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Tag: UNICEF

  • NACA, UNAIDS, UNICEF hold workshop on HIV sensitisation

    NACA, UNAIDS, UNICEF hold workshop on HIV sensitisation

    Over twenty medical doctors from a range of specialisations have gathered in Abuja to take part in a sensitisation workshop on the UNAIDS treatment target – the 90-90-90.

    The doctors from the Nigerian Medical Association and the Association of Resident Doctors will listen to presentations by facilitators from UNAIDS and UNICEF on the ambitious treatment target and share their views on how best to fast-track and achieve it by 2020.

    The workshop organised by UNAIDS and the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) is meant to sensitise participants on the treatment target which aims at ensuring that, by the year 2020, 90 per cent of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status.

    It is also meant to ensure that 90 per cent of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy while 90 per cent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral load suppression.

    “Unless medical practitioners are fully engaged and take ownership of the 90-90-90 target, it will be difficult to attain. They need to be in the driver’s seat for this process of testing, treating and retaining people on treatment to happen. When health care providers own the target, its success will be guaranteed in Nigeria,” said Dr Bilali Camara, UNAIDS Country Director for Nigeria and UNAIDS Focal Point for Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

    The 90-90-90 treatment target was launched at a high-level political session of the 20th International AIDS Conference held in July 2014 in Melbourne, Australia, when the UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, called for a new set of treatment targets by 2020.

    This is the third workshop of its kind in Nigeria. A similar workshop involving vulnerable women and girls took place in March this year, followed by another held in the month of May for journalists and people living with HIV.

    NACA, UNAIDS and UNICEF will facilitate this workshop.

  • UNICEF, partners unveil U-Report in style

    UNICEF, partners unveil U-Report in style

    United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) and its partners have formally unveiled an SMS-based platform, tagged: U-Report, at Eko Hotels in Lagos.

    The event was graced by dignitaries from all walks of life in attendance. Performances by acts, such as Banky W, Sheyi Shey and Kaffy the spectacular dancer, added colour to the event.

    U-Report is an innovative SMS-based platform that empowers Nigerians by enabling them to participate and engage in policy-making and governance and access real time information on key social issues. The platform targets one million u-reporters in 2015.

    UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Jean Gough said: ”Today more than ever before community journalism through communication technology can help engender good governance, accountability, social change and improve health standards. U-Report platform provides a thrilling opportunity to contribute to positive social change in the Nigeria,”

    According to her, U-Report enables those who voluntarily register – known as U-reporters – to speak-out on what is happening in their communities, provides a forum to amplify their voices through local and national media, sends alerts to key stakeholders about the issues their constituents are facing, and feeds back useful information to the U-Reporters, so they are empowered to work for positive change and improvements in their localities. “The platform also provides decision makers a forum to listen to millions of voices through simple messaging.

    In the last one year with support from Airtel, MTN, GLO an with support from Airtel, MTN, GLO and Etisalat the number of U-reporters has rapidly grown to about 200,000 with thousands joining every month from all parts of the country. It is expected to top a million by the end of 2015. It has also attracted strategic partnerships with civil society organisations, UN agencies and Government Ministries, who contribute by selecting poll questions and promoting the platform to Nigerian citizens, as a tool for civic engagement and community empowerment.

    About 15 million text messages were sent out through the U-Report platform while the Country battled Ebola. The awareness messages and real time responses via sms and on the U-report Social media platforms sent out during the Ebola outbreak were able to address mythical cures like bathing with hot water and salt , taking bitter kola to cure the disease . U-Reporters were informed on how to identify the disease, and how to keep safe.

    U-Report Nigeria has sent out more than 50 polls and 26 million messages over the past one year on Prevention of HIV/AIDS, unemployment, maternal and child health, safety and security in schools; child protection and security in general, electricity, water and sanitation hygiene, among others.

    UNICEF Nigeria is working closely with its partners; the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), National Orientation Agency (NOA) the Scouts Association of Nigeria, Boys Brigade and Girl Guides, Religious and Traditional leaders, the Media and Telecommunication service providers to scale up registration and increase impact.

    UNICEF strongly believes that through U-report communities can constructively contribute to the betterment of their standard of living and significantly contribute to transparency and accountability in the management of public funds, which is key to development.

    The support provided by AIRTEL, MTN, GLO, and Etisalat this past one year made u-report to grow to what it is today and we look forward to a continued collaboration with these companies as we strive to achieve our target of million u-reporters by the end of this year.

    Also in attendance were National Youths Service Corp members and Management, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and the Federal Ministry of Information.

