UNICEF raises alarm as Europe refugee crisis deepens

ITRealms:

The Executive Director, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Anthony Lake, has raised alarm over the increasing refugee challenges in Europe, ITRealms reports.

Lake expressed his bewilderment and worry in the following words: “Heart-breaking images of children’s bodies washing up on the shores of Europe … lying suffocated in the backs of trucks crossing borders … being passed over barbed wire fences by desperate parents.

“As the migrant and refugee crisis in Europe deepens, these will not be the last shocking images to ricochet around the world on social media, on our televisions screens and on the front pages of our newspapers.But it is not enough for the world to be shocked by these images. Shock must be matched by action. For the plight of these children is neither by their choice nor within their control. They need protection. They have a right to protection.

“We urge that the following measures be taken:Protect these children through the provision of essential services at all times – including health care, food, emotional support, and education – and adequate shelter for migrants and refugees that keep families together, Deploy adequate numbers of trained child welfare experts to support children and their families.

“Continue search and rescue operations – not only at sea, but also on land, as families move across countries – and make every effort to prevent the abuse and exploitation of migrant and refugee children.Put the best interests of children first in all decisions made regarding these children – including in asylum cases.

“Our hearts go out today to the families who have lost children – off the coasts, on the shores, and along the roadsides of Europe. As the debates on policies proceed, we must never lose sight of the deeply human nature of this crisis. 

 At least a quarter of those seeking refuge in Europe are children – in the first six months of this year, more than 106,000 children claimed asylum in Europe, ITRealms learnt.

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Malnutrition: UNICEF saves over 1m under five Nigerian children

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The Government of Nigeria and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) through the Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) said they have reached more than a million Nigerian children with a highly successful and cost-effective treatment for acutely malnourished children, saving over 200,000 lives in the past six years, ITRealms reports.  

 About 1.7 million Nigerian children under the age of five years are severely and acutely malnourished, accounting for a tenth of the global total. Nearly a thousand Nigerian children die of malnutrition-related causes every day – a total of 361,000 each year as acute malnutrition also leads to stunting of children causing life-long physical limitations and reduction in intellectual capacity.

According to a release by the Chief of Communication  at UNICEF, Doune Porter, Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) was piloted in Gombe and Kebbi States in 2009 and has now been introduced in 11 northern Nigerian states where malnutrition poses the greatest threat.

CMAM treats acutely malnourished children from six months to five years old on an out-patient basis. More than 830,000 children, ITRealms learnt, have been cured in the programme with the cure rate rising steadily – currently standing at 85 per cent. Of the remaining children, about two per cent do not respond to treatment and are referred to hospitals; the current mortality rate, the report said, is just one per cent, while the other children have defaulted from the programme.

“We must scale-up CMAM in Nigeria. It is a proven high-impact intervention that is saving lives and helping Nigerian children reach their full potential through a good start in life,” noted UNICEF Nigeria Representative Jean Gough. “We need greater investment in Nigeria’s future by investment in good nutrition,” she added.

“The Government of Nigeria is committed to reaching more children with CMAM,” said Linus Awute, Permanent Secretary of the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health, “We cannot accept that Nigerian children continue to die of malnutrition and that our potential future leaders should be diminished by its effects.”

CMAM, ITRealms learnt, is carried out during weekly appointments over approximately eight weeks at primary health care centres. It includes education of parents and caregivers on nutrition, the importance of continuing breast-feeding and the role of hand-washing and hygiene. The nutrition status of the children is assessed during the CMAM sessions and children are given a health screening; if necessary, they are also treated for other illnesses. Children are given highly nutritious Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) during the sessions and mothers and caregivers are provided with supplies of RUTF to feed the child at home.

The cost for CMAM is just US$160, about N34,400 for each child treated, including US$76 about N16,340 for the RUTF; the remaining US$84 N18,060 covers all other costs, including staff time and training, transport and storage of supplies, and basic medicines. UNICEF and the Government of Nigeria are scaling up the CMAM response and UNICEF is advocating increased investment in CMAM from both the Government of Nigeria and external donors.

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Pix:Jean Gough

Airtel, UNICEF partner to empower Nigerian communities

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The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Airtel Nigeria are partnering to expand their collaboration across all 36 states and FCT in Nigeria, reports ITRealms.

The accord, ITRealms learnt, allows UNICEF to tap into Airtel’s mobile services to make health, education, child protection and community-focused content available to Airtel customers across the country. Through improved connectivity, more Nigerians will have free access to mobile applications and services developed by UNICEF, such as U-Report.

UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Jean Gough, said “UNICEF is committed to providing innovative solutions towards better delivery of services and social change. This partnership with Airtel has the potential to empower millions of Nigerians through access to information and with opportunities to help them transform their societies.”

U-Report, which Nigerians could belong to by texting the word ‘JOIN’ to 24453, is a free innovative SMS-based platform that empowers Nigerians to participate and engage in policy-making and governance and to access real time information on key social issues. The platform,ITRealms also reports, was launched officially in Nigeria on 29April, 2015, has over 400,000 registered users, making Nigeria the leading U-Report platform globally, among 16 other countries that are running the same application.

According to UNICEF, about 15 million text messages were sent and received through the U-Report platform while the country battled Ebola in 2014, ahead of the official U-Report launch this year. The awareness messages and real time responses via SMS and on the U-Report Social Media platforms sent out during the Ebola outbreak were able to combat rumours about mythical remedies such as bathing with hot water and salt and taking bitter kola to cure the disease. U-Report participants were informed about how to identify the disease, and how to keep safe.

The support provided by Airtel, ITRealms learnt, has enabled U-Report to grow into a vibrant tool to empower Nigerians. UNICEF said it looks forward to continued collaboration and expansion, striving to achieve its target of 1 million U-Reporters by the end of this year.

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UNICEF says 800,000 Nigerian children forced to flee violence

 

 ITRealms

 

 

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has estimated that over 800,000 children have fled their homes in Nigeria, reports ITRealms.

According to UNICEF Regional Director for West Africa, Manuel Fontaine, “The abduction of more than 200 girls in the region, scores of girls and boys have gone missing in Nigeria – abducted, recruited by armed groups, attacked, used as weapons, or forced to flee violence. They have the right to get their childhoods back.”

He also told  ITRealms that a year on from the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in Chibok village in Borno, UNICEF focuses attention on devastating impact of conflict on children, saying that around 800,000 children have been forced to flee from their homes due to the conflict in the Northeast between Boko Haram, military forces and civilian self-defence groups.

The figures come as UNICEF draws attention to the devastating impact of the conflict on children across the region using the hashtag #bringbackourchildhood.

Investigation carried out by ITRealms discovered that as part of this drive, UNICEF is using Snapchat – a social platform where messages disappear – to highlight the plight of the hundreds of thousands of children who are missing out on their childhoods as a result of the conflict. 

Details of the information gathered by ITRealms further disclosed that to tell the stories of the children who have fled the violence, UNICEF and leading Snapchat artists will share images based on drawings from children in Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

The artwork,   ITRealms  reports reflects what children missed from home and the emotional wounds and suffering they have endured, including seeing their parents and siblings killed, tortured or abducted. 

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