3 January 2003
Lagos — Using the 2002 annual report of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) as a basis, Funso Abdullahi highlights the agency's efforts at creating a better world for children around the globe
Since the world got the knack for preventing death of children through immunisation, a lot of milestone has been achieved in the reduction of children mortality.
According to the United Nation's Children Fund (UNICEF) 2002 annual report, each year, immunisation saves the lives of 2.5 million children under five years in developing countries.
Increased vaccination of women and children against tetanus helped cut deaths from the disease among newborns from 215,000 in 1999 to 200,000 in 2001.
Also over 80,000 children were saved from untimely deaths, UNICEF fought measles in more than 30 countries, Efforts were particularly directed towards Africa where death from meseals occured most, the report noted.
A chief in Diaraf village in Senegal, Serigne Dame Leye expressing appreciation to the international fund, noted that "we used to bury two or three children a week because of measles. This does not happen any more".
However, UNICEF said more than 30 million children are still not unprotected against common vaccine preventable diseases and enormous disparities in access to vaccines exist between countries, regions and communities.
The fund works with governments and partners to end these disparities, strengthen immunisation services and ensure that every child is vaccinated against the six most common vaccine preventable diseases of childhood which are polio, measles, diphtheria, pertussis, tuberculosis and tetanus. Newer vaccines such as hepatitis B and haemophilus influenzae type are also being introduced.
In Nigeria, government in collaboration with international agencies routinely organise national immunisation days with special emphasis on polio eradication.
During a recent National Programme on Immunisation (NPI), the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Leke Pitan, said the objective of the programme was to interrupt the transmission of the wild polio virus and the ultimate goal is to totally eradicate it.
In a joint effort of UNICEF, World Health Organisation (WHO) and other key partners in the campaign to eradicate polio, 575 million children were vaccinated against the disease in 2001, reducing the number of new polio cases globally by more than 80 per cent.
A landmark cooperative effort in the immunisation programme is the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), which brought together, UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, more than 50 governments, non-governmental organisations (NGO's), foundations, research and public health institutions and the vaccine industry.
In 2001 GAVI approved applications from 53 governments worth more than $500 million in new vaccines and over $250 million for immunisation services spread over five years.
The fund noted that immunisation in recent years has served as a gateway to providing women and children with other health basics such as vitamin A supplements, which are essential to fighting infection and disease.
To support this immunisation plus programme, UNICEF said it supplied more than 540 million vitamin A capsules in 2001, mostly through grants by micro nutrients initiative.
It has also helped incorporate vitamin A supplementation into routine health care, an effort that has achieved high vitamin A coverage for children under five years old in countries such as Nepal, Niger, the Philippines and Zambia.
UNICEF is the largest supplier of vaccines to developing countries, providing 40 per cent of the world's doses of vaccines for children.
Its main motivation is to ensure quality care and protection, especially in a child's first five years of life.
It has also been campaigning for iodizing salt to ensure that children obtain adequate iodine, a micro nutrient key to preventing mental and physical retardation and loses in learning ability.
The campaign is paying off. According to statistics, 70 per cent of households in the world now use iodised salt, which protects 91 million newborns from iodine deficiency.
The report stated: ages one to five is a time when children make great leaps in physical social intellectual and emotional development. To ensure their healthy growth and development, children need a health promoting safe environment and loving care that is responsive and stimulating.
Also ages 10 to 19 is equally important, then their brains, bodies and social skills are developing at a fast pace adolescents test and reaffirm their values, identity and sense of place in the world, laying important groundwork for adulthood.
"Young people need abundant encouragement and support to navigate this time of opportunity and risk in safety and in good health the report stated".
In UNICEF - supported initiatives around the world, children and adolescents contributed their ideas, skills and enthusiasm to planning and managing a variety of programmes.
The Fund advocates the adoption of strong protection laws and policies and help countries implement them. In 2001, UNICEF helped more than 3,600 child soldiers in Sierra Leone quit military life.
With its support, thousands of former 'child soldiers' in Sierra Leone and other countries were able to rejoin their families, obtain counseling, vocational training and education; and take other steps towards reintegration into their communities.
UNICEF is also concerned about the spread of HIV/AIDS as it explained that nowhere is it more crucial to involve young people in shaping their futures than in the face of HIV/AIDS.
"Youths 15 to 24 years old, largely unaware of the epidemic and their own risks account for about half of all new HIV infections," The fund said.
Thus with UNICEF support, in 71 countries, young people help educate their peers about HIV/AIDS and teach them life skills such as making informed and positive decisions about their lives.
About 300 young people from 26 countries discussed AIDS with international journalists in a special chat room set up on UNICEF's Voices of the Youth web site during the United Nations General Assembly special session on HIV/AIDS in June 2001.
The 2002 annual report stated that an urgent goal of UNICEF is the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS. In 2001 alone, more than 720,000 children contracted HIV from their mothers.
PMTCT programmes provide women with voluntary and confidential counseling and testing, anti-retroviral drugs where needed, and counseling and support in choosing the best feeding options for their infants.
"UNICEF supports PMTCT programmes in 47 countries and is the lead agency for these efforts in several countries including Botswana, the only nation in Africa with a national PMTCT programme," it said.
The fund is also concerned about women's health. In 2001, UNICEF supported programmes in 102 countries to secure women's right to quality health care and freedom from discrimination and violence.
These programmes helped reduce the death toll from tetanus and unsafe practices during childbirth. They also improve women's health and nutrition through means such as informational campaigns and iron supplementation.
"Many programmes engaged women and men in strategies to end the violence and harm that girls and women face including those which result from early marriage, female genital mutilation and other harmful practices," the report said.
One of these efforts to improve girls and women's right is in the education sector, explaining that for instance educated children are less vulnerable to all forms of exploitation and to the deadly risks of HIV/AIDS.
UNICEF is also helping 74 countries break down the barriers that exclude girls. UNICEF - assisted programmes provide girls with scholarships and school materials, construct separate sanitation facilities for girls and boys, promote curricular and teaching methods free of gender bias, work towards ending gender - based discrimination and violence and publicise the benefits of educating girls.
Also when children especially girls become adults, they pass on the benefits of education to their own children in terms of improved survival and development.
The Fund advised that "Education is one of the best investment a nation can make and is a necessary condition for reducing poverty. Countries that have achieved sustainable economic development first educated their girls and boys, the report explained.
UNICEF said it is firmly committed to the UN millennium development goals which states that by 2015, all girls and boys will be able to complete a quality primary and secondary education by 2005, Girls and boys will be equally represented in classrooms.
UNICEF is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children's right, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.
It is guided by the convention of the rights of the child and strives to establish children's right as enduring ethical principles and international standards of behaviour towards children.
The Executive Director for UNICEF, Carol Bellamy informed that in 2001 nearly 100 million people pledged support for the 'say yes for children' campaign.
"In preparation for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children, the 'say yes for children' campaign was an opportunity for people around the world to remind governments and civil society at every level of their obligations for children," she explained.
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