The European Union (EU) said that it has given €6 million, about US $7.1 million, to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to provide more food and accelerate access to water, sanitation and hygiene practices for children and their families in Haiti.
About half the funds will be disbursed over three years by the European Development Fund (FED) for children in the Northwest, Northeast and Artibonite departments, among others. The organization estimates that the program will help:
- 230, 840 infants and children in need of Vitamin A.
- 162, 536 women through counseling on infant and young child feeding and hygiene practices.
- 34, 203 infants and children with micronutrient powders to prevent anemia.
- 11,245 children under five suffering from acute malnutrition.
The organizations did not detail in the press release how the remaining funds would be used.
I appreciate the efforts and financial support but it’s time for us to also look at short to long term sustainability. How can these funds be used to support agriculture allowing families to have access to food consistently. This can also help address vitamin deficiencies, malnutrition and would allow women to feed their babies. Further teaching hygiene is pretty easy, the barrier is access to clean water. Having that access long term would be helpful to preventing many of the communicable diseases prevalent in Haiti.