Japan allots $8.6mln to back UNICEF humanitarian activities in Yemen
The Source: Mukalla/Hadhramoutinfo/Saba..net - [16/March/2013]
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UNICEF has announced that $8.6 million of the Japanese largest-ever
humanitarian contribution to the organization was allocated to support
its humanitarian activities in Yemen. In a press release, UNICEF said that the Japanese contribution of $189.5
million would support a wide range of projects in 35 developing
countries in Africa and the Middle East including Yemen.
"The
$8.6 million allocated to UNICEF Yemen will help support lifesaving
interventions for the most vulnerable children in the southern conflict
affected governorates of Abyan, Lahj, Aden, Shabwa, Al-Bayda and Al
Dhale," UNICEF said, pointing that its interventions would focus on
nutrition, health, education, child protection, water, sanitation and
hygiene.
In details, UNICEF said that the project would provide
preventative and therapeutic nutrition services for malnourished
children, pregnant women and women breastfeeding and facilitate access
to life saving maternal and child interventions including immunization,
prompt treatment diarrhea and pneumonia.
It would also improve
access to quality water and sanitation for internally displaced persons
and other conflict affected children and communities as well as
promoting a protective environment for children through violence
prevention and psychosocial support.
In January 2013, UNICEF
released the Humanitarian Action for Children Report and appealed for
almost $1.4 billion for children in 45 countries and regions gripped by
conflict, natural disasters and other complex emergencies. Most of the
countries covered by the report have benefited from Japan's foreign aid
assistance.
"This contribution by the Government of Japan could
not have been more timely" states UNICEF acting representative Jeremy
Hopkins. "Despite positive gains made on the political and humanitarian
front, the situation in Yemen remains fragile with children bearing the
brunt of it."
The organization said that the localized conflicts
in the north and south, pervasive poverty, coupled with sub-optimal
functioning of basic social services, are all conspiring to worsen the
humanitarian situation in 2013.
"An estimated 1 million children
are affected by acute (sever and moderate) malnutrition; 7,500 children
are expected to be infected with vaccine preventable diseases with
serious consequences; and lack of adequate water and sanitation are
impacting more than half of the Yemen population, at the risk of
precipitating outbreaks high levels of diarrhea and worsening the
malnutrition situation of children."
The urgent priority of
UNICEF at the current crucial transition stage in Yemen is to restore
basic social services for vulnerable communities especially children,
pregnant and lactating women in the most underserved districts in the
country, Hopkins concluded.
This contribution to UNICEF is part
of a $47.2 million allocation in support of UN humanitarian
interventions in Yemen by the government of Japan.
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