Severely malnourished baby receives World Vision support
Justin Byworth, World Vision UK’s Chief Executive, continues to blog from Niger where the population faces a growing food crisis.
Day 7, Tillaberi
A week into our time in Niger, the nature of the food crisis here is still unfolding. Today we analysed the new assessment data from government, talked with women digging rock-hard soil for a few kilos of food, and met Alhousanne – the most severely malnourished little girl we’ve seen so far. Each adds another dimension to understanding what’s going on here, of what lies ahead through 2012 and of what can be done to stop or contain this.
We were in Tillaberi, centre of probably the worst affected region in the country and we were told one of the hottest places in Africa, and on earth, with temperatures often exceeding 50˚C in May.
Maternal nutrition
At a local health centre, part of World Vision’s ‘community management of acute malnutrition’ programme we met Alhousanne. Six months old, it didn’t take the ‘red’ from the nutrition monitoring armband to know that she was severely malnourished. Her ribs seem to be almost coming through her chest, her legs virtually withered, her skin unresponsive to touch and her face pained and crying.
At only 3.8kg she’s smaller than three of my four children were at birth, and she’s lost weight since her visit a week ago. Her mother Rakia is very worried and clearly malnourished herself. At only 17 with three children already, it’s obvious that this isn’t just the failed harvest that’s caused this.
Childhood marriage and motherhood have contributed to poor maternal nutrition that’s meant her babies are born very small and then she struggles to feed them. The food crisis has magnified this to life-threatening levels as her husband searches unsuccessfully for work after they harvested nothing in October.
Stronger and healthier
Alhousanne’s two-year-old brother gives Rakia hope though. He, too, was severely malnourished and although still on the road to recovery is getting stronger each week with the therapeutic nutrition at the health centre and the support of their village ‘femme relais’ (literally, relay-woman) – the essential volunteers we’ve trained to monitor mother and child health in each village to educate, support and bring them to the clinic when needed.
Across the globe World Vision works like this, acting as the bridge between mothers, children and the lowest levels of the local health service. Haoua, who’s with Rakia at today’s clinic is a great example of this – in her World Vision orange headscarf she confidently tells me how she’s seen many children become stronger and healthier during her four years as a femme relais. She, too, is worried though: “In the days to come the situation will be worse,” she says. “If the mother is hungry, the child will be hungry”.
Hungry mothers though will do whatever they can to feed their children. In the midst of an expanse of sun baked earth and rocks a few miles away we met 200 women and men digging crescent-shaped earthworks ready to catch some of the rains seven to eight months from now and grow grasses to feed their animals.
Scaling up help
Right now though, it’s the mothers and children that are eating animal feed. One woman passed me a bowl of rough-looking cereal and only after I’d tasted it did they tell me that eating this goat food was one of the measures that they’ve taken to stave off hunger. Apart from this, the only food they have is that which this World Vision and World Food Programme food-for-work project provides – with weekly rations of bulgar wheat, lentils and oil. This two month project is exactly the kind of activity which we’ll need to extend and scale up to prevent this crisis turning into a catastrophe.
Having spent the last week in Isame, Tera, Komabongou and Sirba – all within Tillaberi – it was good also to meet the regional governor today. He was open and frank about the difficult situation they face in 2012, but strong also on the government’s plans and very pleased to work together with World Vision and other agencies here.
His deputy responsible for managing the food crisis told us: “We know you well. World Vision has been here for a long time, helping vulnerable people, especially children. With water, with long-term development and in crises, like the cholera last year.” Tomorrow Niger’s Prime Minister is coming to Tillaberi to launch an international appeal for assistance to respond to the food crisis across the country.
Reading the report of the new assessment done by the government with UN and international agencies it’s clear why. The number of people vulnerable or at risk has risen by 50 per cent since September to over 9 million. That’s well over half of Niger’s 16 million people. Tomorrow we’ll have our last visit to communities and meet with the visiting European Commissioner who heads their humanitarian work worldwide and with all the international agencies to discuss plans to respond to the food crisis here.