Unicef on Tuesday said it will not be able to continue providing lifesaving aid and protection to the Rohingya children who have fled horrific violence in Myanmar for refuge in Bangladesh without immediate additional funding. Almost 60 per cent of the 582,000 Rohingyas who have fled Myanmar since August 25 are children – and thousands more are crossing each week.
“The growing needs are far outpacing resources,” Unicef spokesperson Marixie Mercado said at a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
The official said Rohingya children have already endured atrocities and all of them need the lifesaving basics – shelter, food, water, vaccinations, protection – not tomorrow or next week or next month, but right now.
“Unicef is appealing to donors to help fulfil these children’s most fundamental right; to survive,” said the Spokesperson. As of October 17, Unicef has received just 7 per cent of the $76 million required to provide emergency support to children over the next six months. Donors include the Central Emergency Relief Fund managed by OCHA, the Governments of Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; the French, German, Japanese, Malaysian, Swiss, the UK and US national committees for Unicef; as well as the King Abdulla Foundation and Education Cannot Wait. “Without more funding, we’ll have to stop treating and trucking water to over 40,000 people who otherwise would have no access to safe water by the end of November,” the Unicef official was quoted as saying in a statement UNB received on Tuesday.
Unicef said they have built 180 water points, but will not be able to build the additional 1,400 that are required to meet the needs of 350,000 people. “We’ve installed 3,700 toilets, but without more resources, we won’t be able to install another 12,000 needed by 250,000 people,” said Marixie Mercado.
The official said they will not be able to procure supplies of ready-to-use therapeutic food to treat 15000 children suffering from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Some 80,000 children will have no access to basic healthcare, and about 100,000 newly-arrived refugee children will not be immunised against measles, rubella or polio, according to Unicef.
“We won’t be able to adequately respond to a massive outbreak of waterborne diseases because we won’t have the trained staff and supplies,” Marixie Mercado said.