  • CAR groups ‘agree to free’ child soldiers

    Armed groups in the Central African Republic have agreed to release all child soldiers and children associated with their forces, who may be used as cooks or messengers or for sexual purposes, the United Nations’ children’s agency, UNICEF, said on Tuesday.

    The agreement, signed during a week-long national reconciliation forum in Bangui, covers an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 children currently associated with the armed factions, who also agreed to end any new child recruitment, Reuters reports.

  • Improving access to water, sanitation

    Improving access to water, sanitation

    “We normally trek about one hour to neighbouring communities that have boreholes to get water for our daily needs.

    “When our female children are having their menstrual period, many of them don’t go to school because there is no water for them to clean themselves properly,” says Mrs Celestina Ani, a resident of Umachi community in Igboeze North Local Government Area of Enugu State.

    Corroborating the woman’s claims, UNICEF says that the lack of safe, separate and private sanitation and washing facilities in schools is one of the factors preventing girls from attending school, particularly when they are menstruating.

    The report says women and girls pay the heaviest price for poor sanitation of communities, adding that shortage of water particularly affects the sanitation of several households.

    This is because the people’s access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) is certainly critical to the socio-economic development of any community.

    The significance of WASH in communities was exposed vividly during a tour of some communities in Igboeze North Local Government Area in Enugu State by some journalists, under the aegis of WaterAid Nigeria.

    WaterAid is an international organisation that promotes healthy living in communities across the world via improved access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.

    In Nigeria, the agency operates in over 200 communities in six focal states – Bauchi, Benue, Ekiti, Enugu, Jigawa and Plateau.

    Chief Moses Abugu, a community leader who spoke on behalf of the traditional ruler of Umachi community, Igwe Louis Umoro, said that there were three cholera-induced deaths in the community this year.

    “We used to have old boreholes but they are no longer functioning.

    “In this community, we are mostly palm-wine tappers, farmers and `Okada’ (motorcycle) riders. We do not have electricity and good roads.

    “The government should come to our aid and if they do, we promise to employ the services of our youths to guard and maintain the equipment,’’ Abugu said.

    Another community member, Mr Benedict Ali, said: “We don’t have water; some of us buy water from water tankers that come here twice in a week.

    “About three families can come together and contribute money to buy a full water tanker load, which costs about N7, 000 to N10,000, and then share it accordingly,’’ he said.

    Ali also bemoaned the bad state of the roads in the neighbourhood, which often frustrated water tankers to get into the community, describing it as a major challenge facing efforts to get water for the community’s use.

    During a visit to Ekposhi community, also in Igboeze North Local Government Area of the state, the residents lamented about the rise in water-borne diseases due to the dearth of pipe-borne water.

    Mr. Basil Onuh, a community member, said that the lack of pipe-borne water in the community had also encouraged open defecation in the area.

    “Sometimes, when we go to the bush to defecate, we are often attacked by dangerous snakes and scorpions. Recently, we dug a pit where we can store water during rainfall.

    “Some of us have contracted different kinds of diseases through this practice and we wish it could stop. This has also affected our livelihoods because we cannot water our crops during the dry season,’’ he said.

    Mrs. Helen Urama, who sells “Okpa’’ (a variety of bean cake), said: “it’s only when we have money to buy water that our children go to school. I get the water which I use in cooking my `Okpa’ anywhere I can get it.’’

    Two teachers at the local primary schools, Mr. Saliru Idoko and Mr. Isaac Ossai, said that some of the schools in the community did not have toilets, thereby forcing the pupils to engage in open defecation.

    “Even though every family has been mandated to build pit toilets in our community, we still contract different kinds of infections,’’ said Mrs. Ngozi Idoko, a resident of Ekposhi community.

    “We plead with the federal and state governments to give us water so as to improve our standard of living.’’

    Mr. Samuel Ome, the Chairman of the National Task Group on Sanitation (NTGS), said that it was sad that open defecation still remained a big challenge across the country.

    He stressed that many urban settlements even lacked basic hygiene facilities, thereby resulting in open defecation, which posed a threat to life, as feces were often washed into drinking water sources, thereby contaminating the water.

    He underscored the need for Nigerians to cultivate clean habits, stressing that the people should always strive to exhibit good personal hygiene.

    “Sanitation starts with the individual, those things you do involuntarily become your attitude.

    “You wake up in the morning, you use the toilet, you flush the toilet, you brush your teeth, you wash your body before going to work; nobody prompts you to do it, you do it voluntarily.

    “The garbage you bring out must be disposed of properly, so sanitation has a huge role to play in the household, the community and the nation,’’ he said.

