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Tag: UNICEF

  • Nigeria to expect 25,685 new babies Tuesday – UNICEF

    The United Nations Children’s Fund ( UNICEF ) says an estimated 25,685 babies will be born in Nigeria on New Year Day.

    According to a statement issued on Monday by UNICEF Nigeria Communications Specialist, Eva Hinds, Nigerian babies make up 6.5 per cent of the estimated 395,072 babies born on New Year Day globally.

    “Within Africa, Nigerian babies will account for almost 40 per cent of all those born in West and Central Africa, and more than 23 per cent of those born in sub-Saharan Africa.

    “Globally, over half of the world’s births are estimated to take place in just eight countries, including Nigeria.

    “At current life expectancy rates, a child born in Nigeria today is likely to live only to the year 2074, which is 55 years of age.

    “A child born today in Denmark is likely to live until the 22nd century.

    “Only children born in three countries today have a lower life expectancy than that of Nigerian children including Central African Republic, Chad and Sierra Leone, “ it said.

    The statement said that globally in 2017, about one million babies died the day they were born, and 2.5 million in just their first month of life.

    It said that in Nigeria, about 262,000 babies die at birth each year, the world’s second highest national total, while 257 babies die within their first month of life.

    “Among these children, most died from preventable causes such as premature birth, complications during delivery, and infections like sepsis and pneumonia, a violation of their basic right to survival, “ it stated.

    UNICEF Nigeria’s Acting Representative, Pernille Ironside, said in the statement that more could be done to ensure children born in Nigeria survived their first day of life.

    Ironside added that such children should be able to survive and thrive for many months and years to come.

    “In Nigeria today, only one out of every three babies is delivered in a health centre, decreasing a newborn baby’s chance of survival.

    “This is just one of the issues that need to be addressed in order to improve the chances of survival of those babies born today and every day.

    “This New Year Day, let us all make a resolution to fulfil every right of every child, starting with the right to survive.

    “We can save millions of babies if we invest in training and equipping local health workers so that every newborn is born into a safe pair of hands, “ he said.

    The statement also noted that 2019 marked the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which UNICEF would be commemorating with worldwide events throughout the year.

    According to the statement, under the convention, governments committed to, among other things, taking measures to save every child by providing good quality health care.

    “Over the past three decades, the world has seen remarkable progress in child survival, cutting the number of children worldwide who die before their fifth birthday by more than half.

    “But there has been slower progress for newborns; babies dying in the first month account for 47 per cent of all deaths among children under five.

    “UNICEF’s Every Child Alive campaign calls for immediate investment to deliver affordable, quality health care solutions for every mother and newborn.

    “These include a steady supply of clean water and electricity at health facilities and the presence of a skilled health attendant during birth,’’ it stated.

    It further called for ample supplies and medicines to prevent and treat complications during pregnancy, delivery and birth as well as empowerment for adolescent girls and women who could demand quality health services.

  • UNICEF rallies against genital mutilation

    As part of the activities to commemorate its 16 days activism on gender based violence, the Human Right Clinic, University of Lagos in collaboration with United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria, recently hosted the first ever “Frown Awards” at the university auditorium. The event was held to celebrate the milestones that have been recorded in the war against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Nigeria, especially in states like Osun, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Imo and Oyo.

    Speaking on behalf of UNICEF, Child Protection Specialist, Maryam Enyiazu, noted that FGM is a gender based violence against women and girls. “UNICEF is proud to be part of this partnership and is committed to continue supporting government and other stakeholders at all levels to accelerate efforts for the total elimination of FGM in Nigeria by 2030 as stipulated by Sustainable Development Goal 5.3”, she said.

    Wife of Ekiti State governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi was given a special award at the event for her efforts in the passing of the gender based violence bill 2013 in Ekiti State. Speaking at the event, she promised her unwavering support to end violence against children in Nigeria. Popular actress, Funke Akindele, was also awarded the “Frown Awards FGM Ambassador”.

  • LASG, UNICEF task media

    Media practitioners have been sensitised on the best reporting skills in handling child-related

    conflict. At a one-day media training tagged   “Training of media practitioners on diversion,

    community rehabilitation”, organised by the Lagos   State Ministry of Youth and Social Development, in collaboration with UNICEF, USAID and Grace Springs Rehabilitation, a number of issues were discussed.

