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| $4.7m Japanese grant for polio eradication
Raja Zahid Mehmood |
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| ISLAMABAD: Japan will provide $4.7 million to United Nations Children Fund to continue its support to the National Polio Eradication Programme in Pakistan.
Funds provided by Japan would be used to procure 26 million doses of oral polio vaccine during 2009 that constitutes seven percent of the total requirement.
A signing ceremony took place here on Thursday between the Government of Japan and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Chihiro Atsumi, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan and Martin Mogwanja, UNICEF representative in Pakistan signed and exchange the documents.
Tomoharu Otake, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Martin Mogwanja signed the grant agreement for the release of funds. The Federal Minister for Health Ejaz Hussain Jakharani was also present on the occasion.
Earlier, addressing the ceremony, Federal Minister for Health said polio initiative is the top most priority area in the health sector. The government is fully committed to reducing the burden of preventable diseases such as polio, as a means of improving the health and wellbeing of the children, he said.
Jhakrani said the government has adopted a two-pronged approach for eradicating polio i.e. by observing national immunization days while making efforts for universal coverage of routine immunization. He said polio eradication was very close to the heart of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed. It was during her tenure in office as Prime Minister that the polio eradication drive was launched all over the country in the year 1994, he added.
UNICEF Representative Martin Mogwaja in his address said that this new support from the government of Japan will be used to ensure that vaccine supplies are available for 2009 polio campaigns in sufficient quality, particularly for responding to possible outbreak.
He pointed out that in 1994, when UNICEF started activities in Pakistan polio was raging everywhere, as more then 30,000 children ever year paralyzed by polio. In a matter of only one decade, this number was brought down to less than a hundred, he added. He said that in 2008 Pakistan had an unexpected rise in the number of polio cases.
He said that polio can be eradicated from Pakistan if there was commitment at all levels to overcome the remaining operational challenges.
Chihiro Atsumi, Ambassador of Japan, said that Japan was proud to one decade long partnership with UNICEF and Ministry of Health. He hoped that Japanese grant aid would be used effectively to alleviate the suffering of all the children, especially of those children who were in the earthquake affected areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, mountainous regions of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and FATA. |
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