Back to Index

Government of Japan donates US$1.9million to fight against malaria & vaccine preventable illnesses in Zim
UNICEF-Zimbabwe
January 11, 2007

HARARE – In a bold bid to improve child survival, the Japanese Government today donated US$1.9 million to the United Nations children’s Fund (UNICEF) as a contribution to the fight against vaccine preventable diseases in children and prevent malaria in Zimbabwe.

The Japanese contribution comes at a critical time when Zimbabwe’s child mortality rates have started to improve and efforts to roll-back resurfacing malaria are bearing fruit. The funds will be a vital boost to the country's expanded immunization programme through the provision of vaccines of polio and Hepatitis B, two of the seven vaccine preventable killer diseases in children. The funds will also be used to procure long lasting insecticide treated nets for the prevention of malaria in children less than five years and pregnant women.

"With the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey showing a 20 percent reduction in under-five years child mortality between 1999 and 2005, these funds are an enormous boost to ensure that Zimbabwe’s child mortality improvement continues in order to achieve the Millenium Development goal of reducing underfive child mortality by two thirds between 1990 and 2015" said UNICEF’s Representative in Zimbabwe, Dr Festo Kavishe..

The Japanese funds will ensure that children eligible for immunization against Polio and Hepatitis B, are immunized on time, and that the most vulnerable Zimbabwean children receive a mosquito net.

Half of all Zimbabweans live in malarial areas, and malaria is the second highest killer of children in Zimbabwe. Through these funds UNICEF aims to complement Government efforts in promoting Long Lasting Insecticide Nets (LLINs) in the five high malaria endemic districts of Chipinge, Guruve, Binga, Kariba and Mudzi.

This project will distribute 166,254 LLINs benefiting 169,207 households in the five districts. Ultimately the funds seek to ensure that almost a million pregnant women, infants and young children and other vulnerable groups receive a long lasting insecticide treated net.

"Malaria not only kills, it also damages productivity and halts development," said Dr Kavishe. "A malaria-stricken family spends an average of over one quarter of its income on treatment. Thus malaria has far reaching effects on health and economic productivity. We are therefore happy that in their typical generosity the Japanese have seen this and not only will their donation help save lives, but will also assist general development in those five districts."

The funds will also support the Zimbabwe Expanded Programme on Immunisation (ZEPI), which will receive 100% of its polio vaccine needs in the year 2007 and vaccines for Hapititis B in the next three months.

This second grant from the Government of Japan brings the total amount of Japanese support to immunization and malaria prevention support in Zimbabwe to US$4,482,000. Last year the Japanese Government granted UNICEF US$2,582,000 which procured 50% of the vaccine requirements for 2006 and 228,770 treated long lasting mosquito nets for the prevention of malaria in Zimbabwe.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP