The Nation Newspaper

Tag: UNICEF

  • Violence against children mars development – Expert

    Ms Ladi Alabi, a Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, has said that violence against children hampers social and economic development in any society.

    Alabi said this at a sensitisation training programme organised for journalists on Monday in Jos.

    According to him, continuous violence affects brain development in children.

    “Violence against children has a terrible effect on a child who is still growing up because children go through constant pressure.

    “This also affects brain development among children, which means the education of such society in future will suffer.

    “And if the education of such society suffers, its economic and social development will also suffer a serious setback.

    “So, it is a huge problem that needs to be urgently addressed if we want a better society in future.”

    She further said that violence against children imposed tremendous negative effect on the education, health and other sectors of the society.

    Earlier, Mr Samuel Kaalu, Communication Officer, UNICEF Bauchi Office, called for a multi-sectoral approach to end violence against children.

    According to him, violence against children takes place not only in homes, but in schools and worship places, among others.

    He applauded the Federal Government for responding positively to end the violence being meted on children in the society.

  • UNICEF calls for joint action against child malnutrition

    Back from a two-day media parley with UNICEF in Ibadan, Evelyn Osagie chronicles the agency’s concern on the growing spate of malnutrition and stunted growth in children the country and its appeal for joint action.

    Stunted growth is one of the effects of malnutrition in children. One out of every three children is, reportedly, not being fed appropriately.

    According to the National Nutrition and Health Survey, Nigeria has the highest number of stunted children under age five in sub-Saharan Africa, and the second highest figure in the world. These submissions have raised fresh concerns about child malnutrition across the country.

    The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is at the frontline of campaign to change the trend.

    Expressing worry, the organisation has embarked on a sensitisation drive to curb the occurrence, as well as increase resources for child nutrition across the country, in line with its commitment to total well-being of the child.

    With the theme, Good nutrition, invest more; the organisation has held sensitisation campaigns and dialogues across the country, especially with the media.

    According to UNICEF Communications Specialist, Mr Geoffrey Njoku, the campaigns are in line with UNICEF’s recognition of the importance of shaping thoughts and policies on the importance of good nutrition and the state of child malnutrition in the country.

    Njoku debunked the belief that child malnutrition is only prominent in the North and called for increased budgetary rights for children.

    He said: “Child malnutrition in Nigeria appears to wear a northern face. It is false and misleading. According to 2013 survey, the Southwest had 22 per cent stunted children under the age of five. A malnourished child anywhere is a problem that we need to deal with. We cannot afford to raise malnourished children; the effect is long term because the (first) 1000 days of a child is the most crucial in forming and shaping its brain and body.”

    Funding solutions and programmes that would curb the trend, Njoku observed, is a shared responsibility, but the question is: “who is doing what”.

    He made these observations at a two-day interaction with media practitioners to intimate them with the situation in the country, while urging them to support advocacy for child nutrition.

    The event also fielded resource persons from UNICEF, Child Protection Network, the Ministry of Health, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), and nutritionists.

    The two-day media dialogue held in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, was its sixth, and had over 30 journalists and bloggers from across the Southwest in attendance.

    “This is part of a series of media dialogues, which has held in Sokoto, Kano, Owerri and Calabar, meant to create opportunities for media advocacy on child malnutrition through sensitising and informing media partners about the nutrition crisis in Nigeria and issues of children’s well-being and survival. It is also meant to provide them with the knowledge and materials to support advocacies for child nutrition; with the hope that the media will join in the advocacy for child nutrition using its various platforms,” Njoku said.

    UNICEF Nutrition Specialist, Mrs Ada Ezeogu, named maternal nutrition, infant and child feeding, micronutrient deficiency control; as key elements in curbing malnutrition. She lamented that one out of three children in Nigeria do not get adequate feeding, advising mothers to give their children exclusive breastfeeding from birth to six month and optimal infant and young child feeding.

    A resource expert from the Federal Ministry of Health, Mrs Ogunbunmi Omotayo, said the government was taking proactive steps in tracking and curbing the situation, even as she listed its diverse interventions. She said: “Although Nigeria has the highest number of stunted children under age five in sub-Saharan Africa and second highest in the world with 37 percent of all children stunted, 18 per cent wasting and 29 per cent underweight; the government has done much and is still working to ensure it curbs it.”

    While calling for increased media advocacy, UNICEF Communications Officer, Blessing Ejiofor, informed participants on the Media Coalition Against Malnutrition (MECHAM). She urged them to join the coalition online on #stopchildmalnutritionnigeria on twitter, and offline in their platforms.

    “MECHAM was driven to create opportunities for media advocacy on child nutrition through sensitisation. It provides media partners with the knowledge and materials to support advocacy for child nutrition and acquaint the media with the situation in Nigeria with particular reference to child malnutrition,” she said.

    For the Coordinator, African Centre for Media & Information Literacy, Chido Onumah, increased media advocacy would subsequently increase resources for child nutrition. He called for participation from not only the media, but the public, private sector and leaders, observing that “public relations, community mobilisation versus advocacy, community members and leaders, will build community capacity to identify, rank, take action and increase quality of participation.”

    According to him, “preventing acute malnutrition requires a framework that will address the conditions that make it possible”. He said: “The best way to prevent acute malnutrition is to remove the conditions that make it thrive. Addressing these conditions requires awareness of the problem and increased funding. A well-structured media advocacy can help eliminate the conditions that promote acute malnutrition by mobilising increased funding for nutrition programming. Media advocacy is a veritable tool in eliminating the conditions that promote acute malnutrition and mobilising resources.”

  • Yobe begins polio vaccination in Boko Haram liberated communities

    Yobe begins polio vaccination in Boko Haram liberated communities

    • Survivors hold rally in Damaturu

    While the resurgence of polio virus in Borno State has caused panic and concern over the certification of Nigeria as a polio free nation, similar concerns are also expressed in neighboring communities with peculiar challenges.

    However, the cheering news has emerged that immunization officials have started accessing the Boko Haram liberated communities in Gujba and Gulani Local Government areas.

    The  Executive Secretary Yobe State Primary Healthcare Management Board Dr. Hauwa Goni Fika disclosed this at a polio survivor rally held in Damaturu that health officials have started accessing the hard-reached areas of Gujba and Gulani that were hitherto taken over by Boko Haram.

    “The good news is that our people have started accessing those hard-reached areas of Gujba and Gulani which were no go area because of the Boko Haram crisis,” Dr. Hauwa informed.

    She called on the victims to desist from begging for alms, but rather identify meaningful trades that would change their lives while charging them to be ambassadors of kicking out the disease from Nigeria.

    The Nation reports that the Survivors of the polio victim penultimate week staged a grand rally in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital to sensitize the community on the need to accept the vaccine and kick out the disease out of the state and Nigeria at large.

    The rally, which  had in attendance hundreds of polio victims, including men and women, ridding on their wheelchairs with others on their rollers, members of the Yobe State Social Mobilization Committee, drum beaters and members of the Press  began at the head office of the Cripple Association Damaturu behind KeyStone Bank opposite the Damaturu Ram Market and went through some of the major  settlements cutting through some major streets in the metropolis singing, dancing and distributing pamphlets to the locales.

    The campaign rally also caused some gridlock on major streets as the cripples take over the roads and mount the louder speakers to send their message to the people before it was finally terminated at the NPI office Phase I Damaturu.

    A UNICEF official on the campaign train who does not want to be mentioned informed that the rally was predicated on the resurgence of the polio virus in Borno State, adding that “because of the proximity of Yobe to Borno State, proactive measures are taken to ensure adequate awareness of the virus and its danger to the community and on the people”.

    The source also disclosed that various mobilization and awareness campaigns like community dialogue, engagement of traditional rulers  are going on at the local government level across the state.

    The chairman of Damaturu Cripples Association promised to ensure that his members are actively involved in the campaign against polio various, adding that, the mistakes of the past have opened their eyes to ensure that no new born miss the vaccine in the state.

  • UNICEF, media join forces against malnutrition

    UNICEF, media join forces against malnutrition

    Nigeria is battling with several problems, among which is child malnutrition. The future of her children is being threatened by malnutrition; a silent killer which is decimating them in millions annually. ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA reports that the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the media have just launched a campaign to tackle the menace.

    This is not the best of time for infants in Nigeria. They are exposed to disease, sanitation problems, environmental deterioration, hunger; all triggered by insurgency, in the Northeast, militancy in the Niger Delta, kidnapping in almost all states of the federation and other social ills afflicting the society.

    Malnutrition has become a threat to the survival of the Nigerian child but a campaign has just been launched by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the media to tackle the menace.

    Concern for the survival of the Nigerian child and how to find solution to the threat posed by malnutrition was the focus of a Media Dialogue organised by the UNICEF, a specialised agency of the United Nations which has welfare of children as its major mandate, for reporters in the Southwest.

    The media practitioners, who came from print, electronic, social and online platforms brainstormed with stakeholders such as officials of the UNICEF, health professionals, caregivers, policy makers and beneficiaries of the agency’s intervention where issues bordering on malnutrition were dissected.

    The UNICEF recognises the media as an important vehicle of advocacy and a strong partner to propagate the message of best nutrition practices to boost child health through editorials, documentaries, features, informed commentaries; special reports, interviews with policy makers, community workers and mothers.

    The forum reached a  consensus that malnutrition is a general problem which is not peculiar to any region in Nigeria; as virtually all the six geo-political zones are battling with the problem. As it affects children of the poor, malnutrition also afflicts children of the rich, which many would find incredible.

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, whose opening remarks was delivered by the Head, Child Rights Information Bureau, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Mrs. Rose Madu, described the problem as one that is common.

    He urged journalists to use their platforms to educate policy makers so that the right budgetary allocations are made and funds released on time to tackle the challenges of malnutrition.

    The minister, who revealed that similar forums had been held in Sokoto, Calabar, Kano and Owerri said bringing journalists together was an important step towards battling the scourge because of their roles as nation-builders.

    According to him, statistics has shown that malnutrition has become a huge threat to children both in the North and in the South; hence the need for all Nigerians to join hands with the government to save the future of the younger generation.

    UNICEF Communication Specialist in Abuja, Mr. Geoffrey Njoku, said the problem of malnutrition required urgency because of the increasing infant mortality rate attributed to it.

    He expressed shock at the findings made during a similar media dialogue held in Owerri, where it was discovered that a good number of infants in Imo State are suffering from malnutrition.

    Njoku said: “I was at the Owerri dialogue and I was shocked at the level of malnutrition of children in Imo State. In the Southwest as well, we have issues of malnutrition and Nigerians expect that reports coming out of here would help address these issues.

    “The use of social media has helped tremendously because both the Senate and the House of Representatives are talking about it; so it had become a national issue.”

    Njoku revealed that 22 per cent of children under five years in the Southwest zone have stunted growth, saying it was erroneous to believe that malnutrition only affects the northern part of the country.

    Quoting a 2013 survey, Njoku stressed that studies revealed that malnutrition was prevalent among children of the rich in the Southwest under the age of five, adding that research also showed that 13 per cent of children born to rich families also suffer malnutrition.

    Giving an overview of Nutrition Intervention in Nigeria, Dr. Chris Isokpunwu, of the Federal Ministry of Health said there was need to give children balanced diet at infancy before much damage is done.

    Represented by Mrs. Omotayo Ogunbunmi, Isokpunwu noted that “nutrition has a powerful influence on the child’s growth, development and productive life.”

    Quoting statistics from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, Isokpunwu revealed that Nigeria has the highest number of stunted children under the age of five in sub-Sahara Africa and second highest in the world with 37 per cent of all children stunted, 18 per cent wasting and 29 per cent underweight.

    According to him, the infant mortality rate was 69 in every 1,000 live births while only 17 per cent were exclusively breastfed.

    In her presentation, UNICEF Nutrition Specialist, Mrs. Ada Ezeogu, revealed that 50 per cent of infants in Nigeria die as a result of malnutrition, even as she advocated exclusive breastfeeding for children from age zero to six months.

    Refering to the data prepared by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Mrs. Ezeogu also urged women not to deny babies in the age bracket breast milk on grounds that their breasts would sag.

    She said the infant mortality rate could be reduced through adequate nutrition, adding that exclusive breastfeeding would boost mental capacity of babies and would help Nigerian children to become adults with great intellect in future.

    Mrs. Ezeogu explained that babies did not need water when they were being fed exclusively with breast milk because 80 per cent of breast milk contained water while the remaining 20 per cent contained the needed nutrients for babies’ optimal growth.

    She said: “Every child should be exclusively breast fed for the first six months. Breastfeeding lowers the risk of chronic conditions later in life such as obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes; childhood asthma and childhood leukaemia.

    “Breastfed infants do better on intelligence and behaviour test than formula-fed babies.”

    At the dialogue, some children who were hitherto malnourished but had overcome the scourge after the intervention of UNICEF field officers in their respective localities were presented.

    Hassan and Hussein are promising twin boys who were deprived of the opportunity of enjoying breastfeeding by the death of their mother.

    Health workers diagnosed them of acute malnutrition in August last year at their Gaa Ayegbade Settlement in Ibarapa East Local Government Area of Oyo State.

    Six months after the children were fed on soya-based enriched complementary food and guide corn; babies who could hardly sit are now walking and eating other foods

    “That they are alive today is a miracle; they did not develop well, they were only feeding on infant formula,” said their grandmother, Hawawu Musa.

    Abigail Babarinde, at the age of one, was unable to sit or walk but respite came her way when she was referred for treatment and her mother commenced feeding her with soya-based enriched complementary food prepared at Oyo State Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre, Oni and Sons Children Hospital.

    Her mother, 21-year-old Aminat Babarinde, told reporters at the forum that she breastfed the baby for one month, claiming that the baby refused to be fed on breast milk.

    She explained that Abigail’s rejection of breast milk affected her growth but she was taken to Eruwa General Hospital where the child was referred to a nutritionist who administered special diet on her.

    The story of Abigail, Hassan and Hussein who looked lively during the forum, was a testimony to efforts of nutrition officers to prevent children from having stunted growth.

    In her presentation, a Nutrition Officer in Oyo State Ministry of Health, Dr. Khadijat Alarape, explained that 13.2 per cent of children in the state are underweight; a percentage which she said was a significant decline from the previous 17.7 per cent few years ago.

  • 28 million children displaced by conflict worldwide – UNICEF

    28 million children displaced by conflict worldwide – UNICEF

    A UNICEF report released on Wednesday indicated that more than 28 million children have been driven out of their homes by conflicts and violence worldwide.

    It said in a report released in New York that the figure includes 10 million child refugees and 17 million internally displaced children.

    The UNICEF report found that a total of 50 million children are either refugees, internally displaced inside their countries or migrants in search of a better life abroad due to gang violence and poverty.

    UNICEF urges countries in the report to look at underage refugees and migrants as children “first and foremost,” who are especially vulnerable to violence and exploitation.

    It noted that children made up about half of the world’s refugees seeking shelter abroad in 2015, with 45 per cent of child refugees under the UN’s care coming from Syria and Afghanistan.

    The number of children travelling alone rose to 100,000 in 2015 – a three-fold increase from 2014.

    “These unaccompanied minors, who are in heightened risk of abuse and exploitation, applied for asylum in 78 countries in 2015.

    “About 20 million of them have been classified as child migrants who left their homes because of poverty and gang violence, often traveling without legal documents and lacking legal status,’’ it said.

    Anthony Lake, UNICEF’s Executive Director, said that children living as refugees also face increasing xenophobia and are five-times more likely to be out of school than their non-refugee peers.

    “What price will we all pay if we fail to provide these young people with opportunities for education and a more normal child hood.

    “How will they be able to contribute positively to their societies?

    “If they can’t, not only will their futures be blighted, but their societies will be diminished as well,’’ he said.

    Lake said that the report is coming ahead of a UN summit on September 19 where world leaders are set to discuss global migration.

     

  • UNICEF to Osun: address child malnutrition

    UNICEF to Osun: address child malnutrition

    THE United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has urged Osun State to address child malnutrition among children under the age of five.
    It enjoined the government to extend its school feeding programme to cover children below three years.
    UNICEF Nutrition Specialist Mrs. Ada Ezeogu, who decried the malnutrition level in the state, revealed that 195, 245 children under five years are stunted in Osun as a result of malnutrition.
    Praising Governor Rauf Aregbesola for the school feeding programme, she advised that the figure generated from National Nutrition and Health Survey 2015 could be reduced, if the early child care centres are included in the programme.
    Mrs. Ezeogu, who was a facilitator at a two-day media parley on child malnutrition with the theme: “Good Nutrition, Invest More” in Ibadan, Oyo State, added that over 50 per cent of infant death occur as a result of malnutrition.
    She urged the government to take proactive steps in addressing the situation.

  • UNICEF charges Osun on child malnutrition

    UNICEF charges Osun on child malnutrition

    The United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has urged Osun State government to address child malnutrition among children under the age of five.

    It enjoined the state government to extend its school feeding programme to cover children below three years.

    UNICEF Nutrition Specialist, Mrs Ada Ezeogu, decried the current malnutrition level in the state. She revealed that 195, 245 children under five years are stunted in Osun as a result of malnutrition.