    Ome said that the government was doing a lot to improve the people’s access to sanitation, adding, however, that access to basic sanitation in Nigeria still stood at 41 per cent.

    Saying that water was important to the development of a nation and individuals, Ome said that 70 per cent of the ailments affecting the people were water-related.

    He noted that cholera usually affected persons living in unhygienic environments or those who drank contaminated water.

    Ime, however, called on all Nigerians to cultivate the habit of hand-washing so as to avoid contracting water-borne diseases, while reducing unnecessary deaths.

    “As you engage in your daily activities, you wash hands before you eat your food or after shaking hands.

    “You can wash your hands up to four times in the office in order to improve your hygiene and minimise the risks of contracting communicable diseases.

    “Washing your hands with soap or ashes in running water also helps to break the transmission of water-borne diseases,” he added.

    Also speaking, Mr. Saheed Mustapha, Policy and Partnership Advisor, WaterAid, said that 90 per cent of diarrhoea cases in Nigeria were caused by the poor Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) culture of the people.

    He said that WASH was central to every aspect of human existence, adding that problems associated with inadequate water and sanitation had a greater impact on the society.

    “Almost 90 per cent of diarrhoea cases are caused by poor unsafe water and sanitation practices; water is life, we need to go beyond this level to improve the lives of Nigerians.

    “Time-consuming water collection greatly contributes to poverty; access to safe water and sanitation facilities frees up valuable time that could be used for income-generating activities,’’ he said.

    Mustapha noted that sanitation had become “a silent and neglected crisis’’, saying that more than 2.5 billion people lacked access to basic sanitation globally.

    The WaterAid official quoted the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring 2014 report as saying that nearly 40 million Nigerians practised open defecation due to their lack of access to basic water and sanitation facilities.

    He stressed that need to promote the hand-washing culture, as part of efforts to reduce preventable deaths, saying that children under the age of five were largely affected.

    Mustapha also said that all the stakeholders ought to increase their investments in efforts to ensure that all public institutions, especially schools and markets, had inclusive, safe water and sanitation facilities.

    He solicited the inclusion of a provision on basic sanitation in any poverty alleviation programme, saying that Nigeria lost about N455 billion annually to deaths caused by poor sanitation.

    In all, experts underscore the need for the government and the people of Nigeria to show more commitment in efforts to reduce the incidence of water-related disease in the country.

     

     

  • Boko Haram has made 800,000 children refugees, says UNICEF

    Boko Haram has made 800,000 children refugees, says UNICEF

    UNICEF said on Monday that no fewer than 800,000 children have fled their homes in north-eastern Nigeria because of the activities Boko Haram insurgents.

    UNICEF’s regional director for West and Central Africa, Manuel Fontaine, told newsmen in Berlin that the number of child refugees has over doubled in 2014.

    Fontaine said the children fled to Chad, Niger and Cameroon and within Nigeria.

    “Scores of girls and boys have gone missing in Nigeria – abducted, recruited by armed groups, attacked, used as weapons or forced to flee violence,’’  the UN children’s agency said.

    The agency’s report was released a year after the Boko Haram’s kidnapping of 276 girls from their school in the north-eastern city of Chibok, inciting worldwide condemnation.

    According to Fontaine, over 200 of the girls remain missing, adding that the abductions were only one of numerous tragedies being replicated on an epic scale across Nigeria and the region.

    Boko Haram, which seeks to impose the strictest application of Islamist law, has killed about 14,000 people in northern Nigeria since 2009.

    According to UNICEF, the group uses children as fighters, cooks, porters and scouts, rapes girls and women, forces them into marriage and sexually enslaves them.

    “The children fleeing the violence are often traumatised, lose contact with their families and are cut off from education and health care.

    Boko Haram also targets schoolchildren and teachers, damaging or destroying over 300 schools and killing no fewer than 196 teachers and 314 schoolchildren through the end of 2014,’’ UNICEF said.

     

  • Rural dwellers laud UNICEF intervention in Cross River

    Rural dwellers laud UNICEF intervention in Cross River

    Rural dwellers of remote communities in Cross River State have expressed gratitude to the United Nations Children’s Fund for its intervention, especially in providing water and promoting good health among them.

    Some of them who our reporter spoke with in some local government areas visited said the succor and relief brought by the fund through its programmes especially on women and children had impacted their lives tremendously.

    UNICEF has over the years been collaborating with the state government on several programmes, which among others include water, sanitation and maternal newborn and child health week.

    A mother of two from Okpoma community in Yala local government area in the northern axis of the state, Mrs. Augusta Arikwu, who was grateful for the free healthcare she had gotten throughout the period of pregnancy and even after delivery hoped that UNICEF would continue its programmes in their community.

