UNICEF, UK gov't, BARMM together vs. pandemic
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 06:00 AM Sat Oct 17, 2020
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By:
John M. Unson
The Bangsamoro government received this week the lifesaving supplies. (Contributed by BARMM-READI)
COTABATO CITY— The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund has provided the Bangsamoro government with more lifesaving supplies in support of its war on COVID-19 in five southern provinces.
The initiative of UNICEF, which has humanitarian projects in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao covering the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, is supported by the British government.
“The BARMM is thankful to UNICEF and the UK government for this assistance,” lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, who is BARMM’s local government minister and regional spokesperson, said Thursday.
The lifesaving health and nutrition packages and communication supplies for frontline agencies of the regional government were turned over by UNICEF’s most senior official in Mindanao, Andrew Morris, to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao during a symbolic rite at the BARMM capitol in Cotabato City on Monday.
The Bangsamoro health, social services and local government ministries and BARMM's Bureau of Public Information under Andrew Alonto are in the forefront of the regional government’s coronavirus containment campaign.
Sinarimbo, who is overseeing BARMM’s quick response Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence, or READI contingent, whose personnel are also involved in the regional government’s war on COVID-19, said the support from UNICEF and the British government will boost efforts of protecting Bangsamoro residents from the pandemic.
The UNICEF had earlier provided the BARMM government with anti-COVID-19 hand washing facilities for public use.
During an online conference with key regional officials Wednesday, Alastair Totty, deputy head of mission to the Philippines of the British government, said the first aim of their partnership with BARMM is to disseminate vital “COVID-19 messages” to at least three million residents in the region,
Launched online Wednesday, the UNICEF-BARMM tie-up that the British government supports, is also focused on providing 130,000 malnourished preschool children in the Bangsamoro region with nutrition interventions.
The multilateral health thrust shall also facilitate the vaccination of 25,000 infants to protect them from tropical diseases preventable by vaccines.
“Bangsamoro Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim is so thankful to UNICEF and the British government for reaching out to the most vulnerable sectors in BARMM,” Sinarimbo said.