UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND

Media Release

Morgan pitches in dollar for dollar

(August 30 2010): Investor and economist Gareth Morgan said he would match all donations to UNICEF’s Pakistan Flood Children’s Appeal from today.

Mr Morgan is one of UNICEF NEW Zealand’s ambassadors.

Dennis McKinlay, executive director for UNICEF New Zealand expressed gratitude for Mr Morgan’s generosity.

“We’re very grateful to Mr Morgan for matching what people give from today. He is incredibly generous,” he said.

Meanwhile, donations to UNICEF’s Pakistan Flood Children’s Appeal have shown a substantial increase.

New Zealand UNICEF has so raised $234,000, towards a goal of $300,000.

“The response from Kiwis has been amazing – but we’re still short of the mark,” Mr. McKinlay said.

Meanwhile UNICEF worldwide has trebled its appeal for funds to help women and children affected by the floods in Pakistan over the first three months of the crisis.

Worldwide UNICEF is now looking for $NZ195.6 m - highlighting the fact that the scale of the disaster is placing unprecedented strain on supplies and the need remains vast.

“This emergency has been made a global priority for UNICEF and the increase in our funding needs reflects this,” Mr McKinlay said.

“This is a children’s emergency. Nearly 8.6 million children (roughly 50 per cent of the total affected population) have been hit by the flooding.”

“We’ve been warning about the risks to people’s health in Pakistan and now we can confirm 315,000 cases of acute diarrhoea, 422,000 cases of skin diseases and 800,000 cases of undiagnosed fever.”

As some people return home, they are in danger of being infected from water polluted by the floods.

“We cannot allow children who have survived the floods to die from preventable waterborne diseases, but without money to buy the supplies we need this could become a reality.”

One month out from the beginning of the emergency, UNICEF still needs funding for the following:

• 6 million women and children need access to sanitation and safe drinking water to lower risk from water-borne diseases.

• 5 million aqua tabs are needed for water cleaning, 1 million plastic buckets, 1 million jerry cans and 1 million soap bars.

• 3 million sachets of oral rehydration salts and 1.5 million doses of zinc are needed for 2 million children under five suffering from diarrhoea in the South of the country.

• 1.5 million children under the age of five are in need of vaccination against preventable diseases such as measles and polio, which can spread quickly in cramped dirty conditions.

• 200,000 clean delivery kits and 200,000 newborn kits are required to cover the nearly half a million pregnant women in flood affected areas, who risk giving birth in filthy conditions.

• 800,000 children under five and 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women still need nutritional aid.

For more information or to donate to UNICEF's Pakistan Emergency Relief Fund, please visit www.unicef.org.nz/PakistanEmergency

ENDS

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