Features@NaijaAgroNet:
Christmas, the annual festive
season ended but most children affected by the north-east conflict celebrating it
amidst the outbreak of measles, which may affect their future reports REMMY
NWEKE.
Foreword:
Yearly, especially by end of the
serial 12-month period, there follows Christmas festival which is largely
celebrated across the world, culminating into the New Year. This period is
usually marked with holidays and occasions with some going out on the 26th
known as Box Day to exchange gifts with friends, family and the less privileged
in the society. In Nigeria, this celebration was not different, only but for
measles.
Defined as also
called rubeola, Measle is a highly contagious respiratory infection condition
that's caused by a virus. It causes a total-body skin rash and flu-like
symptoms, including a fever, cough, and runny nose, according to experts at
KidsHealth.org.
And talking of less privileged in
our Nigerian society includes those cut-up in the conflicts ongoing in the
north east, but mostly affected are the children in their early stages, otherwise
known as childhood.
What is childhood:
An open source online encyclopedia,
Wikipedia described childhood as “the age span ranging from
birth to adolescence,” which according to Piaget's theory of cognitive
development, childhood consists of two stages: preoperational
stage and concrete operational stage.
Although in developmental psychology, childhood is divided up
into the developmental stages of toddlerhood, which entails learning to walk;
early childhood which means the playing age; the middle childhood which
encompasses the age when the child starts school; and adolescence also known as
puberty through post-puberty. It is agreed widely that various childhood
factors could affect a person's attitude formation, including conflict, war and
lack of infant medicare to name a few.
Worthy of note is that the concept of childhood emerged
during the 17th and 18th centuries, through the educational theories of the
philosopher John Locke and the growth of books for and about children.
Thus, during the just concluded end
of year festivity known as Christmas, many at Internally Displaced Camps (IDC),
may have witnessed a beehive of activities with some spirited individuals and
religious organisations in commemoration of the season visiting such camps to
donate various food items including medical materials as well as offering
medical treatments.
4.7m vaccinated against measles:
According to UNICEF and development
partners, some 4.7 million children were vaccinated in response to a measles
outbreak in northeast Nigeria via a campaign which covered the three states
mostly affected by the Boko Haram conflict, namely Adamawa, Borno and Yobe;
where insecurity has limited vaccination efforts.
In 2016, for instance, UNICEF said,
there were approximately 25,000 cases of measles among children in Nigeria; 97
per cent of the cases were in children under the age of 10 and at least a
hundred children died.
The UNICEF Representative in Nigeria,
Mr. Mohamed Fall, said security has improved in some areas which encouraged the
workforce act quickly to access places they could not previously reach and
protect children from the spread of a very dangerous disease, even as he
declared “We are still extremely concerned about children living in large areas
of Borno state that are not yet accessible.”
Measle, a silent threat to childhood:
Measles infections, he explained,
tend to increase during the first half of the year because of higher
temperatures, especially in the north. Measles vaccination coverage across
Nigeria hence, remained low, with a little over 50 per cent of children
reached, but in areas affected by conflict, children are particularly
vulnerable. As said by Mr. Fall, the risks for malnourished children who have weakened
immunity are further heightened. The conflict and resulting displacement have
left over 4.4 million children in Nigeria in need of humanitarian assistance,
with an estimated 450,000 children likely to suffer from Severe Acute
Malnutrition (SAM) in 2017.
He further said that the vaccination
campaign, conducted in partnership with the Nigerian government, World Health
Organisation (WHO), and several non-governmental organizations, also includes a
vitamin A supplement for children under five to boost their immunity as well as
de-worming tablets, even as most of the funding for the campaign was provided
by the Measles and Rubella Initiative.
He pointed out that the campaign was
part of UNICEF’s wider emergency health response in the three northeast Nigerian
states, emphasizing that in partnership with Nigerian authorities, UNICEF has
provided primary health care services for both internally displaced persons and
the vulnerable host communities within which they have sought shelter. Health
clinics have been rehabilitated, damage from the fighting has been repaired and
temporary clinics have been set up, equipped and stocked in camps for the
displaced, reaching more than 4.2 million people with services that include
routine vaccination, ante-natal care and midwifery support, and treatment for
common illnesses such as malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia, as well as measles.
