By Staff Reporter
THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has appealed to the donor community for USD 84.9 million aimed at assisting women and children affected by the ongoing El Nino drought in Zimbabwe.
The El Nino drought was recently declared a national state of emergency and 2.4 million Zimbabweans are food insecure.
UNICEF’s appeal aims to provide emergency support to 1.34 million people including 866,000 children.
UNICEF representative in Zimbabwe Dr Nicholas Alipui Monday said
“We are particularly concerned about the vulnerability of children in this current emergency. Decreased access to clean water and a poor diet heightens the risk of malnutrition and diarrheal diseases among children and impacts on their rights to education and protection with the full impact of these intersecting factors expected to manifest only later.
“Hence the need for a front-facing preventive strategy to avert excess deaths in the months to come,” he said.
Alipui also urged the donor community to generously support UNICEF’s appeal, emphasizing the critical need to secure children’s rights to health, education, and protection during this crisis.
“The funding will help mitigate child morbidity and mortality, prevent malnutrition and provide treatment, enhance water access, ensure continuous learning for children, and protect children against abuse and exploitation.
“It will also help strengthen the resilience of households to deal with the crisis,” added Alipui.
According to UNICEF, the effects of the current drought will continue to impact child nutrition into next year as household level food production and stocks will be severely depleted and continued support will be crucial in the coming months.
