UNICEF in Bhutan
Challenges and goals
- UNICEF is helping Bhutan promote safe motherhood by improving
health services, training people to attend to deliveries at home, and promoting
family planning.
- With four out of every ten children malnourished or stunted,
Bhutan is countering malnutrition with immunization, oral rehydration therapy
and vitamin A supplementation, and working with the community to encourage
better nutrition. The growth of children will be closely monitored to spot
malnutrition early.
- Six out of ten children in rural Bhutan suffer from
diarrhoea, worms, and skin and eye infections largely due to a lack of safe
drinking water and poor environmental sanitation. The plan is to make improved
drinking water accessible to everyone and to encourage improved environmental
sanitation in all the districts.
- About three out of every 10 children of school-going age do
not have the opportunity to go to school, especially in the remote areas.
- Adult literacy is low. About half the adults in rural areas
-- most of them women -- do not know how to read and write. Programmes have
been introduced to increase adult literacy, especially among rural women,
through non-formal learning. Post-literacy classes have also been introduced to
keep the new skills.
Figures are based on government estimates and surveys and may
vary from United Nations and UNICEF statistics. |