The Japanese government has provided a $3 million grant to support UNICEF’s ongoing lifesaving work for women and children hit by the devastating drought in Somalia.
UNICEF’s Somalia Representative, Steven Lauwerier in a statement issued in Nairobi, Kenya on Monday said the grant will fund essential health, sanitation and hygiene and nutrition services for some of the worst affected communities in the country.
The funding will benefit 175,000 people over six months in Somalia and will allow UNICEF to sustain and upscale its emergency sanitation and hygiene work in settlements for some of the hundreds of thousands displaced by drought this year and those affected by the outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea.
This will include constructing toilets, distributing emergency hygiene kits including water purification tablets, soap and buckets, chlorinating water being sold privately and repairing water sources.
It is estimated that 232,000 children have or will suffer life threatening severe acute malnutrition over the next year.
“The humanitarian crisis in Somalia is far from over and children remain at serious risk,” said Lauwerier in the statement.
“The generous funding from the Japanese government is crucial to ensuring we can maintain our response to the ongoing drought by saving lives, treating the sick and malnourished and also preventing the spread of disease through providing clean water and sanitation,” he added.
The outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea in Somalia this year affected more than 75,000 people.
Although the number of new cases has been declining rapidly, there are fears of a resurgence during the next rains.
