Salmon support Save the Children's work in Côte d'Ivoire
Mon,8 August 2005
Salmon's donation of £33,809.00 will be used to help mobile health clinics continue to provide vital health services (including curative care and antenatal services) for the most vulnerable children and communities in Côte d'Ivoire. The donation will be used to provide a vital boost to efforts to increase capacity and the rehabilitation of local health facilities.
About the Côte d'Ivoire
Despite the signing of the Linas-Marcoussis Accord in January 2003 and the presence of both French and UN peacekeepers, the violence in Côte d'Ivoire has continued. Government forces have been holding the largely Christian south, and the predominantly Muslim north being held by rebel groups, the Forces Nouvelles. Under the terms of the April 2005 South Africa-brokered deal, a ceasefire has been agreed, a provisional timetable set for disarmament and the pulling back of weaponry from frontline areas. Presidential elections are to take place in October, and a power-sharing government is to be reinstated.
At the height of the conflict in Côte d'Ivoire, more than one million people were displaced from their homes. Half a million people remain displaced, the majority of whom are located in the south of the country, and there are some 74,000 Liberian refugees currently living in the west. Thousands of children have directly suffered the consequences of the conflict, including recruitment into the fighting forces, and millions more being deprived of healthcare and education. Basic services have broken down behind the frontlines and children have been left without protection from extreme human rights abuses.
About Save the Children's work in Côte d'Ivoire
Save the Children UK has worked in Côte d'Ivoire since 1996, initially focusing on: family tracing and reunification for Liberian refugee children in the west of the country; advocating for their release when in conflict with the law, and facilitating their access to UNHCR registration and other basic services. Save the Children have also provided technical support and capacity building to community-based refugee organisations and children's structures in the child protection sector. In 2001, as Liberia's conflict escalated and triggered fresh influxes of Liberian refugees into Côte d'Ivoire, Save the Children UK also broadened its activities to include the development of an emergency protection programme for children involved in major population movements.
Since 2002, Save the Children UK has been responding to the impact of the conflict on the lives of children in Côte d'Ivoire. Save the Children UK works to protect children associated with the fighting forces, and children in refugee camps and surrounding areas, including those who have become separated from their families. Save the Children provide emergency health services and work in collaboration with other members of the Save the Children International Alliance, the International Committee of the Red Cross, UNICEF, local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local communities.
Save the Children UK has an office in the capital, Abidjan, and also in Grabou, Guilglo, Man and Tabou, which are in the Refugee Zone (Zone d'Accueil Refugee) in the west of the country, and it is in this area that all the programme work takes place.
About Save the Children
Save the Children works in the UK and across the world. Emergency relief runs alongside long-term development and prevention work to help children, their families and communities to be self-sufficient. We learn from the reality of children's lives and campaign for solutions to the problems they face. We gain expertise through our projects around the world and use that knowledge to educate and advise others. All our work is underpinned by our commitment to making a reality of the rights of children, first spelled out by our founders and now enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
All children deserve the best start in life - children have the right to live in a world where they have hope and opportunity. Children need special care and assistance, without which they cannot fully develop their potential.
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