Sydney, 20 February 2012 –UNICEF is calling for an urgent increase in funds to avert the current malnutrition crisis becoming a catastrophe across the Sahel.
Unless we redouble our efforts, over 1 million children will suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in 2012, exacerbated by and complicating further needs in health, water and sanitation, protection, as well as threatening children’s right to education.
“Time is of the essence, we want to prevent the situation from deteriorating into a famine, with much higher mortality rates, as happened in Somalia last year,” said Dr Norman Gillespie, UNICEF Australia Chief Executive.
“Last year UNICEF responded to the escalating crisis by increasing our delivery of life-saving interventions to reach more than 700,000 children suffering from malnutrition across the Sahel.”
Humanitarian needs cut across the Sahel belt, and include the entire countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger and the northern regions of Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal.
UNICEF is rolling out an integrated package across nutrition, health, water and sanitation, education and protection to be delivered at a community and health facility level.
“We need to look at this both in terms of the medium-term and long-term responses to turn this situation around,” said Dr Norman Gillespie, UNICEF Australia Chief Executive.
“The first stage of our response is focused on saving lives and addressing immediate malnutrition needs.”
“Our longer term focus is communication for behavioural and social change to prevent future episodes of acute malnutrition.”
In collaboration with the World Food Programme, Government and civil society partners, UNICEF is reaching children and breastfeeding women through blanket feeding operations. In Niger, a cash transfer programme benefiting close to 21,000 highly vulnerable households during the hunger season was implemented in partnership with Save the Children.
Chronic food insecurity and cyclical food crises such as today’s situation in the Sahel are further compounded by poor infant and young child feeding practices at home, poor health status and insufficient access to health services, inadequate preventive interventions against malnutrition, and poor access to water and sanitation.
“UNICEF worldwide urgently requires AU$62.5 million to address the immediate needs of woman and children affected by the Sahel nutrition crisis”.
“We cannot sit back and wait until another famine, such as we saw in the Horn of Africa, strikes. We can see the warning signs and are again urging the Australian community to act now and stop this situation deteriorating into a full scale humanitarian catastrophe,” emphasised Dr Gillespie.
If you would like to support UNICEF's response in the Sahel, please donate to our Silent Emergencies appeal or call 1300 884 233.
Funds raised will help us to provide emergency healthcare and supplies for affected children, such as therapeutic feeding, first aid kits, vaccinations and 'School-in-a-box' kits for a teacher and up to 80 students.
Donate now.
About UNICEF
UNICEF is the driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realised. It has the global authority to influence decision-makers, and the variety of partners at grassroots level to turn the most innovative ideas into reality. That makes UNICEF unique among world organisations, and unique among those working with the young. UNICEF works in over 190 countries to promote and protect the rights of children. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, clean water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and HIV. In Australia, UNICEF advocates for the rights of all children to be realised and works to improve public and government support for child rights and international development. UNICEF receives no funding from the UN, but relies on the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.
For more information, please contact:
Tim O’Connor, UNICEF Australia
0435 206 273
toconnor@unicef.org.au
Martha Tattersall, UNICEF Australia
0421 570 393
mtattersall@unicef.org.au
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