UNICEF Appeals for Funding to Urgently Assist Displaced Children and Women in Northwest...

UNICEF Appeals for Funding to Urgently Assist Displaced Children and Women in
Northwest Pakistan

NEW YORK and ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- UNICEF has
appealed for an additional $41.4 million to provide urgent assistance to
people displaced by fighting in northwest Pakistan. Over half of the displaced
are children. UNICEF Pakistan has now almost exhausted its contingency stocks
of supplies and funding.

Humanitarian efforts have been strained by the very rapid increase in the
number of people fleeing fighting that has taken place in the Malakand
division of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) since early May 2009.

"We expect that the situation for the internally displaced will only get worse
in the coming weeks," said Caryl Stern, President and CEO, U.S. Fund for
UNICEF. "There is an opportunity to prevent the unnecessary suffering and
death of innocent children, if funds are raised. Twenty-five thousand children
under the age of five die every day from preventable causes. As we work to
bring that number to zero, financial support will help us to insure that the
lives of children are no longer placed in jeopardy as a result of adult
missteps and politics."

The massive movement of people has increased to some 2.5 million since early
May 2009. They have poured into camps and host communities, arriving with few
possessions and in urgent need of safe water, clothing, food, shelter, health
care, and protection. These displaced have added to half a million people who
had been previously displaced by conflict in Pakistan's Federally Administered
Tribal Areas (FATA) in the second part of 2008.

More displacement of populations is expected in the days ahead as military
operations expand to new areas.

Difficulties of access combined with shortages of essential humanitarian
supplies and funding are hindering efforts to provide children and women who
are internally displaced with life-saving support.

Many of the newly displaced are not yet receiving assistance, and only around
10 percent are currently in camps serviced by national or international
humanitarian agencies. In the coming months, UNICEF plans to expand its
humanitarian assistance to displaced children and women, both in camps and in
host communities.

At present, UNICEF, with its government, UN, and humanitarian partners, is
providing children and their families with safe water and sanitation,
nutrition, health support, education and child protection wherever possible.

Estimates suggest that tens of thousand of people are trapped in the conflict
areas, where access is severely limited. They are trying to survive with
inadequate supplies of food, water, and emergency medical aid.

UNICEF's request for $41.4 million is part of the inter-agency revised
Pakistan Humanitarian Response Plan (PHRP), which is seeking $543.2 million to
cover the work of major humanitarian actors. The Government of Pakistan has
welcomed the PHRP as complementing its own National Response Plan to this
massive and expanding humanitarian crisis.

About UNICEF:
For more than 60 years, UNICEF has been the world's leading international
children's organization, working in over 150 countries to address the ongoing
problems that contribute to child mortality. UNICEF provides lifesaving
nutrition, clean water, education, protection and emergency response saving
more young lives than any other humanitarian organization in the world. While
millions of children die every year of preventable causes like dehydration,
upper respiratory infections and measles, UNICEF, with the support of
partnering organizations and donors alike, has the global experience,
resources and reach to give children the best hope of survival. For more
information about UNICEF, please visit www.unicefusa.org.

SOURCE U.S. Fund for UNICEF

Richard Alleyne, U.S. Fund for UNICEF, +1-212-880-9177,
ralleyne@unicefusa.org