The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) issued an urgent appeal on Monday for $7,7-million to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of the ”most vulnerable” children in Ethiopia during the second half of 2006.
Unicef said in a statement that unless it secured the funding, it would have to cancel the second half of a programme that reaches seven million children twice a year with vitamin A supplements, measles vaccination and anti-malaria nets.
”It is crucial that we get this funding, and quickly,” Unicef country director for Ethiopia Bjorn Ljungquist said.
The funding is also needed for ”de-worming and nutritional screening” and a supplementary children’s feeding programme.
The programme has already saved tens of thousands of young lives in Ethiopia. ”[It] is one of the real success stories of the health-sector development in the country and we need to keep this success going,” Ljungquist stated.
As part of the programme, about 1,6-million pregnant and lactating women are screened for malnutrition and, where appropriate, referred to therapeutic feeding programmes. — Sapa-dpa