LILONGWE, Dec. 12(Xinhua) -- The Chinese government has provided 1 million U.S. dollars to UNICEF to help Malawian families recovering from the effects of the March 2019 floods in the country.
In a joint statement with Malawi government on Wednesday, the Chinese ambassador to Malawi, Liu Hongyang, said the assistance to UNICEF is within the framework of the South-South Cooperation Fund which provides safe water, emergency sanitation facilities, and protection from disaster to families and children affected by Cyclone Idai.
"Our Government is happy to help, within its capacity, to address the needs of the affected Malawian families. We have provided 1 million U.S. dollars to bring safe water, emergency sanitation and nutrition to children and women who are the worst affected in any disaster," said Liu.
UNICEF Malawi Representative, Rudolf Schwenk, said while families affected by the floods have returned home or relocated to safer areas, there is need to support the recovery and reconstruction process to avoid creating different forms of vulnerabilities.
"We are delighted with this new partnership with the Chinese government which will bring an integrated package of life-saving interventions to families and communities affected by the floods," said Rudolf Schwenk.
He added that building and maintaining strong partnerships is key to improving children's lives and they are looking forward to a fruitful collaboration with the Chinese government for the benefit of the children in Malawi.
According to government of Malawi, the Post Disaster Needs Assessment report on the March 2019 Cyclone Idai-induced floods indicated that Malawi needs about 375 million U.S. dollars for recovery and reconstruction.
"We appreciate both technical and financial support rendered by the Government of the People's Republic of China and organizations under United Nations in implementing various disaster risk management programs," said Dyce Nkhoma, Deputy Director of Disaster Response and Recovery in the Department of Disaster Management Affairs.
The floods affected about 975,000 people in 15 districts and two cities, including 460,000 children and over 67,000 children's text books were damaged.