UNICEF goodwill ambassador to visit Afghanistan

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Tesuko Kuroyanagi, a household name in Japan and an outspoken advocate for children, will visit Afghanistan this week in an effort to raise the profile of thousands of Afghan women and children in need, a UNICEF official confirmed to IRIN on Monday. “Afghanistan is often forgotten in the world, but also in Japan,” Yasushi Katsuma, the UNICEF monitoring and evaluation officer in the Pakistan capital, Islamabad, said. “This is an opportunity for the Japanese public to see first hand how bad the situation is there, and why more needs to be done,” he added. As part of a six-day mission to the beleaguered country, Kuroyanagi, accompanied by a group of journalists, will on 21 July travel to two areas of Afghanistan where UNICEF has been active. Her schedule in the western city of Herat includes visiting the Maslakh camp for internally displaced persons, while in the opposition stronghold, Faizabad, in the northeast, she will visit health facilities, an orphanage and schools. Following her visit to Afghanistan, she will also visit Afghan refugee camps near Peshawar in western Pakistan. Afghan women and children have been particularly vulnerable to the impact of the prolonged armed conflict and the worst drought in 30 years. Today, the country has the fourth highest under-five mortality rate - 257 per 1,000 live births. The war-torn country is Kuroyanagi’s latest destination for her yearly advocacy and fund-raising missions since her 1984 appointment as Goodwill Ambassador. Her high-profile visits to such places as Rwanda, Iraq, Haiti and Kosovo have raised in excess of US $26 million - more than any other UNICEF celebrity advocate. The Tokyo-born actress and best-selling author is one of 17 celebrity high-profile advocates who help publicise the plight of children worldwide for UNICEF.