An emergency relief consignment from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) was flown to the earthquake-hit Sichuan Province in southwest China on Friday.

The shipment includes health and nutritional supplies for children and pregnant women.

The 86-ton shipment, valued at 890,000 U.S. dollars, includes 140 emergency health kits, each covering the needs of a population of 10,000 people. It also includes 80 neo-natal resuscitation kits, 80 sterilization kits and special nutritional supplements for 110,000 children under the age of five and 42,000 pregnant women.

The supplies will be sent to 13 counties worst hit by the quake on May 12, providing support for the basic health needs of 1.4 million people over three months.

Yin Yin Nwe, UNICEF Representative and UN Disaster Management Team Chair in China, said that she had visited Dujiangyan, a quake-stricken city where there were many children evacuated from other areas.

The children greatly need medical and psychological help, she said.

"We need to help provide health care, water and food, and to make sure that those separated from their parents are taken care of," she said.

As International Children's Day is approaching, she extended blessings for all Chinese children -- especially in the quake-ravaged zones, wishing them a normal life and a bright future.

The quake had left 68,858 people dead, 366,586 injured, 18,618 missing and more than 15 million homeless as of Friday noon.

(Xinhua News Agency May 30, 2008)