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Child
health days reach Zimbabwe's children and mothers at a critical
time
UNICEF
August 07, 2008
Zimbabwe's national
biannual child health days kicked off on Monday, aiming to reach
the country's two million children (under-five) with essential
Vitamin A supplementation, catch-up immunization and life-saving
information on nutrition and breastfeeding practices.
"The nationwide
campaigns are important life-saving, low-cost and high-impact support
towards reducing child illnesses and deaths in Zimbabwe,"
said UNICEF's Acting Country Representative in Zimbabwe, Roeland
Monasch. "The days are an essential boost to a health system
under great stress and children made vulnerable by declining social
services."
The Child Health
Days (CHDs) are led by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare
in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF),
the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Helen
Keller International. Past child health drives have proven the
campaign method is highly successful. During such campaigns, UNICEF
adequately funds social mobilization and provides health staff and
volunteers with allowances and additional transport is provided
for outreach activities.
The week-long US$ 1million
campaign is aided by essential funding from the UK's Department
for International Development (DFID), Canada's International
Development Agency (CIDA) and UNICEF's National Committee
of the Netherlands.
During the campaign health
workers and volunteers conduct outreach activities to schools, community
centres and mobile clinics across the country. Children, even those
in hard to reach areas are immunised against tuberculosis, measles,
diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B, haemophilus influenza
and polio.
UNICEF's Regional
Director Per Engebak, who was in Zimbabwe last week, reaffirmed
that Child Health Days are pivotal for the well being of Zimbabwean
children. The agency, however, expressed serious concerns about
the impact on children of the current ban prohibiting NGOs from
operating in communities. The ban, imposed on the 4th of June has
now been in effect for over two months.
"We applaud and
are committed to efforts such as the Child Health Campaign but we
cannot forget that a growing number of children that are suffering
daily because of the NGO ban," said Mr. Engebak. "Every
day that such an important lifeline of humanitarian aid for children
remains cut off puts the children of this country at ever greater
risk."
Recent child health campaigns
have boosted vitamin A coverage from less than 10 per cent in 2005
to over 80 per cent today. Overall immunization coverage, which
had dropped by almost 50 per cent, has once again reached 70 per
cent. The campaign in November 2007 reached 81% of the country's
children with polio vaccination and 80% with Vitamin A supplementation.
The child health days
are part of the country's ongoing efforts to eliminate vaccine
preventable diseases, maintain high vitamin A coverage and improve
child survival across the country.
UNICEF continues to provide
support to the Zimbabwe Expanded programme on Immunisation (ZEPI)
in the procurement of vaccines for immunisation, cold chain equipment
for vaccine storage and technical support to the health workers.
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