    “I am praying that UNICEF should not withdraw from assisting the country as it is being rumoured. I am a beneficiary of all their programmes. Be it water or the maternal newborn child exercise,” she said.

    Mrs. Arikwu also commended the state government for partnering with the international agency and urged it to continue, as all its programmes are very important to the well being of the women and children.

    “UNICEF water projects are scattered in many communities in Yala today courtesy of the state government collaboration. Before now we usually trek long distances to look for water from the stream for our domestic use,” she said.

    Also in the same community, Mrs. Elizabeth Onah, a mother of four was full of praises to both UNICEF and the state government under the leadership of Governor Liyel Imoke for attracting the kinds of programme they got.

    “We never had it so good before. Today I do not stress myself before getting water to drink or for other domestic purposes. The free medical care to mothers and their newborn babies is a gift from God. I commend the annual maternal newborn and child week which is always observed in all the local government areas of the state. A lot of health related issues were taught to women during the marking of the week. Newborn babies were also immunized during this period,” she said.

    Also, in Akpabuyo local government, the stories were the same as the people expressed gratitude to UNICEF and the state government.

    Madam Affiong Okon from Ikot Nakanda said the entire community where she comes from had been lacking potable drinking water for years until the coming of UNICEF assisted water programme.

    She said: “We were reluctant in accepting the drilling of the borehole because of the stereotype attitude of contractors. They will start a project and halfway, it will be abandoned.

    “Today I can tell you that the UNICEF borehole has being of tremendous assistance to the entire community. The water runs for 24 hours and it has been a blessing to us.”

     

  • Onyeka Onwenu opposes women wing movements

    Onyeka Onwenu opposes women wing movements

    The Director-General of the National Council for Women Development (NCWD) and a veteran musician, Onyeka Onwenu, has opposed women wing movements in politics, saying they should be abolished.

    She said such movements did not give women their dues in politics or help in the fight against gender inequality, because women were only organised to clap and dance.

    Onwenu lamented that the country had not done well for women in terms of elective offices.

    She compared Nigeria to Kenya, which allocated 35 per cent of elective offices to women in its constitution, saying the former had capable women.

    The NCWD DG spoke yesterday in Kaduna at a three-day capacity building programme on “Gender mainstreaming training for the media”, organised by the NCWD with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

  • UNICEF, Commission make case for birth registration

    UNICEF, Commission make case for birth registration

    Moved by the importance of birth registration to the nation’s development the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the National Population Commission (NpopC) are collaborating with the media to improve birth registration in the country. To acquaint the media with issues surrounding birth registration, they held a workshop in Kaduna for journalists from across the country, reports Evelyn Osagie.

    Today’s developmental challenges and security requirements has raised a renewed concern of population experts for having in place a veritable registration system.

    An effective system of vital registration is critical in the life of any nation, experts have said.

    It is this concern that informed the policy decision to ensure 100 per cent registration coverage by 2015, according to the Chairman, National Population Commission (NpopC), Abuja, Mr Eze Duruiheoma (SAN). Describing “Civil Registration” as the continuous, permanent and compulsory recording of the occurrence of vital events, such as births, deaths, morbidity, marriages, divorces, etc, by a registrar on a continuous basis in accordance with the legal requirements of a country, Mr Duruiheoma said, it provides government with needed information that would help in policy interventions to improve the quality and standard of live of the citizenry.

    He decried the low rate of birth and death registration coverage of hard to reach areas, particularly in the Northern. He noted that despite the commission’s efforts and the 36,000 registration centres across the country, the 2013 Demographic Health Survey say 43 out of every 100 child under the age of five go missing at birth.

    To change the trend, the Commission Chairman said the commission is partnering with relevant agencies and bodies. “The commission has embarked on multi-sectoral approach via collaboration with all relevant agencies, such as UNICEF, and institutions to consolidate the gains. UNICEF has been remarkable and outstanding in this effort. The Commission with the support of UNICEF have established excellent working relationship with the health sector.

    “Integrating birth registration services into the national health care delivery is on-going basic service program that avails the Commission the use health centres and personnel to boost the registration. Similar partnership is being worked out with the Education sector, faith-based organisations and some NGOs to improve on the registration outreach and coverage,” Mr Duruiheoma said.

    He made the observations at a three-day workshop for journalists in Kaduna in collaboration with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

    While blaming the low rate on the lack of adequate public awareness on the importance of birth registration and ingrained socio-cultural beliefs that impacts negatively on registering births and deaths, he said: “The commission is partnering with the media  to intensify publicity and public enlightenment of the vital registration exercise, particularly at the grass root level”.

