Dubai telethon raises US $2 million for Iraqi children

A telethon held recently in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) city of Dubai, raised US $2 million for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to help rebuild Iraq's devastated schools and improve the learning environment for Iraqi children. The six-hour television broadcast, held on 3 September, was the first of its kind in the region, and was organised with the participation of several UNICEF goodwill ambassadors, other UN agencies and the UAE Red Crescent Society, among others. "We are delighted with the results of the Dubai telethon," Sara Cameron, UNICEF's communication officer for Iraq, told IRIN from the Jordanian capital, Amman, explaining that the new funds will help to support school rehabilitation works all over the country, including the provision of new furniture. "Previous experience shows that when the learning environment improves so does the enrolment and attendance of children," Cameron said, noting that when water and sanitation facilities in schools were functioning well, participation, especially among girls, increased. At least 25 percent of Iraqi primary school-age children do not go to school and an estimated 60 percent of the population is now illiterate, according to World Bank statistics. After 20 years of isolation, under-funding and conflict, the education infrastructure in Iraq is seriously damaged and completely destroyed in some parts of the country. According to the Ministry of Health (MoH), more than 3,700 primary schools were without a safe water supply, more than 7,000 primary schools without an adequate sewage system and over 4,000 had leaking roofs. UNICEF has already rehabilitated 225 schools, at an average cost of $50,000 each, and has plans and funds for the rehabilitation of 400 more, according to Cameron. "We are also helping to repair water and sanitation facilities in more than 1,000 schools," she added, maintaining they were expecting to see an improvement in enrolment and attendance at rehabilitated schools. However, the lack of security that Iraqi children are facing on a daily basis is affecting attendance, mostly among girls. "Like most of my friends I am always escorted to school because of the dangers from bombs and the risk of kidnapping," a 16 year-old Iraqi girl said during the telethon. "The lower [enrolment] figure for girls [1.9 million of 4.3 million pupils in primary schools] is no doubt a reflection of ongoing insecurity, inadequate access to schools, overcrowding, poor water supply and sanitation facilities," Roger Wright, UNICEF' s representative for Iraq, said in a statement. In addition, funds contributed to the telethon will help to provide basic education kits for up to 400,000 Iraqi students in primary and intermediate grades, according to the UN agency. The kits, jointly developed by UNICEF and MoH, cost about $5 per child and include a backpack, notebooks, pencils, sharpeners, erasers and a drawing book. Students in grades 1-4 also receive crayons, while students in grades 5-9 are given drawing instruments. "It could also help support teacher training, which needs to be revitalised," Cameron maintained, noting that Iraq' s education system, considered one of the finest in the region in the 1980s, dramatically declined after so many years of isolation. She remarked that the telethon also contributed to expanding UNICEF's partnerships in the Gulf states, explaining that the UN agency had already established a new emergency supply hub in Dubai.