THE United International Children’s Fund( UNICEF) has been commended by Zimbabwe’s government for the unconditional support it continues to render to the country’s health and education sectors.
By Patricia Mashiri
Constantino Chiwenga, the Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care said UNICEF has been playing a crucial role and showing steadfast love towards the nation’s health and education sectors since Independence.
UNICEF has been with us since our Independence assisting us in the area of the children primarily funding is and assisting us in establishing our village health workers which is key to good health delivery.
“They are also into areas of education and you are aware that we are in the process of bringing the mortality rate of children to less than 12 per 1000 born by 2030, that is the ambition we would want to achieve it,” Chiwenga said.
The Vice President added that the government was working very hard to reduce children mortality rate in the country.
Ambassador Laylee Moshiri, outgoing UNICEF representative to Zimbabwe who had paid a courtesy call to Vice President Chiwenga yesterday said UNICEF’s mandate was to ensure that children access good health and education for them to prosper and grow well.
She praised the government for showing dedication in trying to curb the spread of the deadly Pandemic of Covid – 19. Moshiri highlighted that UNICEF’s role is to support and strengthen systems to become resilient.
“UNICEF is here to support government and the Ministry of Health and Child Care in efforts to ensure that all children grow to be healthy. They can thrive and develop. We see that the pandemic was quite a challenge across the world but the system was able to continue and challenge the pandemic,” Moshiri said.
UNICEF has been in the fore front in Zimbabwe since 1982 protecting the rights of children as well as their welfare.
