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COTE D IVOIRE: Red Cross spells out action plan for refugees

ABIDJAN, 15 August (IRIN) - An action plan to assist Liberian refugees in western Cote d'Ivoire in the areas of health and environmental sanitation has been put in place, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies reported on Wednesday.

It resulted from collaboration between the National Red Cross Society and the Federation's regional delegation, the Federation said in its latest bulletin. It consists of vaccination, the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, malaria and epidemics, and environmental sanitation and hygiene.

The national society plans to send 30 volunteers on a door-to-door campaign to check the vaccination status of children aged 0-23 months, make public presentations encouraging vaccination, and mobilise community leaders to help, the Federation said. Mothers would be encouraged to vaccinate their children.

The Red Cross said it hoped to have volunteers educate young people on STDs, HIV/AIDS and prevention though proper use of condoms. Some 15,000 condoms are to be given to health centres to sell at a discount and use the proceeds to buy more, it said. An awareness campaign on preventing malaria by using treated mosquito nets, and on preventing epidemics would target some 6,000 households.

However, implementation of the plan would depend the situation in Liberia, taking into account both the level of emergency and available funding, the Federation noted.
[For more information, see http://www.ifrc.org ]

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