    While praising Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola for the school feeding programme in the state, she advised that the figure generated from National Nutrition and Health Survey 2015 could be reduced if the early child care centres are included in the programme.

    Ezeogu, who was a facilitator at a two-day media parley on child malnutrition with the theme Good Nutrition, Invest More in Ibadan, Oyo State, disclosed that over 50 per cent of infant death in the country occur as a result of malnutrition, urging the government to take proactive steps in addressing the current situation.

  • Delta releases N100m UNICEF counterpart fund

    Delta releases N100m UNICEF counterpart fund

    The Delta State Government has released N100 million counterpart funding for the United Nation’s Children Education Fund (UNICEF) water and sanitation programmes.

    Governor Ifeanyi Okowa spoke yesterday in Asaba, the state capital, on the release of the fund when he hosted the Head of UNICEF Field Office in the Southsouth, Mr Wilbroad Ngambi.

    The governor noted that despite the nation’s economic challenges, his administration would continue to engage in activities that would make life meaningful for the people.

    He said: “As part of our partnership with UNICEF on the water/sanitation programmes, we have released N100 million as our counterpart fund. Within the next few weeks, we will release another N100 million.

    “The delay in the release of funds was because of the economic situation of the country.

    “We have noted the areas in which you have intervened and is still intervening in the state, especially in issues concerning maternal and child health care. We hope to stay strong in our partnership with you for the development and benefits of our people. We promise to do our best to release funds within our limits.”

    Praising the UNICEF for its programmes, Okowa said: “Delta State has over 400 primary health centres and we will support the local government areas to make the health centres functional and responsive to the health needs of our people…”

    Ngambi said UNICEF would continue to partner the state government to protect the rights of the children, strengthen immunisation, maternal and child health care, including family planning.

     

  • 49,000 children may die in northeast Nigeria – UNICEF

    Nearly half a million children around Lake Chad face “severe acute malnutrition” due to drought and a seven-year insurgency by the Boko Haram sect in northeastern Nigeria, UNICEF said on Thursday.

    Of the 475,000 deemed at risk, 49,000 in Nigeria’s Borno State, Boko Haram’s heartland, will die this year if they do not receive treatment, according to the United Nations’ child agency, which is appealing for $308 million to cope with the crisis.

    However, to date, UNICEF said it had only received $41 million, 13 percent of what it needs to help those affected in the four countries – Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon – that border Lake Chad.

    At the start of 2015, Boko Haram occupied an area the size of Belgium but has since been pushed back over the last 18 months by military assaults by the four countries.

    Most of its remaining forces are now hiding in the wilds of the vast Sambisa forest, southeast of the Borno provincial capital, Maiduguri.

    UNICEF said that as Nigerian government forces captured and secured territory, aid officials were starting to piece together the scale of the humanitarian disaster left behind in the group’s wake.

    “Towns and villages are in ruins and communities have no access to basic services,” Reuters quoted UNICEF as saying in a report.

    In Borno, nearly two thirds of hospitals and clinics had been partially or completely destroyed and three-quarters of water and sanitation facilities needed to be rehabilitated.

    Despite the military gains, UNICEF said, 2.2 million people remain trapped in areas under the control of Boko Haram – which is trying to establish a caliphate in the southern reaches of the Sahara – or are staying in camps, fearful of going home.

  • Child soldier nightmare imminent in South Sudan – UNICEF

    A spike in the forced recruitment of child soldiers in South Sudan could be imminent, the United Nations’ children’s agency said on Friday, amid fears that the world’s youngest nation is on the brink of renewed civil war.

    Despite an August 2015 peace deal, fierce fighting broke out in the capital Juba last month, killing hundreds of people.

    “At this precarious stage in South Sudan’s short history, UNICEF fears that a further spike in child recruitment could be imminent,” Reuters quoted UNICEF’s deputy executive director, Justin Forsyth, as saying in a statement after visiting South Sudan.

    “The dream we all shared for the children of this young country has become a nightmare.”

    Some 16,000 children have been recruited into armed groups since December 2013, UNICEF said, when civil war erupted between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and those backing former vice president Riek Machar.

    More than one in five of South Sudan’s 11 million people had fled their homes as a result of the ethnically charged war.

    Forces attacking villages often grab children and force them, at gunpoint, to fight, rights groups said.

    Others join to save themselves from being beaten or killed and to protect their communities.