UNICEF's executive director said yesterday that, while economic
growth has helped China solve issues that still threaten children
in other developing nations, it still faces many problems, such as
childhood injuries and HIV/AIDS.
Carol Bellamy was speaking at a forum in Beijing dedicated to "A
Decade of Achievement for Children," and said that vast numbers of
children are now out of peril because of successful initiatives
against polio and hepatitis B.
She added that there has been an increase in childhood injuries,
which UNICEF will seek to help tackle over the next five years, and
that there is now "clear recognition on the part of the government
that HIV/AIDS is a real problem in China."
Bellamy said greater efforts are needed to ensure an uninfected
blood supply and to prevent cross-border transmission of HIV and
other infections.
Zhang Liming, deputy director of the Office of the National
Working Committee for Children and Women, said that HIV/AIDS is on
the increase in China. "With the growing number of women affected
by it, more children will become AIDS-related orphans," she
warned.
With a population of 367 million under 18 years of age, China
still faces huge problems of malnutrition and poor education,
increasing disabilities amongst newborns, high gender-ratio
inequities, discrimination towards girls and violence towards
children.
UNICEF plans to spend US$100 million in China between 2006 and
2010, said Christian Voumard, representative of the agency's local
office.
Speaking highly of Bellamy, Fu Ziying, assistant minister from
the Ministry of Commerce, said there has been cooperation between
China and UNICEF on girls' education, as well as in combating the
trafficking of women and children, "on which Bellamy had paid
special concern."
Fu also presented her with a US$6.5 million check representing
the donation from the government for children in Indian Ocean
countries affected by December's earthquake-triggered tsunami.
Bellamy, on her eighth and last trip to China as head of UNICEF,
used the occasion to reflect on changes she has witnessed over the
last decade. She will step down on April 30 after ten years in
post.
During that time, Bellamy has focused UNICEF on five major
priorities: immunization, girls' education, protection from
exploitation, abuse and violence, HIV/AIDS and welfare in early
childhood.
(China Daily February 25, 2005)