Tag: Children

Malaria Stalks Zimbabwe’s Children as Deaths Jump 50% in One Week

Michael Gwarisa

By Michael Gwarisa The Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) has reported a rise in malaria deaths and new infections among children under five in areas endemic to the disease. New cases have been recorded since the onset of the rainy season two weeks ago. According to the MoHCC disease surveillance report for the week ending November 2, 2025, a total of 1,074 malaria cases and three deaths were reported. The deaths occurred in Makoni and Chimanimani districts in Manicaland Province, and Mount Darwin District in Mashonaland Central. Of…

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Prioritizing Zimbabwe’s Children future in an uncertain time for Global Aid

Michael Gwarisa

By Etona Ekole One of the greatest joys of my work is meeting Zimbabwean children—bright, resilient, and full of dreams. There’s nothing more fulfilling than seeing how a school meal, a safe classroom, or a kind health worker can transform a child’s life. However, with every success story, I see the urgent needs that remain—a child too small for their age due to stunting, a girl missing school due to lack of menstrual health services, a baby dying due to preventable disease. These moments are a sobering reminder that while…

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UNICEF Zimbabwe launches campaign on children and climate change

Kuda Pembere

By Staff Reporter UNICEF Zimbabwe has launched a communication campaign which seeks to involve children’s participation in climate change issues which are increasingly affecting them. The campaign also comes at a time when Zimbabwe is enduring an El-Nino induced drought. “The Climate Change Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis. Climate change is impacting the lives of children worldwide, also in Zimbabwe. “It creates scarcity in access to safe water and food, impacts on the health of children, increases children’s vulnerability to exploitation and abuse, and jeopardises their well-being, even threatening…

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Parents Of Children Battling Drug & Substance Abuse Urged To Be Patient

Kuda Pembere

INASMUCH as parents or guardians are at the receiving end of shame, guilt, and embarrassment when their children are taking harmful drugs and substances, it is important for them to be patient and supportive to fight drugs and substance abuse. By Kuda Pembere This was said during a Parents taking charge against drugs and alcohol abuse workshop on Saturday. In separate interviews, it emerged that parents or guardians needed to be less judgmental of their children. Ms Jacqueline Rugayo from Seed Foundation who organized the event said the battle against…

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Regional Psychosocial Support Forum Kicks Off

Michael Gwarisa

THE 6th Edition of the Psychosocial Support Forum (PPS Forum), a hybrid meeting in which discussions are being held both virtually and physically, commenced today with a Children’s Forum ahead of the adult event to be held next week from 13 to 15 October. By Michael Gwarisa The pre-adult forum saw children from 13 countries from East and Southern Africa attending and deliberating on various issues that children and young people face, with the aim of coming up with a Children’s advocacy position they will present at the adult forum…

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WHO Recommends Groundbreaking Malaria Vaccine For Children At Risk

Michael Gwarisa

THE World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending widespread use of the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine among children in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high P. falciparum malaria transmission. The recommendation is based on results from an ongoing pilot programme in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has reached more than 800 000 children since 2019. HealthTimes Reporter “This is a historic moment. The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, child health and malaria control,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Using this…

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800 000 Children Living With HIV Not On ARVs Therapy

Healthtimes

New HIV infections among children declined by more than half (54%) from 2010 to 2020, due mainly to the increased provision of antiretroviral therapy to pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV. However, that momentum has slowed considerably, leaving particularly large gaps in western and central Africa, which is home to more than half of pregnant women living with HIV who are not on treatment. Gaps in the testing of infants and children exposed to HIV have left more than two fifths of children living with HIV undiagnosed. The number…

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Children Under 5 Could Spread Coronavirus More Than Adults- New Study

Michael Gwarisa

CHILDREN below the age of five could be major carriers of the coronavirus as compared to adults, a new study has found. By Michael Gwarisa According to the study “Age-Related Differences in Nasopharyngeal Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Levels in Patients With Mild to Moderate Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19),” which was  published in JAMA Pediatrics and led by Dr. Taylor Heald-Sargent, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, children are susceptible to infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2…

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COVID-19: Number Of children Living In Household Poverty To soar By Up To 86 Million By Year End

Healthtimes

THE economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic could push up to 86 million more children into household poverty by the end of 2020, an increase of 15 per cent, according to a new analysis released today by Save the Children and UNICEF. HealthTimes Reporter  The analysis highlights that, without urgent action to protect families from the financial hardships caused by the pandemic, the total number of children living below the national poverty line in low- and middle-income countries could reach 672 million by year-end. Nearly two-thirds of these children live…

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One In Every Four Children Not Registered- UNICEF

Michael Gwarisa

DATA released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicate that one in four children under the age 5 (166 million), on average, are not registered in the world today. By Michael Gwarisa According to a publication by UNICEF called “Birth Registration for Every Child by 2030: Are we on track?” children under five fail to get registration owing to a plethora of barriers which range from poverty, long distance to health facilities among others. And even when they are, they may not have proof of registration. The reasons are…

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