UNICEF to close Zambo City field office

ZAMBOANGA CITY – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), after more than two years of humanitarian works focused on internally displaced persons (IDPs), will officially close its field office on Thursday, Nov. 12, in this city.However, the UNICEF said in a statement released through the City Hall information office that its field office will remain open until December 31, 2015.The UNICEF said it will continue to provide technical assistance to the city government towards meeting the needs of children since this city remains an essential core area of UNICEF country programming.Among UNICEF programs in this city that will continue through early part of 2016 are as followsand health (Zuellig Family Foundation's Health Governance and Leadership Program) adolescents (Adolescents Sexual Reproductive Health, Creating Connections and Life Skills) and, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) in Day Care Centers and Schools.UNICEF is among the very first wave of emergency responders in this city delivering life-saving services on Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH), Education, Nutrition and Health, Child Protection, and Adolescents programming, and Health Governance.They have served for more than two years of attending to mainly children, and women’s needs in the context of the emergency and internal displacement as a result of the fateful 21-day September 2013 siege.In the last year, UNICEF’s response has expanded beyond evacuation and transitory sites and aggressively towards IDP-hosting barangays including limited but strategic responses to a couple of island barangays in this city. (PNA)