UNITED NATIONS: Amid the deepening refugee crisis in Bangladesh and its attendant toll on children, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) launched Tuesday an appeal for its emergency response to reach some 720,000 children both in Rohingya refugee and host communities with protection and assistance.
“Desperate, traumatized children and their families are fleeing the violence in Myanmar every day. We are scaling up our response as fast as we can, but the magnitude of need is immense and we must be able to do more to help them,” Anthony Lake, the UNICEF Executive Director, who is visiting southern Bangladesh, said.
“These children are being denied a childhood. They need our help now and they need our help to have a future,” he added.
The UN agency’s $76.1 million appeal primarily focused on preventing outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as diarrhea, covers expansion of safe water and sanitation services, as well as improvements in hygiene systems for Rohingya children, many of whom are living in harsh and unsanitary conditions in makeshift camps and settlements.
It said it will also provide nutritional support to at least 60 per cent of an estimated caseload of 7,500 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition and 70 per cent of children with micronutrient support, including Vitamin A.
Another key part of the response will be providing protection services, including psychosocial and recreational support to up to 180,000 children through structured activities at child friendly spaces and referrals for children who require specialized support. The UN agency will also expand the network of adolescent centres to provide life-skills training, recreational activities, and psychosocial support to an especially vulnerable group.
UNICEF said it will also initiate an oral cholera vaccination campaign, targeting all children over one, and 900,000 doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive in Bangladesh on 7 October, possibly earlier.
In the context of Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), a Level 3 emergency would typically be a sudden onset complex emergency requiring the activation of a UN system-wide response, with agreed mechanisms, tools and procedures.
In related news, the UN refugee agency also issued an supplementary appeal for its emergency response in for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.