Children hardest hit by crises - UNICEF

The rising the number of street children in Zimbabwe was an indication that the ongoing humanitarian crisis, coupled with the current economic decline, has had an extremely negative effect on the country's children. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Country Representative, Dr Festo Kavishe, told IRIN on Tuesday that there had been "a very visible increase in street kids" over the past year and a half. "I have some contacts with the Anglican Church - they provide soup kitchens for the street children - and they have also confirmed to me that the number has greatly increased," Kavishe said. "The number [of street children] in our database is 12,000, but right now I am sure there's more than 12,000 [nationally]." Kavishe said there were "quite a large number of factors" responsible for this. "Right now the major issue is the severe economic decline, which really means increasing poverty," he noted. Analysts have forecast the Zimbabwe's inflation rate could top 600 percent this year as the economy continues to contract. "Also, the humanitarian crisis is contributing to [the increase in street children] and also the problem of HIV/AIDS - that is really a very important factor. It all relates to [the] weakening of coping mechanisms for families. So, some children are on the street not only to look for food, but they are also sent there for transactional purposes, for prostitution," Kavishe explained. Children forced into transactional sex were even more vulnerable, due to the risk of sexually transmitted infections. "But, of course, all these crises have impacted negatively on the nutritional status of children - malnutrition has increased. We conducted a national survey in February and the results indicated an increase in malnutrition prevalence from 14 percent to 17 percent," Kavishe noted. "And then also in terms of services, whether you are talking health or education, they (children) are now less able to access these services, and quite a number of children are now dropping out of school. Quite a large number are on the streets or involved in prostitution," he warned. WORKING ON SUSTAINABLE INTERVENTIONS "We are trying to not only look into the extent of the [street children] problem but also the causes, and to figure out strategies of how to respond in the most sustainable way. We cannot just provide food and some of these health services without looking at the longer-term sustainability. We are working with our stakeholders, including government and NGOs, to work out a plan of action, and it has to be done very soon," Kavishe stressed. In terms of addressing the nutritional status of children, the organisation was providing therapeutic feeding for the severely malnourished, and supplementary feeding for mildly malnourished children under five. A particular focus of UNICEF's work has been "building up capacity of response structures at community, district and national level - where capacity to respond has been severely eroded". With regard to addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis, the organisation has been "providing quite a lot of support in terms of voluntary counselling and testing". "We trained 20,000 volunteers at community level. We are also training counsellors at institutions of learning - primary and tertiary institutions - and we included also the teaching of life skills in the curricula of schools, and have been providing assistance in terms of the prevention of mother-to-child-transmission. And, of course, [our involvement in] the whole issue of policy dialogue and strategy development," Kavishe noted. STATUS OF CHILDREN AN EMERGENCY He pointed out that "for the whole of this year and half of next year, UNICEF will be providing all the vaccines for immunisation [for preventable diseases]". "Although the country was independent in terms of provision of their own vaccines, the situation has deteriorated to the extent where they do not have the foreign currency to procure vaccines. There are areas prone to malaria transmission and we are providing social mobilisation materials for prevention, and insecticide-treated mosquito nets," Kavishe explained. The status of children in Zimbabwe was "an emergency - in terms of the need for immunisation, we really need to get funding, otherwise the deterioration of the situation could see their immunity come down and there may well be outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases," Kavishe said. He added that "it is also an emergency in terms of the deterioration of the nutrition situation. In the [current] humanitarian crisis and the declining economy, the people most affected are children. The economic decline is a crisis in itself". He noted that UNICEF was in need of donor support so that it could adequately respond to the various crises impacting on children. "[Given] that children are the ones most affected by this situation, we value very much the support donors have given us and we would appreciate it if they continue with that kind of assistance," Kavishe said.