In addition, NaijaAgroNet gathered, UNICEF
has trained over 1,000 health workers on emergency primary health care
services; in areas that have become accessible more recently to humanitarian
workers, and recruited 60 nurse-midwives and deployed six doctors to strengthen
health services.
Conflict displaces 1.6m people:
NaijaAgroNet further gathered that the
predicament in northeast Nigeria remains acute with over 1.6 million people
displaced because of the conflict. Although UNICEF has made significant
progress in reaching children and their families with healthcare, treatment for
malnutrition, safe water, sanitation and hygiene services, education and child
protection, a persistent lack of funding continues to hamper the response
effort.
Just as out of the US$115 million
called for in 2016, only US$51 million was received; in 2017, UNICEF is seeking
150 million to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs in northeast Nigeria.
Malnutrition,
silent threat to children:
All things being equal, an estimated 48 million children
living through some of the world’s worst conflicts and other humanitarian
emergencies will benefit from UNICEF’s 2017 appeal, which was launched on
January 31, reports NaijaAgroNet.
Chief of Communication, UNICEF, Doune Porter, said that
from Syria to Yemen and Iraq, from South Sudan to Nigeria, children are under
direct attack, their homes, schools and communities in ruins, their hopes and
futures hanging in the balance; Paving the way to declare that “In total,
almost one in four of the world’s children lives in a country affected by
conflict or disaster.”
For UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes, Manuel
Fontaine, “In country after country, war, natural disaster and climate change
are driving ever more children from their homes, exposing them to violence,
disease and exploitation.”
This position was corroborated by the UNICEF’s
Humanitarian Action for Children, which he pointed out had set out the agency’s
2017 appeal totaling $3.3 billion, and its goals in providing children with
access to safe water, nutrition, education, health and protection in 48
countries across the globe. He stressed that an estimated 7.5 million children
will face severe acute malnutrition across the majority of appeal countries,
including almost half a million each in northeast Nigeria and Yemen.
“Malnutrition is a silent threat to millions of children.
The damage it does can be irreversible, robbing children of their mental and
physical potential. In its worst form, severe malnutrition can be deadly,”
Fontaine said.
UNICEF pointed out that the largest single component of
the appeal is for children and families caught up in the Syria conflict, soon
to enter its seventh year. UNICEF is seeking a total of $1.4 billion to support
Syrian children inside Syria and those living as refugees in neighbouring
countries.
Breakdown
of priorities, accomplishments:
NaijaAgroNet gathered from UNICEF that in total, working
alongside its partners, their priorities in 2017 involve providing over 19
million people with access to safe water; reaching 9.2 million children with
formal or non-formal basic education; immunizing 8.3 million children against
measles; providing psychosocial support to over two million children; and
treating 3.1 million children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).
Noteworthy, NaijaAgroNet reports that UNICEF and
partners’ support in the first 10 months of 2016 showed that some 13.6 million
people had access to safe water; 9.4 million children were vaccinated against
measles; 6.4 million children accessed some form of education; 2.2 million
children were treated for severe acute malnutrition.
Conclusion:
Only time will tell if the dream for
2017 to help garner support for children in the Internally Displaced Camps
(IDCs) could have a new song, or shall we let the future, our future die due to
lack of medicare, whilst some politicians and their families spread dollars at
public social functions?
It is convincingly a fact that those
children who may have benefited from this aids either through medicare or
supplement in form of food in the battle against malnutrition, or yet those who
have to return to the class room, they will never forget to build a better
society in order to add their quotas in making the society and our Nigeria, a
better society and country.
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
Pix:A small child is vaccinated against
measles at the Malakachalla clinic in Maiduguri, during the vaccination
campaign in northeast Nigeria recently.