    Executive Director of Grace Springs Rehabilitation Home, Omolara Ogunbosi, who specialises in the rehabilitation of street children, encouraged the government to establish child-friendly centres where children can enjoy games of all sorts after school. “This will help them to socialise and interact and it will also bring the best in every child,” she said.

    In his presentation, titled ‘Child Protection System; Strengthening and Ending Violence’, Denis Onoise, a child rights advocate, stressed that “it is important for me to draw the attention of parents to the barrier between correction and punishment. We can correct our children but we should not severely damage them. Parents must know that there are alternatives to discipline; what is required is to understand the psychology of each child.”

  • …bans UNICEF activities in Northeast

    The Army command in Operation Lafiya Dole  has banned the activities of the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund(UNICEF) in the theatre.

    In a statement made available to  journalists in Maiduguri by Deputy Director Public Relations,  Theatre Command, Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, said the army  regretted that UNICEF instead of saving lives has rather engaged in  training spies for their clandestine activities.

    The statement reads in full: “The Theatre Command Operation Lafiya Dole, has observed with dismay that some of the activities of International humanitarian agencies and Non-governmental organisations’ operating in the North East have left so much to be desired. There is credible information that some of them are indulging in unwholesome practices that could further jeopardise the fight against terrorism and insurgency, as they train and deploy spies who support the insurgents and their sympathizers.

    ”It is baffling to note that some of these organizations have been playing the terrorists’ script with the aim to continue demoralizing the troops who are doing so much to protect the lives of victims of Boko Haram terrorism and safe guard them from wanton destruction of property and means of  livelihood.  The Theatre Command considers the actions of these organizations as a direct assault and insult on the sensibilities of Nigerians, as they tend to benefit more from expanding the reign of terror on our people.

    ”Consequently, the Theatre Command Operation Lafiya Dole is suspending the  operations of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), in the North East until further notice. This has become inevitable since the organization has abdicated its primary duty of catering for the wellbeing of children and the vulnerable through humanitarian activities and now engage in training selected persons for clandestine activities to continue sabotaging the counter terrorism and counter insurgency efforts of troops through spurious  and unconfirmed allegations bothering on  alleged violations of human rights by the military.

  • Make child protection a priority, UNICEF tells parents, guardians

    The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), has advised parents and guardians against violating the rights of children in the interest of peace and national development.

    Dr Zakari Adam, the Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Kaduna, gave the advice on Friday in Keffi, Nasarawa State in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria.

    Adam, who spoke to NAN at the end of the three-day capacity building for 30 participants (UNICEF partners) on Result- Based Management (RBM), said that parents and government must also prioritise children protection.

    The training was organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the National Orientation of Agency (NOA) in Niger state and partners from Nasarawa.

    He said:”Parents and government at all levels should protect the rights of the children and citizens for societal development.

    “The rights are their entitlements. Children are human beings and they are also entitled to these rights and they have to enjoy their rights.

    “We should protect, respect and promote the rights of children in order to improve on their health and their standard of living.

    “UNICEF is doing its best to ensure that a child or children enjoy their rights.

    According to him, the aim of UNICEF is to achieve positive result for women and children through access to health facilities, good nutrition, education and other relevant social services required for their development.

    He said that the aim of the training was to equip participants with skills to enable them achieve results places of their primary assignment in tackling the plight of women and children.

    “The aim of the training is also to equip the participants with skills on how to apply result-based management into planning and reporting the programme implementation.

    “It is all about the fact that what we should report should be result-focused.“

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    “We are here working together for years now, particularly to ensure that our partners working in various ministries, related to children rights, are trained and their capacities raised in terms of human rights based approach programming,” he said.

    Adam said that UNICEF was also committed toward addressing challenges facing women and children in Nigeria to improve their health status and standard of living, hence the need for the training.

    He urged parents to ensure that children were protected and not put under unnecessary violence, stressing that children were sent to school rather than being out of school.

    NAN reports that participants from Nasarawa and Niger, drawn from different ministries in the two states, attended the training. which also include Mr Rabiu Musa, Communication Officer of UNICEF, Kaduna.

  • UNICEF sensitises journalists on birth registration

    The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday organised a sensitisation workshop for journalists on the importance of birth registration.

    The workshop organised by the Bauchi Field Office of UNICEF, was in collaboration with the National Population Commission (NpopC).

    In his opening remarks, Mr Victor Sule, UNICEF birth registration Consultant, said the meeting was aimed at equipping media practitioners with the requisite knowledge on creating awareness of birth registration at the community level.

