UNICEF II
Chad – Mia Farrow, March 2010
Mia Farrow, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, has been on a week long visit to Chad to highlight the start of a regional polio vaccination campaign that it being launched. Chad had 65 cases of polio diagnosed last year amongst children and there is fear that it could spread.
Chad is also suffering from severe climatic weather conditions with desertification and food insecurity affecting millions of people.
In both the East and West of the country acutely malnourished children are being brought to therapeutic feeding centres that are supported by UNICEF. Prolonged drought, internal displacement caused by civil war, refugees who have fled fighting in neighbouring Darfur, and salination of what few water resources remain are all contributing to the problem, and thousands of children remain at risk.