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Health of quake-affected 1.7 mln children top priority for UNICEF

Xinhua, May 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

UNICEF has prioritized shelter, water and sanitation and health while reaching to the 1.7 million children out of overall 4.2 million people who have been directly affected by earthquake in Nepal.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua here on Wednesday, UNICEF Nepal representative Tommo Hozumi said they are working round the clock to provide life-saving assistance to the children of hardest hit areas of 12 highly-affected districts "keeping their health in the priority list."

UNICEF has been working on access to safe drinking water, distributing hygiene kits, setting up medical tents and supplying essential medicines and vaccines. "To prevent the growing risk of outbreak of different diseases like diarrhea, UNICEF has been delivering water, sanitation, hygiene supplies as well as diarrhea and cholera kits. These supplies will support the health centers and hospitals, which are running out of beds, to address the most vulnerable children who are in need of urgent medical help," Hozumi said.

In the first wave of emergency response, UNICEF in partnership with Nepalese Ministry of Health and Population has already decided to initiate emergency immunization campaign for children- at-risk in Kathmandu valley first, followed by other 12 worst-hit districts.

To deal with the possible psychological traumas among children, UNICEF found the resumption of educational institutions the best option as schools can provide psycho-social support to the children. The government has decided to close all educational institutions till mid-May. Though the UNICEF has been trying to reach out the children of most vulnerable communities, geographical remoteness and additional disasters like landslide have been the major challenges for now. "The worst-hit districts are quiet remote among which a few villages even have no access to road transportation that has been a major obstacle for providing immediate humanitarian assistance," Hozumi said.

UNICEF is of view that the road to full recovery of quake-hit Himalayan nation will be long and challenging.

More than 250 people under UNICEF will be working in quake-hit Nepal for the next three months. Endi