    He decried the low birth registration at the rural areas, owing to poor knowledge of its value, hence the need for massive awareness.

    “The importance of birth registration cannot be over emphasised. Its value to the survival of the child and growth of the society is key.

    “And quite disheartening is the fact that most people in the rural areas don’t even know about birth registration, not to talk of knowing its importance.

    “This is the rationale for this training because once the media, who are key stakeholders get it right, the message will trickle down to the very last person in the rural communities.

    “So, this is part of our collaboration with the media, to support us in taking the campaign on birth registration to the rural communities,” he said.

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    Sule further explained that UNICEF and NpopC are collaborating with other sectors such as health, education, traditional and religious institutions to promote routine birth registration.

    He noted that UNICEF was committed to promoting and protecting the rights of children, hence the lack of knowledge about birth registration makes them marginalised.

    In his address of welcome, Mallam Musa Rashid, the State Director of NpopC in Bauchi, said birth registration was one core mandate of the commission, adding that the sensitisation workshop was timely.

    He explained that paucity of funds and manpower made the commission go into collaboration with key organisations to ensure every child is registered.

    “Birth and death registrations are part of our key mandate in NpopC and we take them very seriously.

    “We are mandated by law to register every child within the first 60 days of birth, unfortunately, the exercise is poor at the rural areas and this calls for intense campaign and awareness.

    “But because we are constrained by lack of manpower and funds, we are collaborating with other key partners in ensuring that the message gets to the communities to enable us register every child, ” he said

  • Malnutrition: UNICEF reaches over 1m children with Vitamin ‘A’ supplementation

    The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says no fewer than 1, 239, 802 children has been given Vitamin ‘A’ supplementation in Yobe and Borno through the support of the Department of International Development (DFID).

    Dr Martin Jackson, UNICEF Nutrition Officer in Bauchi State, made this known on Thursday at a media dialogue while presenting a paper on DFID support for child malnutrition in the North-East in Yola.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that it was organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB) of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.

    Theme of the event is: “Investing in Malnutrition for the Future.’’

    Jackson said that UNICEF was able to attain these feat through the UKaid funded Integrated Basic Nutrition Response to the humanitarian crisis in Yobe and Borno project (INP+) which commenced in July 2017 till date.

    She said that 38,000 Severe Acute Malnutrition children (SAM) were admitted at the various Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) centres or facilities across the states.

    He added that about 95 per cent of the numbers admitted from three local government areas in Yobe and nine from Borno respectively were cured.

    Read Also:UNICEF, Bayelsa train workers to tackle maternal mortality

     

    “The Basic Nutrition Response to humanitarian crisis in Yobe and Borno presentation is to highlight the achievements made by UNICEF through the DFID and Action against Hunger.

    “As well as World Food Programme through the multi-sectoral pilot programme,” he said.

    The benefitting local governments in Yobe include: Tarmua, Gujba and Nangere, while that of Borno are: Maiduguri Municipal Council, Jere, Konduga, Bayo, Biu, Kwaya Kusa, Shani, Askira Uba and Hawul.

    He said further that 195,000 pregnant women were given Iron fob late to prevent them from anaemia being the scourge.

    Jackson said 32,000 mothers were given N5, 000 each on monthly basis as an incentive for exclusive breastfeeding and complimentary feeding.

    He explained that the purpose of the incentive was to encourage the mothers to effectively adhere to the practice to reduce the burden of nutrition crisis in the zones.

    Jackson explained further that the interventions were geared toward improving nutritional security of under five children, pregnant and lactating women, as well promoting nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life.

    He added that the programme was to ensure improved nutritional status of children under the ages of five, pregnant and lactating mothers through prevention, detection and treatment of under nutrition.

  • UNICEF alerts of more deaths from AIDS by 2030

    By 2030, around 80 adolescents will be dying of AIDS every day if “we don’t accelerate progress in preventing transmission,” the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said.

    UNICEF, in a report: ‘Children, HIV and AIDS: The World in 2030’, said current trends indicated AIDS-related deaths and new infections were slowing, but the downward trajectory was not happening fast enough.
    ‘

    “The report makes it clear, without the shadow of a doubt, that the world is off track when it comes to ending AIDS among children and adolescents by 2030,” said UNICEF Chief Henrietta Fore.

    The end of AIDS is an ambitious goal envisioned by the UN agency coalition established to tackle the epidemic, known as the UNAIDS, Fast-Track strategy.

    More than half of those children known to be dying of AIDS would not reach the age of five, the report revealed.

