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Malawi

UNICEF Malawi Situation Report 15 - 21 Feb 2003

Core Child Info
65 per cent of population live below poverty line of about US$1 per capita per day

Child malnutrition:

Stunting: moderate: 49 per cent; severe: 25.4 per cent

Underweight: moderate: 25.4 per cent - severe: 5.9 per cent

Wasting: moderate: 5.5 per cent - severe: 1.2 per cent

Infant morality rates: 104 per 1,000 live births

Maternal mortality rates: 1,120 per 100,000 live births

Vaccination coverage: 88.5 per cent

Estimated number of orphans due to AIDS : 500, 000

16.45 per cent of the population affected by HIV/AIDS

Percentage of children of primary school age attending primary school: 78.2 per cent

Percentage of primary school children reaching grade five: 79.4 per cent

Percentage of children of school age currently attending standard one: 42.9 per cent

Education drop-out rates: 12 per cent

27 per cent of children (age 5-14) are either working for non-relatives, or spending four or more hours a day doing households chores.

Health

Availability of Oral Rehydrtation Salts (ORS) and Cholera Epidemic Response Preparedness

An estimated 150 cholera cases have been reported from about 12 cholera-prone districts for the last epidemic week (8-14/02/03). No death was reported.

UNICEF continues to work with NGO Crisis Core Volunteers. The volunteers will participate in community awareness and public health education in their respective districts. They were supported with Information, Education and Commuinication (IEC) materials consisting of videotapes on cholera from the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) and other IEC materials on types of dehydration due to cholera or malnutrition from UNICEF.

Vitamin A Administration: National campaign has been carried out in August 2002. Vitamin A supplementation is ongoing along with therapeutic and supplementary feeding activities.

Water and Sanitation

Rehabilitation/Construction of water points and sanitary latrines:

Four new water points have been constructed and one rehabilitated in Zomba, Lilongwe and Nkhota Khota Districts in collaboration with the Ministry of Water Development, Ministry of Health and Population and Ministry of Gender and Community Services.

Education

Promoting a child friendly and learning conducive environment:

An HIV/AIDS Open Day was organized by youth NGOs in Lilongwe and it attracted about 3,000 young people. HIV prevention messages were disseminated to the youth through drama, songs and poetry.

Training Campaign of School Teachers and PTA Members:

A one-day training on human rights and gender was conducted for 212 teachers and 225 school committee members in Dedza.

De-worming in emergency school-feeding program

De-worming has been conducted in 33 of the 145 schools in the emergency school-feeding program.

Monitoring

400 out-of-school girls enrolled for adolescent girls literacy classes in Lilongwe and Mangochi.

Protection & Collaboration

Supplementary Feeding

An agreement was reached between WFP, UNICEF and Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) on coordination of their therapeutic and supplementary feeding programmes in Malawi. CHAM is responsible for around 30 per cent of the health facilities in Malawi and have an emergency targeted feeding programme.

Funding

A total of $ 1,087,834 was received prior to the launching of the Consolidated inter-agency appeal from: CIDA - Canadian International Deverlopment Agency ($ 331,125); Norway ($ 224,220); German National Committee for UNICEF ($ 87,489); Emergency Program Fund (EPF) ($ 300,000); and ($ 145000) was borrowed from Regular Reserve (RR). In addition, a total US $1, 336,077 was borrowed from CERF for the emergency programme, part of which has now being repaid. The balance remaining is US $348,812.67 (26.1 per cent).

The total cash donation in response to the Inter-agency Consolidated appeal stands at $ 4, 525,733. The breakdown is as follows: CIDA (US $383,074); Denmark (US $105,325); Italy (US $200,000); ECHO (US $915,851); UK Committee (US $330,070); Swiss Committee (US $160, 257); SIDA (US $608,224), OFDA (US $1,320,300), Norway (US $5,999.85) the Netherlands Government (US $390,000), through the Regional Office (US$ 25,000) and the Norwegian Committee (US$ 81,630).

In-kind donation of 5,000 Mt and 950 Mt of Likuni Phala (local name for a fortified supplementary mix of maize) was received from European Union (EU) prior to the appeal, and a total of 36 MT of BP 5 (high-energy biscuits) including storage a