In 2022, UNICEF provided tens of thousands of essential items worth over 3 million US dollars to vulnerable children and families, local communities and healthcare workers in Romania, Agerpres informs.

According to a UNICEF press statement released on Wednesday, they were provided both as part of the response to the emergency in Ukraine and to meet UNICEF Romania’s commitments to the government and the vulnerable population.

The large number of children and families who fled the war in Ukraine arriving in Romania in 2022 led UNICEF to secure a continuous flow of emergency supplies for the most vulnerable people, including kits of personal care products, school materials, clothes, protective equipment, as well as informative materials.

With the help of UNICEF partners, including civil society organisations, public administrations and the private sector, more than 3,000 blankets were provided during the peak of the refugee wave. Also, approximately 27,000 schoolbags were provided to children at the Blue Dot centres supported by UNICEF and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in safe spaces and at learning centres. UNICEF also delivered around 10,000 school books and textbooks, 350 recreational kits, 150 early childhood development kits and approximately 700 kits of school and teaching materials. This approach allowed approximately 27,000 children between the ages of three and 18 to continue their studies.

UNICEF also provided personal protective equipment – gloves, hazmat suits, visors, disposable gowns and masks – to healthcare facilities and partners throughout the country, including social work departments, town halls and communities where there are integrated community centres.

The overall objective of the programme implemented by UNICEF in Romania is said to be to ensure the social inclusion of all children through accessible, equitable, coordinated and quality health, education and child protection systems and social rules that secure protection.

Agerpres