    Fore said prevention and infection treatment efforts were still missing the mark, “specifically when it comes to HIV transmission from mothers to babies”.

    “Programmes to treat the virus and prevent it from spreading among older children are nowhere near where they should be,” she added.

    The number of mother-to-child infections had fallen by around 40 per cent in the last eight years, but girls still account for two-thirds of all adolescent HIV infections, and rates of infection among older children are the slowest to decline, according to current data.

    Furthermore, the report cites a global target reduction in the number of HIV-infected children by 2030 to 1.4 million, while the projected number today of 1.9 million, shows that the world is off-track by around 500,000.

    Currently, three million persons 19 years and younger, are infected with HIV worldwide.

    Two million new infections could be averted by 2030, if global targets are met – this means providing adequate access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services, and testing and diagnoses.

    The major shortfalls show slow progress in prevention among the young and a failure to address the key drivers of the epidemic.

    Many infected children and adolescents are unaware of their illness, and even when tested HIV-positive, rarely adhere to proper treatment.

    The UNICEF vision for an AIDS-free generation entails upscaling family-centered testing to help identify children living with HIV who have not been diagnosed, and greater use of digital platforms to improve education when it comes to HIV and AIDS contraction and prevention.

    “We can’t win the fight against HIV if we don’t accelerate progress in preventing transmission to the next generation,” Fore said. (NAN)

  • 360,000 adolescents expected to die of AIDS by 2030 -UNICEF

    Some 360,000 adolescents are expected to die of AIDS by 2030 if investment in HIV prevention is not ramped up, according to a UNICEF report released on Thursday.

    The figures show the world is “off track’’ in its goal to end AIDS among children by 2030, UNICEF’s executive director, Henrietta Fore, said.

    Projections show there will be a decline in the number of children and young people infected with HIV and dying from AIDS-related causes.

    But the UN children’s fund warned progress is notably slower among adolescents – defined by the UN as those between ages 10 and 19.

    For example, AIDS-related deaths are projected to decrease by 57 per cent among children below the age of 14 by 2030, compared with 35 per cent among those aged 15 to 19 years.

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    “Programmes to prevent HIV transmission from mothers to babies are paying off but haven’t gone far enough.

    “Programmes to treat the virus and prevent it from spreading among older children are nowhere near where they should be,’’ Fore said.

    The report blames slow progress in preventing HIV among young children, along with a failure to address structural and behavioural drivers of the epidemic.

    For example, many young people do not know they have HIV, and those who do often fail to stick to their treatment plans.

    UNICEF is pushing for more family-centred testing and diagnostic technologies, as well as targeted outreach programmes and a greater use of digital platforms to improve knowledge of HIV among adolescents.

  • UNICEF, Sokoto collaborate to fulfill children’s rights

    Mr Muhammad Fall, the Chief UNICEF field Officer says the agency and Sokoto Government are working endlessly to fulfill the rights of children in the state.

    Fall, who made the disclosure while addressing newsmen in Sokoto on Thursday, as part of the programme to commemorate World’s Children’s Day, which was slated for Nov. 20 but was shifted because of the Maulud celebration.

    He said that UNICEF was working in 190 countries with the primary goal of saving children’s lives and defending their rights.

    He said that due to numerous humanitarian crises, and inequity in development priorities of nations, millions of children worldwide live in complicated conditions.

    “That is why United Nations set aside Nov. 20 of each year to honour and to promote the welfare of the world’s children. But as we all know the Federal Government declared Maulud on same date which has to be honoured.

    “We are most fulfilled to have it celebrated today and we hope to give every child the rights that they deserve.

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    “Every child has the right to protection, right to survival, right to full breastfeeding, right to education, right to safe drinking water, right to clean toilet,” he said.

    Fall said that the agency would review the provisions to ensure children were given the right tools they needed to not only survive but also thrive in the society.

    Mr Ebri Eteng, the Head of Hand Washing, UNICEF, said that the day to celebrate the progress made for children, hold leaders to account on promises made to children and address the work that still needed to be done.

    Eteng said that UNICEF called on world leaders to commit to the fulfilment of child rights and to be handed over next year on the 30th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

    “Go Blue’ is a simple message to incorporate the iconic UNICEF blue into all world Children’s Day activities.

    “Children have their rights denied every single day.

    “We want to build a world where every child is in school and learning, safe from harm and able to fulfill their potential and we know you do too.

    “It’s time to put children back on the agenda,” he added.