Fyffes team returns from humanitarian polio mission in South Sudan
Banana manufacturer contribues to global fight against disease
Print22 September 2015
A contingent representing banana importers Fyffes as well as members of UNICEF and Irish rugby star Donncha O’Callaghan has recently been assessing the polio situation in South Sudan, with a view to introducing a vaccination programme funded by Fyffes. The campaign, which aims to immunise as many 5-and-under children as possible from the deadly disease, will go along similar lines to Fyffes and UNICEF’s project in Nigeria last year, where more than 1m polio vaccinations were aministered, effectively eradicating the disease there.
The new campaign in South Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world, forms part of UNICEF’s goal to eradicate polio worldwide by 2018. It will target young children affecting by ongoing conflict, focusing on those living in remote areas and in known polio hotspots.
Following the visit, UNICEF executive director Peter Power said that every year around 29,000 children under the age of five die from “preventable” diseases.
“With Fyffes’ support,” he said, “an estimated 250,000 children in South Sudan alone will be immunised against polio.”
We applaud this endeavour, and wish all involved the very best with it.
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