UNICEF appeal for children in crisis

UNICEF has issued an appeal for US $207 million to protect children at risk worldwide during the coming year, according to a UNICEF press release released on 4 December. “We are making this appeal on behalf of children caught in the very worst of conditions. Children trying to survive brutal conflict and inhuman poverty. Children who have been pushed to the very bottom rung of existence,” UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said in the statement released in Geneva. The funds would cover projects for children in 20 humanitarian crisis zones, including Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia. Other countries covered are Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda Burundi, the DRC, the Republic of Congo, and the Great Lakes region of Africa in general. UNICEF was seeking to provide children in the targeted areas with “immunisation against disease, basic schooling, clean water and decent sanitation, AIDS education, mine awareness, and protection from abuse and exploitation, including the recruitment of children as combatants”. [For full report see: http://www.unicef.org/newsline/index.html]