The United Nation International Children Educational Fund (UNICEF), have declared year 2020 as success for being able to end polio cases in Nigeria.
Zakari Adam, cheif of UNICEF, Kaduna Field Office, made this known recently during the 2020 End of Year Review and planning meeting of Kwara State and UNICEF -Kaduna Field office held in Ilorin, the state capital.
Adam said despite the challenges of Covid-19 pandemic faced by UNICEF, there was a massive success in the area of fight against polio, adding that the success achieved was a joint effort through different institutions, commission, planning and partnership with federal and state government.
“Year 2020 was not a waste, despite the lockdown, we recorded success in Nigeria. Nigeria is now declared polio free. We are focusing now on how to achieve better come year 2021,” he said.
The meeting according to him was to review the year 2020 so far and how to plan ahead and achieve a better result towards the year 2021.
“We are not here for a jamboree. We are coming together to review and plan for next action. Children mostly are our target. We can see Kwara is more than ready to benefit more and support UNICEF.
“UNICEF is not discriminating against any State, every state has an equal right to benefit from UNICEF programs. Just get ready and let us save our children and society at large.
“We want to do more for our children in areas of Health, Nutrition, Education and other important aspects that need to be touched. It is everybody’s responsibility to join the train to save children,” said Adam.
The Chief Officer called on pregnant women to visit hospital regularly for ante-natal consultation and stop self-medication.
Florence Oyeyemi, the Kwara State Commissioner for Finance and Planning commended the effort of UNICEF for having the interest of Kwarans at heart and assured continuous cooperation from the state government to partner with UNICEF to save children.
Oyeyemi declared that the era of non-payment of counterpart funds by Kwara is over as Gov.Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is ready to venture with any programs that will benefit the people of Kwara.
“We are delighted to have you around again. You were here in Kwara a few months ago to train some of our officers on Result Based Monitoring and Evaluation (RBM).
“Harmonized Accounting Control Techniques (HACT), Vaccine management training, National Immunization plus Days and Measles Immunization Awareness Activities. We are improving and want more,” she said.
