The Japanese Government has granted U.S. $4.5 million (about N1.4 billion) to UNICEF Nigeria to facilitate the fund’s integrated life saving emergency interventions to people displaced by conflicts in the North East, a statement issued on Thursday by the Chief of Communication of the fund, Ms Doune Porter, has said
According to Ms Jean Gough, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria in the statement, the grant will facilitate the interventions on amenities needed by the displaced people and especially focus on children.
“The government of Japan has extended a grant of U.S. $4.5 million or N1.4 billion to UNICEF for the provision of life saving emergency work, to assist people affected and displaced by conflict in the Northeast Nigeria.
“The grant will cover assistance in the provision of water, sanitation, hygiene facilities, health, nutrition and child protection services and education.
“It will focus primarily on assistance for children, with special attention given to populations trying to return to where they lived before they were forced to flee violence.
“This generous grant will help make a tangible difference in the lives of children, who have suffered so much; it will help them recover physically, psychologically so to have a brighter future,’’ it said.
It added that women and children had borne the impact of conflict in the North East over the past seven years especially in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
It said “the conflict has triggered major population movements, with most recent estimates of people displaced in the four most severely affected at over 1.7 million which more than half are children’’.
The statement also recalled a similar grant given by the Japanese government in 2015.
It said the previous grant enabled the fund and major stakeholders to boost over 100 primary health care services in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
It also said that more than 90,000 people had access to clean water and safe sanitation, as well as improved education, nutrition and providing psychosocial support for displaced children.
In the statement, Mr Sadanobu Kusaoke, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Nigeria, said Japanese government believed that primary education, health and nutrition were the basic rights of children globally.
Kusaoke said: “Japan has and will continue to make efforts to ensure that no child is denied their basic rights, no matter the situation.’’
According to the statement, Japanese government had been a major donor supporting child survival activities, prevention of infectious disease and emergency interventions in Nigeria.
