UNICEF distributes materials to Liberian schools affected by Ebola-related closure

The United Nations Children' s Fund (UNICEF) has started distributing the first batches of teaching and learning kits to thousands of schools across Liberia which had been forced to close due to the Ebola outbreak, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here Friday.

Some 700,000 kits would be distributed to nearly 4,500 schools to help ensure the continuity of education and learning for students in the country, Dujarric said at a daily news briefing.

More than one million children have been affected by the closure of schools during the peak of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, which, together with Sierra Leone and Guinea, were three West African countries most affected by the outbreak of Ebola early last year.

"Schools reopened in Liberia in mid-February, after a six-month closure, and more than 800,000 children have since returned to schools," he said, adding that UNICEF has also provided infection prevention and control kits to help schools reopen.

Due to the Ebola outbreak, schools in the three most affected countries did not reopen after the end of the July-August holidays, depriving five million children of months of education. Guinea reopened its schools on Jan. 19, and Sierra Leone plans to do so at the end of March. Endite