UNICEF, Religions for Peace launch global COVID-19 initiative

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Religions for Peace (RfP) on Tuesday jointly launched a global COVID-19 initiative to raise awareness of the impacts of this pandemic on the world's youngest citizens.

This global partnership commits to strengthening multi-religious action and community mobilization in countering the COVID-19 pandemic, said UNICEF and RfP in a joint statement.

The initiative reflects the unique and critical roles played by religious leaders and actors in influencing values, attitudes, behaviors and actions that affect the development and well-being of the world's children, it said.

The initiative calls on all communities across the world, together with governments, UN entities, and broad civil society organizations, to join forces to adapt faith gatherings, rituals and services in keeping with international and national health authorities' guidance in the context of COVID-19, including physical distancing, said the statement.

It aims to promote heightened focus on hygiene and sanitation, to counter all forms of stigma and discrimination associated with the transmission of the disease, and to promote the active engagement of networks of religious communities to provide organized voluntary services in spiritual and emotional care and support for parents, children, the elderly and those experiencing disruption and distress.

The initiative also aims to provide positive age-specific and gender-responsive parenting guidance and support to families in relation to the health, development, protection and social and emotional well-being of children and young people, particularly those in low-income families and those most vulnerable and hardest to reach, said the statement.

(CGTN)