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Press Release

UNICEF accelerates efforts to address the needs of vulnerable internally displaced children and women in Afghanistan

Read 1 February Press Release and the 10 February Emergency update.

16 February 2001 - UNICEF decided to release $US 650,000 immediately to cover needs of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Mazar and Herat (Afghanistan). This fund will be replenished with donor contributions. Commitments have already been received from the Norwegian Government, the US government and the German National Committee for UNICEF. It is hoped that more donor contributions will be committed soon, which will be used to replenish this fund and to cover additional needs of IDPs in various regions.

This fund will be used for 60,000 IDP children and women in Herat, and for 23,500 IDP children and women in Mazar. Supplies are already ordered and include winter clothes, shoes, cooking sets, blankets, essential drugs, and vaccines. The support will also be used for hygiene education, therapeutic feeding and water and sanitation.

NGO partners (which include among others MSF, Focus, SCA, DAC, IRC, DACAAR) play a key role in the implementation of these activities. UNICEF co operates closely with the other UN agencies, and with WFP in particular on supplementary and therapeutic feeding.

UNICEF is also accelerating its support for nutritional surveillance.

UNICEF Afghanistan is very pleased with the positive response by donors so far, and with UNICEF's decision taken by HQ, which enables the implementation of the emergency plans to address the most immediate needs of IDP children and women, who are facing a very grim situation.

UNICEF already spent $US 500,000 on emergency support for the IDPs in Herat, and $US 800,000 in other regions in the period June 2000-January 2001. In addition UNICEF has been supporting vaccination campaigns for IDPs since mid June 2000.

It is hoped that more donor contributions will be forth coming very soon, to replenish the new fund of $US 650,000, and to address additional needs of IDP children and women in various regions. Emergency plans for the other regions have also been prepared by UNICEF.

The UNICEF Child Protection Officer, Mrs Niloufar Pourzand, supported the work of the UNICEF office in Herat last week, and she said; "What I will never forget: The young girl of about 9 or 10 who had lost her mother a few months ago and was now taking care of her devastated father and siblings in a crowded tent surrounded with so many strangers, and could still find the spirit to smile when she was talking, and the face of the young woman of about 13 or 14 who had just lost her new born baby during the nights when the temperature fell to below -25 degrees and she was unable to protect him from the cold. We all need to devote special attention to the needs of children and women who are more vulnerable in the current situation."

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For further information, please contact:

Jehane Sedky-Lavandero, UNICEF Media, New York
(212) 326-7269
jsedky@unicef.org