On last Friday, May 15th, Xieta International, S.L. take part at lunch organized by UNICEF Spanish Committee, at its Barcelona offices, where we have the opportunity to meet Fran Equiza, the UNICEF representative in Mali, who shows the works that UNICEF has developed in this country.
The situation of children in Mali is complex and very fragile. In Mali, more than half of population is children, and in spite of the mortality rate under 5 years old has declined by 42% during last ten years, still today 82,000 under five years old children still die each year from preventable causes. 1 of each 5 children will never reach their fifth birthday.
Chronic malnutrition affects 1 in 3 children, even through the country has the food exportation as the most valuable primary sector.
In the field of education, 1 in 2 children still do not attend to schools , a fact that among girls is still more serious – just 1 in 5 women is literate.
Lunch was an excellent opportunity to meet, along with other companies who collaborate with the UNICEF program of Spanish Committee, Multiply for the children,as UNICEF is working hard to defend and guarantee the right of children, especially those children in most vulnerable situation.
Mali is one of the countries where the UNICEF education programs receive funds from the initiative Schools for Africa.
Despite the great complexity in the country, UNICEF has already achieved 69% of children affected by emergency situations in the country (442,786 children) to have access to education and 10,122 teachers receive training and instruction concerning either pedagogy to large groups, or multigrade education or psychosocial support.
