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UNICEF gets $6.5 million from Turner foundation

The foundation announced its first set of grants to UN agencies in New York today.

Six UNICEF proposals were approved for immediate work in Africa, Indonesia and Viet Nam on issues ranging from fighting diseases to demobilizing child soldiers.

The largest grant ($2.8 million) is for a three-year guinea worm eradication project in Africa. The disease, the result of a parasite found in drinking water, causes joint deformities, ulcers, fever and debilitating pain. Its eradication is one of the goals set eight years ago at the World Summit for Children. With its partners, UNICEF will focus on disease control at the village and district level and on improvements in water supply.

A UNICEF project to demobilize child soldiers in Sierra Leone will receive $1.1 million. The emphasis will be on expanding interim care facilities for up to 3,200 child combatants. There will also be stepped-up work in the area of family tracing and reunification.

A grant of $1 million for work in Nigeria has been earmarked for a battle against two child-killers -- measles and vitamin A deficiency -- in Africa's most populous nation. The aim will be to protect nearly five million children over a 12 month period via immunization and the provision of vitamin supplements.

Remaining grants to UNICEF will support work on maternal mortality and vitamin A supplementation in West Timor in Indonesia ($860,000); child malnutrition and food safety in Sierra Leone ($500,000) and to protect children from worms and intestinal parasites in Viet Nam ($200,000).

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