two cases had been confirmed by the UN World Health Organization (WHO), and just over 100 suspected cases had been reported.

“In a context where there are large numbers of people living in congested spaces, and there’s a severe shortage of food, safe water, sanitation and health care, it is critical that we act quickly to stop this outbreak,” said Isabel Crowley, Liberia Representative for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“The fact that there are measles cases underlines that basic immunization rates are low, and that these communities may not have been fully reached and protected by health services. This is dangerous for these communities and beyond,” Crowley said.

Measles is a highly contagious viral disease that hits children hardest. Symptoms include high fever and rash, but among malnourished children it can cause serious complications including blindness, severe diarrhoea, and pneumonia. The disease can be prevented by immunization.

The vaccination campaign, led by Liberia’s health ministry with support from UNICEF and WHO, aims to reach all children between six months and 15 years old from both refugee and host communities.

It will also integrate Vitamin A supplementation, which can reduce deaths associated with measles by up to 50 per cent, as well as de-worming for children below five years old.

In addition, women of child-bearing age will be vaccinated against tetanus, and in selected communities with large refugee populations, the campaign will also include nutrition screening, counselling and referrals, according to UNICEF.

UN agencies have called for urgent funding, warning that refugees fleeing the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire – resulting from former president Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to leave office despite his UN-certified defeat by opposition leader Alassane Ouattara – to Liberia could top 100,000 by the end of April.

In addition to the 30,000 refugees in Liberia, at least 20,000 other Ivorians have been internally displaced in western Côte d’Ivoire, where UN officials have warned that ethnic tensions stemming from national, racial and religious affiliation linked to the opposing camps could lead to genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing.

Last month UN agencies and partners launched an $87.7 million appeal for aid in Côte d’Ivoire and five neighbouring countries to face a potential major humanitarian crisis.

UN News Service
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Children in Cameroon Learn to Fight Cholera

UNICEF

MAROUA, Cameroon, 18 October 2010 – In the packed playground of Harde Primary School in Cameroon’s Extreme North province, six teams of local school children sit at desks in a semi-circle.

“Write down the main symptoms of cholera,” a teacher instructs into a microphone, her words crackling over the buzz of hundreds of school children from across the city of Maroua. After collecting the answers from each team, the teacher again takes to the microphone to give the correct answer. “The two main symptoms are vomiting and diarrhea, leading to serious dehydration,” she says.

An excited cheer erupts from one of the teams as they celebrate a correct answer. The teacher continues with the next question. Promoting cholera prevention

“Quizzes like this are an important way of educating young people and the wider community on cholera and the essential hygiene steps needed to prevent it,” says UNICEF Cameroon Communication for Development Specialist Claire Soppo. “It’s especially important as children are particularly vulnerable. Children learn the facts and then go home and tell their parents and families, spreading the information and eventually changing behaviors.”

Educating school children and young people about cholera and other waterborne diseases is at the heart of a new campaign, ‘My School Without Cholera’, launched by the government across Cameroon’s three northern regions and supported by UNICEF and other partners, including the private sector. The country is facing the worst cholera outbreak in over 20 years. With more than 7,000 cases and some 500 deaths, the need to promote essential hygiene and sanitation practices with clear information is urgent.

“The campaign focuses on four main actions to prevent cholera: Drinking clean safe water, using a latrine, washing hands with soap and water after visiting the latrine and before eating food, and washing fruit and vegetables before eating,” explains Ms. Soppo.

Launched to coincide with the start of the new school term, the quiz at Harde Primary School marks the beginning of the campaign and will eventually reach over 1.6 million children through the distribution of posters and leaflets to each of the 3,639 schools in the three regions, specific classroom lessons on hygiene and sanitation, the training of community members to spread this information, as well as broadcasting TV, radio and SMS messages.

A team of local school children takes part in quiz about cholera as part of a UNICEF-supported ‘My School Without Cholera’ campaign in Maroua, Cameroon

Safer practices

“We have put posters in classrooms, and we use them in lessons to explain what cholera is, its symptoms, how it is transmitted and, importantly, the four main steps needed to prevent its spread,” says Harde School Director, Joseph Frederix Mtopi. “Before the campaign started, most of our pupils didn’t know what cholera was or the basics about hygiene, but now we are seeing a real difference.  Children are telling their parents about hygiene, and I’ve seen our pupils telling others to wash their hands with soap before they eat.”

According to pupils at Harde Primary School, the campaign is making strides.

“I had heard of cholera because a neighbor of ours died, but I didn’t know much,” says Samia Cornes, 10, a member of the Harde Primary School team that placed second in the quiz. “Now I know much more, and so do my friends.”

The ‘My School Without Cholera’ campaign is one of a number of steps that UNICEF and its partners are taking in response to the cholera outbreak and the long-term sanitation needs of children, young people and their communities in Cameroon. These include providing emergency water treatment assistance and working to improve sanitation through a ‘Community Led Total Sanitation’ programme, through which household members are trained in the basics of sanitation and hygiene and encouraged to build and use home latrines.

Pupils at Harde Primary School in Cameroon's Extreme North province take part in a lesson on cholera prevention
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