Syria, UNICEF for Ensuring safe Vaccines to all Children, Schools Restoration

DAMASCUS,(ST)_ Minister of Health, Dr. Saad Naif and Resident Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund “UNICEF” in Damascus, Dr. Youssef Abdul Jalil have discussed ways of activating cooperation between the two sides in providing vaccines for all children in all areas.

The minister stressed that the ministry achieved positive results in recent vaccination campaigns against polio that covered majority of children, in conjunction with the routine immunization program, thanks to the commitment of staff, and cooperation with competent international organizations and NGOs.

The Minister asked for UNICEF help in preserving the vaccines and securing refrigerators run on solar energy and improving communication activities and health education campaigns to publicize the vaccination experience.

For his part, Abdul Jalil, stressed UNICEF’s care to support the health sector in Syria, especially in terms of securing the necessary vaccines and routine vaccinations and assessing the health situation in general, noting that through its cooperation with the Ministry of Health in Syria and the World Health Organization, UNICEF was able to deliver polio vaccine to nearly three million Syrian children.

 Ministry of Education, UNICEF: Restoring damaged schools, printing textbooks for quality education

Meanwhile, Minister of Education Dr Hezwan al-Wezz discussed with UNICEF Resident Representative ways of activating cooperation between the two sides, especially in the areas of rehabilitation of schools to help students return back to these schools and in printing textbooks.

The Minister expressed the ministry’s keenness to continue cooperation with UNICEF to improve the quality of education and to provide certain schools with  prefabricated classrooms the educational process requirements, pointing to the importance of transforming the paper curriculum to interactive electronic ones.

The minister reviewed plans and programs implemented by the Ministry in collaboration with UNICEF and expressed thanks to the representative of UNICEF for his efforts during his work in Syria, wishing continued cooperation with UNICEF through Dr. Augesteno Bganini, its acting representative in Damascus and success in his new position.

Dr. Abdul Jalil stressed that ” plans and programs implemented by UNICEF in collaboration with the ministry are going well,” especially in the field of school clubs, self-learning and printing textbooks and in providing affected schools with prefabricated rooms and in the maintenance of school buildings.

He pointed to the possibility of providing support to the Ministry in rehabilitation of schools with simple and medium damage and the importance of following -up actual evaluation on the ground through the ministry and the organization in order to identify and meet needs, accordingly.

T. Fateh