On March 18, remittance formalities between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, UNICEF, and WFP were finalized and the funds have been released to UNICEF and WFP in Zambia for various mitigation activities including floods experienced by Zambia in the 2007/2008 rainy season.
"UNICEF will also be using this extremely generous and appreciated funding from the Government of Japan to support the expansion of Child Friendly Schools, which is a holistic effort for community schools to become centres of care and support for vulnerable children," said UNICEF Zambia Representative Lotta Sylwander. "With more than 1.1 million orphaned and vulnerable children in Zambia, this is an extremely important initiative in protecting every Zambian child's right to an education and to protection."
The method of Participatory Village Development in Isolated Areas (PAVIDIA), which is one of JICA projects, will be introduced to the rural areas to support community capacity building in collaboration with WFP, JICA and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.
"This important contribution comes at a critical time, just as WFP resources are dwindling for flood response. The resources will enable WFP to meet the immediate food needs of 240,000 People for one month under the Flood Response as families struggle with the crop loss," says WFP Zambia Country Director, a.i Purnima Kashyap.
She further went on to say that "The contribution will enable WFP to continue vital assistance to 224,000 beneficiaries including orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) attending community schools and additional support to the most food insecure OVC households for two months."
"We are also excited to be starting a partnership with the PaVIDIA project, which is a MACO project supported through JICA, who provides technical assistance, contributing to sustainable livelihoods by supporting community capacity building and income-generation", she added.
It is hoped that the funds disbursed through UNICEF and WFP will go a long way towards meeting the healthcare, livelihood and food security needs of vulnerable communities in Zambia thereby contributing significantly to the improvement of the quality of life for the citizens.
Source: UNICEF
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