The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has showed its commitment in improving Zimbabwe's health delivery system by making available 5 million U.S. dollars for the health sector at a time the country is battling cholera, Xinhua quoted The Sunday Mail as reporting. UNICEF Executive Director Ms Ann Veneman on Saturday told journalists that the grant is a stop-gap measure and part of a larger initiative to provide incentives for health care workers to keep them in their jobs. She said the grant was directed to the health system because of the emergency situation, which called for life-saving interventions. "The health care workers will receive their incentives through a trust fund that has been set up. We want to make it clear that the payments are not salaries, but incentives for transport to enable them to come to work," she said. "From a humanitarian perspective, we need to be planning in regards to rebuilding systems that include water and sanitation. We want children to have good nutrition, education and protection. Child rights should be protected comprehensively," she added. "Over the next four months, UNICEF will support the drilling of 100 boreholes in areas in need of water. The UN agency has also been providing 70 percent of the country' essential medicines," she noted.
