August 23, 2007	Thursday	Sha’aban 9, 1428

MANSEHRA, Aug 22: The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) will spend $50 million in the earthquake-affected areas of the NWFP and Azad Kashmir during the current year in the fields of education, health, water and sanitation.

“We want to carry on our help in the affected areas to save the children from diseases and bring them on a par with those of the developed areas as health and education centres were destroyed in the earthquake,”

Unicef Country Representative Martin Mogwanja told journalists, education officials and survivors in Mansehra and Balakot on Wednesday.

He said Unicef had so far spent $90 million in the affected areas and $50 million more would be spent by the end of the current year.

Executive District Officer, Education, Syed Ahmad Hussein Shah briefed Mr Mogwanja about the Education Management Information System (EMIS) and lauded the role of Unicef for maximum enrolment in schools and to reduce the dropout rate in Mansehra.

He said the EMIS was being used to update information at the school level and the NWFP government wanted to implement it in all the districts in the province.

He said 127,927 boys and 51,067 girls had been enrolled through the programme in 1,536 boys’ and 687 girls’ schools.

Mr Mogwanja later handed over five prefabricated schools to the district education department in Balakot.

He told journalists that Unicef had launched an emergency education programme in the affected areas.