Severely malnourished child receives help in Niger food crisis

By Adel Sarkozi

You don’t need to see the ‘red’ result from the nutrition monitoring armband to know that six-month-old Alhousanne is severely malnourished. The signs are there: the ribs pushing through her chest like the wires of a paper lantern; the legs virtually withered; the skin unresponsive to touch; and the face - pained, crying.

You find Alhousanne in Tillaberi region, in Niger. Tillaberi – one of the hottest places in Africa, and on the earth, with temperatures often exceeding 50˚C in May – is the worst affected region in the country by the food and nutrition crisis.

Alhousanne is with her mother Rakia at one of the local health centres where World Vision has been implementing a Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programme.

She only weighs 3.8 kg. Her mother Rakia is worried. Clearly malnourished herself, Rakia is only 17 and already has three children.

Life has been difficult. Now the family is facing a food crisis that has been magnified to life-threatening levels. Rakia's husband searches unsuccessfully for work after they harvested nothing in October last year.

She says, however, that her other child, Alhousanne’s two-year-old brother, gives her some hope. He, too, was severely malnourished and although still on the road to recovery, he is getting stronger each week thanks to Plumpy’Nut (therapeutic food provided through World Vision’s CMAM programme).

World Vision is investing in the community's health by supporting the centre's weekly care and monitoring of malnourished children. Health care volunteers, known in the village ‘femme relais’ (literally, relay-woman) have been trained by World Vision to monitor mother and child health in each village, and to educate, support and bring them to the clinic.

Alhousanne’s brother’s successful recovery is one example of many. Out of the 6,330 severely acute malnourished children, 5,451 have been rehabilitated through World Vision’s CMAM programmes in Niger during last year. A total of 25,162 moderately acute malnourished children were also cared for by the World Vision CMAM programmes across the country.

World Vision Niger was one of the first organisations to assist the government of Niger in addressing acute malnutrition through the implementation of these programmes, and works closely with Ministry of Health staff, and volunteers.

Haoua is one the volunteers trained by World Vision. Sitting next to Rakia and her child in her World Vision orange headscarf, she confidently recounts that she has seen many children become stronger and healthier during her four years as a ‘femme relais’.

But she is worries about the food crisis growing. “In the days to come, the situation will be worse,” she says. “If the mother is hungry, the child will be hungry.”