NEW YORK/GENEVA, (Sundiata Post) – UNICEF on Tuesday launched an emergency appeal for $3.3 billion under its Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) to tackle malnutrition in 48 million children living through some of the world’s worst conflicts and other humanitarian emergencies.
From Syria to Yemen and Iraq, from South Sudan to Nigeria, children are under direct attack, their homes, schools and communities in ruins, their hopes and futures hanging in the balance. In total, almost one in four of the world’s children lives in a country affected by conflict or disaster.
“In country after country, war, natural disaster and climate change are driving ever more children from their homes, exposing them to violence, disease and exploitation,” said UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes, Manuel Fontaine.
UNICEF’s HAC sets out the agency’s 2017 appeal totaling $3.3 billion, and its goals in providing children with access to safe water, nutrition, education, health and protection in 48 countries across the globe.
An estimated 7.5 million children will face severe acute malnutrition across the majority of appeal countries, including almost half a million each in northeast Nigeria and Yemen.
“Malnutrition is a silent threat to millions of children,” said Fontaine. “The damage it does can be irreversible, robbing children of their mental and physical potential. In its worst form, severe malnutrition can be deadly.”
The largest single component of the appeal is for children and families caught up in the Syria conflict, soon to enter its seventh year. UNICEF is seeking a total of $1.4 billion to support Syrian children inside Syria and those living as refugees in neighbouring countries.
In total, working alongside its partners, UNICEF’s other priorities in 2017 are: Providing over 19 million people with access to safe water; Reaching 9.2 million children with formal or non-formal basic education; Immunizing 8.3 million children against measles; Providing psychosocial support to over two million children; and Treating 3.1 million children with severe acute malnutrition.
Giving a review of last year, UNICEF said that in the first 10 months of 2016, 13.6 million people had access to safe water; 9.4 million children were vaccinated against measles; 6.4 million children accessed some form of education; 2.2 million children were treated for severe acute malnutrition as a result of UNICEF’s support