    The key messages developed by the media on birth and death registration along with the commission’s efforts, according to the Hon. Usman Ya’u Jama’a, Federal Commissioner representing Kaduna State, is sure to “greatly ameliorate the daunting challenges of ignorance and inadequate enlightenment that is posing a serious challenge to our efforts at attaining  the 100% registration by 2015”.

    On her part, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Child Protection Specialist, Sharon Oladiji has raised concern over the refusal of the leadership of seven out of the 29 out of the 36 states to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (Mou) with NpopC. She urged other the states, which include Lagos, Ogun, Rivers, Cross Rivers, Sokoto, Zamfara, Niger and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, to draw inspiration from their counterparts.

    Communication Specialist with UNICEF Abuja Office, Mr Geoffrey Njoku, expressed hope that the dreams of attaining 100 per cent birth registration rate in 2015 can be achievable through the help of the media. He called for support from media practitioners and administrators, saying: “Vital Registration is the rights of every child and aids national development.” He said: “UNICEF is collaboration with the Vital Registration Department of NpopC to scale up birth registration rates, especially in the country’s northern parts. We call on the media to be at the vanguard of the campaign.”

    Communication Officer, UNICEF Lagos Office, Blessing Ejiofor, called for the cooperation of every citizen in ensuring that their wards are duly registered, while urging government at all levels to put in place laws that would require parent to compulsorily register their wards.

    At the end of the workshop, participants said, they were ever so determined to lend their voices to the campaign.

  • UNICEF: birth registration is right of every child

    As Nigeria joined the world yesterday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child from which the Child Rights Act 2003 was derived, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has decried the low rate of birth registration, especially in the North.

    The Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF, Abuja office, Sharon Oladiji, said birth registration was important in ensuring the right of the child.

    She attributed the low rate of   birth registration to the ignorance of parents.

    Sharon said: “Birth registration is important in safeguarding the right of every child. Besides being the right of every child, birth registration helps statistics and planning. It gives each child an identity. In Nigeria, according to the 2013 Demographic Health Survey, the birth registration of under-five children is 57 per cent, while the remaining 43 per cent remain unregistered and in legal terms do not exist. This means 43 of 100 children born each day are missing.

    “This also means that their right to life and existence is being infringed on, because in future they will be denied certain privilege they ought to enjoy. For instance, in 10 years, only 57 per cent of the children will be planned for. The problem is compounded by the fact that three in every five births (62 per cent of  births) occur at home and only 35 per cent of births in the country are delivered at health facilities.”

    To increase the rate of birth registration, she told The Nation that UNICEF was supporting the Vital Registration Department of the National Population Commission with capacity building, service delivery and Information Communication Technology (ICT).

    The UNICEF official urged the cooperation of Nigerians and government to ensure that every child was registered.

  • UNICEF decries low birth registration

    UNICEF decries low birth registration

    As Nigeria joins the world Thursday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child from which its Child Rights Act 2003 was derived, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has decried the low rate of birth registration in the country, especially the hard-to-reach areas of the North.

    The Child Protection Specialist, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Abuja Office, Sharon Oladiji, said birth registration is important in ensuring the rights of Nigerian child.

    She linked the disparity in the birth registration to ignorance of mothers and care givers on the importance of registering the births of their new born and obtaining certificates as evidence.

    She said: “Birth registration is important in safeguarding the rights of every child. Besides being the rights of every child, birth registration helps statistics and planning; it gives each child an identity. In Nigeria, according to the 2013 Demographic Health Survey, birth registration of under-5 children is 57 per cent, while the remaining 43 per cent remain unregistered and in legal terms do not exist. This means that 43 out of 100 children born each day are missing.

    “This also means that their rights to life and existence are being infringed on, because in the future they would be denied certain privilege that ought to be enjoyed by them. For instance, in 10 years’ time, only 77 children would be planned for. The problem is compounded by the fact that three in every five births (62 per cent of all births) occur at home and only thirty-five per cent of births in Nigeria are delivered in health facilities,” she said.

    To scale up the rate of birth registrations in the country, Sharon told The Nation that UNICEF is supporting the Vital Registration Department of the National Population Commission with capacity building, service delivery and ICT.

    She called for the cooperation of Nigerians and government to ensure that every child is duly registered, urging religious leaders to organise registration days.

    She also observing that the continued refusal of the leadership of seven, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), out of 36 states of the federation to signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Population Commission, have continue to herald negative effects on the populace, especially the children.