The UNICEF is urgently in need of $3.6 billion to provide
lifesaving humanitarian assistance to 48 million children living through
conflict, natural disasters and other emergencies in 51 countries in 2018,
reports NaijaAgroNet.
UNICEF
Director of Emergency Programmes, Manuel Fontaine
disclosed in a press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet, noted that around the world, violent conflict is driving
humanitarian needs to critical levels, with children especially vulnerable.
Conflicts that have endured for years – such as those in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Iraq, Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen, among other
countries – continue to deepen in complexity, bringing new waves of
violence, displacement and disruption to children’s lives.
“Children
cannot wait for wars to be brought to an end, with crises threatening the
immediate survival and long term future of children and young people on a
catastrophic scale. Children are the most vulnerable when conflict or disaster
causes the collapse of essential services such as healthcare, water and
sanitation. Unless the international community takes urgent action to protect
and provide life-saving assistance to these children, they face an increasingly
bleak future,” Fontaine said.
According
to Communication Specialist UNICEF
Nigeria, Eva Hinds, parties
to conflicts are showing a blatant disregard for the lives of children, hence
children may not only be coming under direct attack, but are also being denied
basic services as schools, hospitals and civilian infrastructure are damaged or
destroyed. Approximately 84 per cent ($3.015 billion) of the 2018 funding
appeal is for work in countries affected by humanitarian crises borne of
violence and conflict.
The world
is becoming a more dangerous place for many children, with almost one in four
children now living in a country affected by conflict or disaster. For too many
of these children, daily life is a nightmare.
The
spread of water-borne diseases is one of the greatest threats to children’s
lives in crises. Attacks on water and sanitation infrastructure, siege tactics
which deny children access to safe water, as well as forced displacement into
areas with no water and sanitation infrastructure – all leave children and
families at risk of relying on contaminated water and unsafe sanitation. Girls
and women face additional threats, as they often fulfil the role of collecting
water for their families in dangerous situations.
“117
million people living through emergencies lack access to safe water and in many countries affected by
conflict, more children die from diseases caused by unclean water and poor
sanitation than from direct violence,” said Fontaine. “Without access to safe
water and sanitation, children fall ill, and are often unable to be treated as
hospitals and health centres either do not function or are overcrowded. The
threat is even greater as millions of children face life-threatening levels of
malnutrition, making them more susceptible to
water-borne diseases like cholera, creating a vicious cycle of undernutrition
and disease.”
As the
leading humanitarian agency on water, sanitation and hygiene in emergencies,
UNICEF provides over half of the emergency water, sanitation and hygiene
services in humanitarian crises around the world.
When
disasters strike, UNICEF works with partners to quickly provide access to safe
drinking water, sanitation services and hygiene supplies to prevent the spread
of disease. This includes establishing latrines, distributing hygiene kits,
trucking thousands of litres of water to displacement camps daily, supporting
hospitals and cholera treatment centres, and repairing water and sanitation systems.
These measures save lives, have long-term impact and pave the way for other
important services like health clinics, vaccination programmes, nutrition
support and emergency education.
The
largest component of UNICEF’s appeal this year is for children and families
caught up in the Syria conflict, soon to enter its eighth year. UNICEF is
seeking almost $1.3 billion to support 6.9 million Syrian children inside Syria
and those living as refugees in neighbouring countries.
UNICEF
said that working with partners and with the support of donors, intends in 2018
to provide 35.7 million people with access to safe water; Reach 8.9 million
children with formal or non-formal basic education; Immunize 10 million
children against measles; Provide psychosocial support to over 3.9 million
children; Treat 4.2 million children with severe acute malnutrition.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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