UNICEF's regional director: Syria is a very good partner for UNICEF
Syria, Local, 3/11/2002

The Regional Director of UNICEF Thomas McDermott recently made a visit to Syria in the context of his tour on several Arab states.

During his visit to Syria McDermott met with the Syrian prime minister Muhammad Mustafa Miro, the deputy premier for services, the foreign minister and many Syrian officials concerned.His talks concentrated on ways of promoting cooperation relations between Syria and UNICEF and following up the implementation of the agreement on the Rights of the Child which was endorsed in accordance with law no.8 for 1993.

In a statement to Arabic News (ArabicNews.com) UNICEF's director of regional office for the Middle East and North Africa Thomas McDermott said that his visit to Syria has two aims. " I am UNICEF's new regional director, so I am coming to meet with the government people and the UNICEF's office in Damascus and that is one aim. The other is we have the special session of the UN General Assembly from May 8-10, So I came to discuss with the Syrian government its participation in this activity.

For this month, he said:" I am visiting Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Yemen and Djibouti in the context of his overall tour to be held to the 21 countries of the area he is in charge.

He added that he met during his three day visit to Syria each of the Prime minister, the deputy prime minister, the foreign minister, the minister of health, the information minister, the governor of Aleppo and head of the state planning commission in Syria. He continued that he talked with all of the said Syrian officials about the special session of the UN General Assembly, the Arab summit of Beirut, the technical meeting of the League of the Arab States to be held in April in Damascus, thirdly a meeting in Tunis in June at the ministerial level on children. He explained that the meeting of Damascus is to prepare for Tunisia's ministerial level meeting.

On his assessment on Syria's experience concerning children, McDermott said: " The Syrian programs for children are going very well. Syria has very high immunization coverage in schooling, social services are in very good condition. He added:" I think also that there are many positive changes in Syria, so that the government is trying to adjust some of the services accordingly.

He continued that Syria is a very good partner for UNICEF.

On his visits to UNICEF's projects in Syria, McDermott said one project I say was the family meeting centers for divorced parents, operating by the ministry of Social affairs both in Aleppo and Damascus. He commented that these centers will be a good example for many countries." He indicated another project which he had visited in Aleppo to do with reform of " children who are in trouble with the law." It is trying to separate the children from adult and to give them more education and training for a job, and so to move them where they can go back to society more quickly.

On UNICEF's position towards the killing of the Palestinian children by the Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territories Mr. McDermott said: " we have a big program in Palestine with three offices in East Jerusalem, Ramullah and Gaza.."

He added:" I was there in the Palestinian territories two months ago I met with Arafat he was very thankful and appreciative with UNICEF's efforts in helping the Palestinians, particularly with keeping the school open during Intifada.

He commented we are very concerned with the situation of Palestinian children not only in the territories but also in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. He added: " We terribly worried about children in situation of conflict. In Palestine, Iraq, Sudan, and Algeria. There we try to help avoiding the consequences and to protect children in suffering conditions, but we can not prevent the conflict.

Mr. McDermott concluded as saying:" we have a great opportunity in the world especially in the Arab world to build national development around children and we owe it to our children, listen to them and take their guidance on how we build our countries and world.

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