RIYADH, 7 January — The regional office of the United Nations Children's Fund will conduct a 'situation analysis' on behalf of five Gulf states, including the Kingdom, to evaluate the status of education and health of children and families, announced Stefan C. Toma, the new regional representative of UNICEF.
He said Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE have agreed in principle to allow UNICEF to undertake the study. "The situation analysis on Saudi Arabia will be completed by September this year," Toma said, adding that the study will include handicapped children.
The terms of reference will be education and health as laid down under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The analysis will involve examining children's lifestyle, eating habits and the level of their activities. It will also take a closer look at the growing incidence of childhood obesity in the Kingdom.
Toma called on Saudi artists interested in illustrating UNICEF cards to submit their work to UNICEF's Gulf Area office. They will be evaluated at the UNICEF headquarters in New York for possible use in the next year's greeting cards.
Asked whether e-mail greetings sent on the Internet had any impact on the sale of their greeting cards, the UNICEF representative said it was possible, although he was not sure to what extent.
However, according to Said Zakaria Hussein, greeting cards sales manager, the sales declined by no more than five to ten percent. He pointed out that the main reason was a lack of awareness in the Kingdom of their greeting cards program.
This was evident from the fact that as against the sale of greeting cards worth $ 200,000 in Bahrain with a population of 500,000 last year, the sales figure stood at $85,000 in Saudi Arabia which has a 21 million population.
Toma appealed to the public to continue purchase of UNICEF greeting cards, since sales proceeds go to help children especially in developing countries, where 130 million children still do not attend school.
Referring to his priorities as UNICEF's Gulf Area representative, Toma said one of them would be to project Arabic and Islamic culture through their greeting cards. Some of the distinguished artists whose works have been used in the UNICEF greeting cards include Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, governor of Asir, noted Saudi women artists Safiya Binzgr and Salwa Othman Al-Hugail, whose works will be featured in next year’s greeting cards.
