Currently, about 3.4 million children in Ukraine have limited access to water and sanitation, said Munir Mammadzadeh, UNICEF Representative in Ukraine.
“We know that about 3.4 million children have problems with access to water and sanitation, and the problem is especially acute in the frontline regions,” he said in an interview withInterfax-Ukraine.
That is why the supply of drinking water and hygiene kits is one of the key tasks for UNICEF. In addition, the UN Children’s Fund is working with water utilities on large-scale projects to restore infrastructure to make drinking water available. According to Mammadzadeh, even if children are not directly exposed to the risk of hostilities or attacks, the lack of normal life and anxiety also significantly affects their mental health.
UNICEF pays a lot of attention to the psychological problems of children and adolescents in the context of war.
“This is one of the areas where a lot of work is being done, as 1.5 million children in Ukraine today face problems such as depression, insomnia, and anxiety. We also know that during this thousand days, children have spent 2,800 to 4,800 hours in shelters while regular alarms sound – these estimates show the scale of the war’s impact on children: since the beginning of the war, they have spent an average of 4 to 6.5 months in shelters,” Mammadzadeh said.
He noted that a number of programs are already being organized to provide psychological assistance to children in Ukraine. For example, resilience centers in local communities already include mental health components as basic services. UNICEF also cooperates with Ukrainian universities to train good mental health professionals and works with school teachers and psychologists to help them recognize the elements of anxiety in children and provide basic assistance.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, UNICEF has managed to mobilize more than $1 billion to help young Ukrainians, said Munir Mammadzadeh, head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine.
“We were in the country before the war, our mandate covered development and humanitarian issues. That is, we were already working and had a presence in the regions, which helped us to launch a full-fledged response to the full-scale war and attract additional resources to help children as much as possible. During this time, we have managed to mobilize more than $1 billion for Ukraine and neighboring countries where Ukrainians have started to move because of the war,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Mammadzadeh, UNICEF’s request for humanitarian aid for Ukraine for this year is $496 million, and 70% of this amount has been funded, which shows the interest of donor countries in supporting Ukraine. He noted that it is often impossible to attract more than 50%.
In addition, in addition to humanitarian aid to the needy, UNICEF also has programmatic activities related to development, recovery and other areas. “We are now clearly distinguishing between what is humanitarian activity – saving lives – and what is part of our development work,” said Mammadzade.
According to him, next year UNICEF plans to reduce the humanitarian request by 20% compared to this year and increase plans and requests for systemic work, i.e. the development component of the mandate, which includes social protection issues.
JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” (UZ) together with UNICEF plans to implement the project of “family cars” on domestic passenger transportation, said the pre-management of UZ Yevhen Lyashchenko at a briefing.
“Family cars” will be at least on three domestic routes, it is six cars. Perhaps, there will be more such cars,” Lyashchenko said.
According to him, the project will be implemented by the end of the year.
The head of UZ also specified that the concept of the project was developed by UNICEF, which will finance the re-equipment of cars.
UNICEF has provided Ukraine with 100,000 doses of Covid-19 Vaccine Janssen (Jcovden) within the framework of the COVAX international initiative.
According to a press release issued by the Health Ministry of Ukraine, the vaccine was distributed and delivered to 21 regions of Ukraine and Kyiv City.
In particular, Dnipropetrovsk region received 10,000 doses, Kharkiv region – 6,000, Chernivtsi region – 5,000, Kyiv and Lviv regions – 4,000 each.
The delivery of the Janssen (Jcovden) vaccine was organized with the financial assistance of the UK.
The ministry recalled that since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion Ukraine has been receiving Covid-19 vaccines only for free under the COVAX initiative, which is being coordinated by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the World Health Organization, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), while UNICEF cooperates with the manufacturers and partners for procurement and delivery of Covid-19 vaccines.
Supplies under the COVAX initiative continue, the ministry said.
EXANTE, an international broker licensed in Cyprus and active in the Ukrainian markets, announced a $1 million donation to UNICEF to help children and families affected by the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“Our company was founded on the belief that freedom is an inherent human right, and at times like these it’s more important than ever. As a result, our shareholders feel compelled to take action – after all, actions speak louder than words. Whilst we cannot change what’s happening, together with our colleagues and clients we hope that the money donated will truly make a difference and help the thousands of children and families affected,” Alexey Kirienko, the CEO of EXANTE, said.
“UNICEF is rapidly scaling up its humanitarian response in Ukraine and in neighboring countries. To date, UNICEF has delivered 858 tonnes of emergency supplies, including health supplies, hygiene kits, education and recreation supplies for children and adolescents, in addition to winter clothing,” the report says.
“UNICEF is appealing for $349 million to provide critical life-saving support for children and their families. This includes $ 276 million to respond to immediate needs within Ukraine and $ 73 million for humanitarian needs in neighboring countries. This funding will help to support over 3.5 million people, including 2.2 million children,” it states.
Founded in 2011, EXANTE describes itself as a wealth-tech company providing centralized investment solutions and infrastructure for financial institutions. The company employs over 500 people and manages $1.6 billion.
UNICEF will deliver 473,850 doses of Pfizer BioNTech vaccine to Ukraine by the end of next week as part of the COVAX initiative.
According to a UNICEF press release, the first 117,000 doses of this shipment arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday.
Earlier, within the framework of COVAX, 590,850 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 1.0728 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine were delivered to Ukraine.
The COVAX Initiative aims to ensure fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for every country in the world. Ukraine receives all vaccines within the framework of COVAX free of charge.
On behalf of COVAX, UNICEF purchases and supplies only those COVID-19 vaccines that meet WHO’s safety and efficacy criteria.
COVAX is coordinated by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI). UNICEF works with manufacturers and procurement and logistics partners for COVID-19 vaccines.
Within the framework of COVAX, by the end of 2021, Ukraine should receive enough vaccines from various manufacturers to protect up to 20% of the population from COVID.
