Mr. Chairman, Colleague Ministers, Hon Members of Parliament, Members of the Diplomatic and Consular Corps, Members of the UN Family here in Sierra Leone, NGO and private sector partners, Government officials, Members of the Fourth Estate, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Appreciation:
I am extremely delighted to be here today, Friday 17th November 2006, to launch the Measles-Malaria campaign, which is scheduled for the 20th through 26th November, and will be conducted nationwide throughout Sierra Leone, targeting about 900,000 children aged 0 up to 59 months. Let me first express my sincere appreciation to our partners in the health sector, such as WHO, UNICEF, CIDA, the Sierra Leone and Canadian Red Cross Societies, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Vestargaad Fransen and Universat Logistic Company; who have demonstrated high level of commitment and determination and in ensuring the realization of the right of children to life.

We are very glad to have seen it demonstrated here today that the issue of child survival and development is part of the overall national development agenda to which we all have a stake and that the Government of Sierra Leone considers children as part of its national priorities.

Programme Background:
The goal of the National Measles-Malaria Campaign is to provide a package of cost-effective interventions to improve child surival, growth and development. The campaign will contribute to the efforts exerted by Sierra Leone to deal with the high rates of child mortality and thus contribute towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Ladies and Gentlemen, half of our work of reaching the MDGs would have been completed if we scale up these cost-effective measures to ensure the survival and development of children in Sierra Leone.

The campaign will include deworming, Vitamin A supplementation and Immunization of children under five years old, and the distribution of Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLIN)

National Health Perspectives:
Since His Excellency the President, Alhaji Dr. Ahmed Tejan Kabbah declared the war over in 2002, Sierra Leone has continued to consolidate peace at a relatively steady pace. The growing stability and peace is creating an enabling environment for development to take hold and a country where significant impact can be achieved. But now we as a government have transformed the gains we have made in ensuring that children have a better future. Ladies and Gentlemen, colleagues, by shifting our emphasis and strategically focusing on the provision of simple and low cost measures, immunization services continue to expand and quality is improving. We have moved away from the labour intensive gas-powered cold chain to equip almost all our peripheral health units with solar power. In so doing, we have improved the safety of vaccines while significantly reducing recurrent costs. Our immunisation has increased over the couple of years nationally from 46% in 2004 to 64% in 2006. Truly, we need to maintain the enthusiasms and momentum.

I am sure the distribution of insecticide treated mosqauito nets will ensure a significant improvement in the incidence of Malaria especially in women and children. In order to address the direct causes of morbidity and mortality in women and children, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and its partners have focused on interventions such as micronutrient supplementation, immunisation, Safe Motherhood, and the prevention and management of common diseases.

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, we intend to stay the course on improving vaccine safety and make immunisation in Sierra Leone more cost-efficient and at the same time lead a frontal attack on Malaria, diarrhoea and ARI. Thanks to the effort of the Govenrment of Sierra Leone.

Challenges:
The challenge for us during this campaign is to ensure that services are provided and all eligible children wherever they are reached. A hgigh coverage during the campaign will result ultimately in reducing illness land deaths among children in Sierra Leone and give them a better chance for life and development. We are confident that with the commitment of all those present here today we will reach every eligible child under five years during the peirod November 20-26, 2006. Let me appeal to you all that our efforts and the results obtained from the campaign are sustained and maintained after the campaign.

Government's continued commitment and Partnership: Mr. Chairman, distinguished ladies and Gentlemen, we as govenment are aware that there is yet a long haul to cover. The Government of Sierr3a Leone has demosntrated its commitment to children and child rights in several areas, and we are sure that it will exert even additional efforts to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals related to child and maternal health and realized. Within the UN Integrated presence, UNICEF and WHO will continue to lead the international effort to assist Sierra Leone to reduce the high infant, child and matgernal mortality rates.

Sierra Leoneans have demonstrated enough resiilience for me to be confident that significant progress can be made with continued commitment towards the health and welfare of the citizenry of this couintry especially the most vulnerable, the women and children. I wish to use this opportunity to call on all, development agencies, families and communities to focus land intensify their efforts on addressing the challenges that keep maternal and infant mortality in Sierra Leone the highest in the world and to change Sierra Leone's position in the Human Development Index. Ensuring efficient health care services for woemn and children is not an optional investment. There us a call for health to be included as an essential component in development plans, the ingegration of health related issues into national plans for poverty reduction as well as increased international funding for health care at both primary and secondary level. Nothing is more central to our mandate than the health of all Sierra Leoneans.

Clarion Call:
My Chairman, Distinguish Ladies and gentlemen, I therefore want to sound a clarion call to all Sierra Leoneans-wives, husbands, family members and even children - to come out on the 20th - 26 November in there thousands - to overwhelmed our health centres with childrne for free Measles vaccination, mosquito nets, Vitamin A supplementation and de-worming tablets. The service have been provided for us, therefore let us use them.

Launching of Measles-Malaria:
Mr. Chairman, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, before I formally launch the Measles-Malaria campaign, I want to publicly thank all my colleagues in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, starting from the Director General of medical Service, his DMOs and the DHMTs our Programme Managers, doctors, assistants, CHOs, nurses, down to the cleaners and porters for their valuable contribution in ensuring that the Measles-Malaria Campaign becomes a reality. I want to earnestly entreat them to continue to exert more efforts in ensuring that children in Sierra Leone have a healthy start. We owe it to them.

Mr. Chairman, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, I now have the pleasure, on behalf of the Government of Sierra Leone, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and its partners, to formally launch the Measles-Malaria campaign.

I thank you for your attention.