UNICEF: Executive Board in Tajikistan

http://www.unicef.org/about/execboard/index_53842.html

NEW YORK, USA, 7 June 2010 -- In order to gain a better understanding of UNICEF's work in the field, and its progress on the MDGs, Executive Board members visit selected programme countries each year. The final day of the UNICEF Executive Board's 2010 Annual Session included highlights of the board's field visits to Rwanda and Tajikistan earlier this year.

His Excellency Andrei Dapkiunas, Permanent Representative to the UN of Belarus, led the delegation to Tajikistan. During their week-long trip to Rasht and Khuroson districts, Mr. Dapkiunas reported, Executive Board members visited hospitals, clinics, rural health centres and local schools. They also observed water-and-sanitation interventions -- including a new water-supply system -- that are helping Tajik families who were displaced as a result of severe flooding in 2009.

UNICEF and its partners, Mr. Dapkiunas said, continue to provide essential equipment, micronutrient supplements and life-saving vaccines for women and children in Tajikistan, where the economic downturn and a recent polio outbreak have exacerbated already difficult conditions.

Mr. Dapkiunas noted, however, that it appears that "Tajikistan is forgotten by donors." The dire nature of humanitarian challenges faced by the country, he said, had serious implications "not just for the well-being of children of Tajikistan but also for the development and humanitarian security of this entire region."

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