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FROM THE FIELD

On The Edge of a Crisis
14 May 2009 12:17:00 GMT
 Source: Medair - Switzerland
Medair

Website: Website: http://www.medair.org

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Medair’s mobile nutrition clinics help give children in both Somaliland and Somalia the nourishment they need to survive
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Medair’s mobile nutrition clinics help give children in both Somaliland and Somalia the nourishment they need to survive

Background

•  Somalia in turmoil

•  Food and hunger

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Medair's mobile nutrition clinics help give children in both Somaliland and Somalia the nourishment they need to survive in a land devastated by drought, political unrest, and rising food prices. In the city of Burao, Somaliland, a young mother named Iftan travels up and down the streets, knocking on doors. She asks everyone who answers to please give her some money or some food. Most days she gathers just enough to pay her rent and feed her two small children. Some days she doesn't do so well. "It is my only income," she says, "Sometimes I manage to collect 15,000 shillings [about US$2]. That is when I am lucky."

A troubled land After decades of instability and several years of drought, the situation throughout Somalia and Somaliland is rapidly deteriorating. In the first six months of 2008, the number of people needing emergency aid across Somalia, Puntland, and Somaliland rose from 1.83 to 3.25 million people. That is more than forty percent of the entire Somali population.

Seeking to escape the troubles in the south and east, thousands of Somalis have moved their households and livestock to relatively stable Somaliland, but at great cost. Most herds of cattle and other livestock have not survived the harsh drought conditions, leaving families with no other source of income to beg for money in cities.

A new home In urban Burao, 20,000 people are facing a Humanitarian Emergency, with another 55,000 in an Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis. Displaced people are scattered throughout the city, living in small camps or makeshift huts built between existing houses, with larger displacement camps located on the outskirts of the city. Burao's original residents are also struggling to cope with the impact of the drought and rising food prices.

Iftan came to Burao from Mogadishu to escape the conflict when she was eight months pregnant with her oldest son, who now is four years old. She pays rent of about US$ 25 per month for a small patch of land with a hut made of branches and rags. After the birth of Iftan's second child, her husband, unable to provide for the family, abandoned her.

"The reason is that he cannot provide for me anymore," she says. "So now I am left with the two children. It's very hard to manage a family of this size with two dollars a day. I wonder, can I survive with my children?"

Helping the children Medair has launched a programme aimed at helping families like Iftan's through the use of mobile nutrition clinics. Each day, Medair staff go to one of six locations in the city to provide care for seriously malnourished children. The children are weighed and measured with a tape around the arm to see how malnourished they are. In many cases, the thinness of the arms indicates malnutrition. The children are vaccinated, if needed, and the mothers of malnourished children are issued a week's supply of "plumpy nut," a kind of thick peanut-based paste mixed with lots of nutrients that will supplement the child's diet.

Recent soaring food prices have made this kind of intervention even more vital, explains Henrieke Hommes, Medair's Health Programme Manager: "A bag of rice which used to cost US$ 20 a few years ago now costs US$ 50, more than double. At these prices, mothers cannot feed their children. We see the consequences every day because we have so many children in our programmes."

Indeed, the importance of Medair's nutrition program is demonstrated by the number of children who are enlisted. "Within six weeks, we had more than 1,200 undernourished children in our programme," says Henrieke, "Almost half of those children were seriously malnourished. But we are happy to see that once the children are in the program their weight goes up very quickly."

That is a relief to many mothers like Iftan. "It's hard enough to go on the streets and beg, especially because I wasn't a beggar to begin with," she says. "Sometimes people are very nice and generous and other times people are not nice. That's how society is. But I have to toughen up and go back in the streets again, because that's the only way."

With this food crisis worsening by the day, and much of the media's Somalia attention focused on off-shore pirate attacks, forgotten mothers like Iftan urgently need our help. Severe drought has brought the people of Somalia and Somaliland to the very edge of survival. Through programmes like Medair's mobile nutrition clinics, more children are receiving the health care they need to survive, but much more still needs to be done in the weeks and months ahead.

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After an extensive assessment process in 2007, Medair launched a new integrated Health, Nutrition and Water-Sanitation programme in Middle Shabelle, Somalia in July 2008 to respond to the high level of need of the vulnerable population. In December 2008, Medair established a nutrition programme in Burao, Somaliland where very critical levels of malnutrition were found in the urban poor and IDPs. The programme also includes smaller Health and Watsan programmes aimed at displaced persons camps and marginalized communities. Our programmes focus on conflict and drought affected populations in areas where humanitarian capacity is absent or insufficient to address the most critical needs. Medair implements programme activities directly as well as working through local partners to build the technical and management capacity of local NGOs, health workers, and national staff.

Medair's programme's in Somalia and Somaliland are supported with the assistance of OFDA, SDC, UN OCHA, UNICEF, Medair private funding, TF New Zealand, WFP and EO Metterdaad.

Medair brings life-saving relief and rehabilitation in disasters, conflict areas, and other crises by working alongside the most vulnerable. Its internationally recruited staff are motivated by their Christian faith to care for people in need, providing practical and compassionate support, regardless of race, religion, or politics. Founded in 1989, Medair has an unwavering commitment to bring hope to the world's most vulnerable.


[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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