Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The United Nations Children’s Fund-UNICEF has distributed water, sanitation, and hygiene-WASH supplies to schools and health centres across the country. The programme has been extended to 1,172 government-aided primary schools and 472 health centres ranging from health centre IIIs to regional hospitals. However, several components …
Read More »Ghana becomes first country to receive COVAX vaccine
Ghana receives world’s first doses of free Covax vaccines Accra, Ghana | Xinhua | The government of Ghana Wednesday took the delivery of 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India, becoming the first country to receive the COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX Facility. “We are …
Read More »Major airlines to deliver COVID-19 vaccines through new airfreight initiative
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Fifteen airlines have said an agreement with UNICEF to support its ‘Humanitarian Airfreight Initiative’, to secure transport for COVID-19 vaccines with the the onset of vaccination in different countries across the world. The airlines are backing the landmark initiative to prioritize delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, essential …
Read More »Kakingol health staff share water with wild animals
Moroto, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Shortage of clean water at Kakingol health III in Moroto district has worsened. Currently, health workers are asking patients and expectant mothers to fetch water from the river bed for use at the health center before they are attended to. URN visited Kakingol health center …
Read More »MOH, UNICEF to pilot supply of nutrition commodities directly to public health facilities
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Health and United Nations Children’s Fund – UNICEF have launched the pilot phase of the integration of nutrition commodities in the national supply chain system. It was revealed during the launch on October 16th at the National Medical Stories -NMS warehouse in …
Read More »3 billion people globally lack handwashing facilities at home – UNICEF
United Nations | Xinhua | Although handwashing with soap is vital in the fight against infectious diseases, including COVID-19, billions of people around the world do not have ready access to a place to do it, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday. According to new UNICEF estimates, 40 percent …
Read More »A hundred babies born dead daily in Uganda
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The number of babies being born dead in Uganda is alarmingly on the rise, even as the globally, the percentage of stillbirths is showing some decline. A worrying nine percent increase in stillbirths have been registered over the decade just ended from 2010 to …
Read More »UNICEF urges safe reopening of schools in Africa to avert losses
Nairobi, Kenya | XINHUA | The UN children’s fund UNICEF on Tuesday called on governments across Eastern and Southern Africa to urgently and safely reopen schools, as the costs of continued school closures escalate across the region. According to UNICEF, only 13 out of 21 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa …
Read More »1 in 3 children missed out on remote learning when COVID-19 shuttered schools
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | At least 463 million children, a third of the world’s schoolchildren, are unable to access remote learning after COVID-19 shuttered their schools, according to a new UNICEF report released on Thursday as countries wrestle with their ‘back-to-school’ plans. At the height of nationwide and local lockdowns, nearly 1.5 billion schoolchildren were affected …
Read More »African countries urged to promote a safe return to school
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT School closures implemented to protect students from COVID-19 are hurting them in other ways, while the long-term impact of this disruption to education could create a lost generation in Africa, two UN agencies have said. The World Health Organization (WHO) and (UNICEF) urged governments on the …
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