UNICEF establishes life-saving intervention in North East Nigeria

UNICEF said it sent more than 1,000 basic health care kits to Borno and Yobe States to improve health, nutrition, water and sanitation services.
This was contained in a statement signed by Geoffrey Njoku, UNICEF Head of Media and External Relations, in Abuja on Thursday.
The statement said: “UNICEF is scaling up its support to conflict-affected communities in north-eastern Nigeria to improve health, nutrition, water and sanitation services.
“UNICEF has sent more than 1,000 basic health care kits to Borno and Yobe, enough to treat more than 400,000 people during a campaign this month.
“The kits were funded by the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation.”
According to the statement, UNICEF is working to increase the number of primary health care centres from 43 to 65 in the two states.
It stated that UNICEF said attacks on health facilities, water points and farms had affected local communities, particularly children in the states.
It stated: “UNICEF will procure essential medicines, medical supplies and equipment for the health centres, and help ensure the facilities operate six days a week to provide routine immunisation, maternal health services and outpatient curative services.
“The project aims to treat 11,300 severely malnourished children in the two states, in addition to existing efforts to treat 200,000 children in a wider area of northern Nigeria this year.”
The statement stated that the organisation would facilitate procurement for the construction of water and sanitation facilities around health care centres and in the communities.
It quoted Jean Gough, the Head of UNICEF Nigeria office, as saying: “The humanitarian needs are huge and there are only few humanitarian actors on the ground.
“Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the violence, often after losing their homes and their livelihoods. Access to food, health services and water is a major issue.”
It stated that the assistance was made possible with funding from the government of Japan, the EU and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.