Press Release

Press Release

Contact information for journalists

Contact information for journalists

 

Japan provides US$ 2.65 million to protect Myanmar children's health

Funds pledged to UNICEF for HIV/AIDS and malaria prevention, child vaccination

YANGON, 22 November, 2006 – The Government of Japan has pledged US$ 2.65 million to UNICEF in Myanmar to support immunization, malaria prevention and HIV/AIDS prevention efforts for children in 2007.

Today, His Excellency Mr Nobutake Odano, Ambassador of Japan, and the UNICEF Representative in Myanmar, Mr Ramesh Shrestha, signed an Agreement to Improve Maternal and Child Health Care Services, in the presence of Ministry of Health officials.

“Many of the diseases which kill children are preventable and treatable,” Mr Shrestha said. “Funds from the Japanese Government will help protect Myanmar’s children from HIV/AIDS, malaria, diarrhoea and other life-threatening diseases.”

“Japan has been a key supporter of Myanmar’s children for many years now,” he said.  “Today’s grant brings the total amount provided by the Japanese Government to UNICEF’s health program in Myanmar to more than $US29 million since 1999. This is a major investment indeed in the health of Myanmar’s children and their mothers.”

Japan’s latest pledge will allow UNICEF and its health partners in Myanmar to:
• Immunize all under-one children in Myanmar against measles with safe injection devices;
• Give a diagnostic test for malaria to 200,000 people and provide effective treatment for 100,000 people infected with malaria;
• Provide protection against some of the leading killers of infants and children in Myanmar, such as diarrhoea and respiratory infections, through the provision of well-designed essential drug kits for frontline health facilities;
• Provide basic equipment and medicine to peripheral health facilities to ensure improved and safe care of pregnant women throughout pregnancy, during and after delivery;
• Prevent the mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS through the provision of anti-retro viral treatment and other drugs for mothers and newborns; and
• Provide HIV test kits for quality Voluntary Confidential Counselling and Testing for pregnant women and youth.

Assistance will also be used to monitor the implementation of these child and maternal health programs, to help ensure those most in need are reached.

“UNICEF thanks Japan for its strong leadership, commitment and financial support in the collective work to save children’s lives in Myanmar,” Mr Shrestha said.

For further information contact:

Susan Aitkin, Communication Officer, UNICEF Myanmar.
Phone:  (95 1) 212 086, Fax:  (95 1) 212 063, Email: saitkin@unicef.org
 

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The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) establishes that children have the right to life, health treatment and maximum survival.  Myanmar ratified the CRC in 1991.