The United Nations Children’s Fund with the Zimbabwe Education Ministry and non-governmental groups involved in the effort to quell a stubborn cholera epidemic are launching a program to increase awareness among schoolchildren of the risk the disease poses.
UNICEF Spokeswoman Tsitsi Singizi said that with Zimbabwe's classrooms open again after a long delay to the start of the new term due to a teachers strike, there is an increased risk that the potentially deadly disease will spread in schools, which often lack clean water.
Nearly 87,000 cases have been reported and the death toll is nearing 4,000.
Singizi told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that cholera risk is a major concern for parents, communities and U.N. agencies fighting the epidemic.
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