A new UNICEF report, 'Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition', says undernutrition is a factor
in a third of all deaths of children under five. Here is one in a series of related stories.ANJA JAFFA, Ethiopia, 13November2009 - Almaz Kare, 20, a mother of two, watches as her
four-year-old daughter Masento finishes the sachet of ready-to-use-therapeutic food.VIDEO: Watch now"Masento is much better," Ms. Kare tells her village health extension worker, Mulu
Yohannes, who has come on a home visit to see how her young patient is doing. "Before, her body was swollen all over," the mother continues. "I am feeding her three times a day
like you told me, and she is eating well. Now she is much better and there is no more swelling."Ongoing drought emergency Ms. Mare and Ms. Yohannes live
in Anja Jaffa village in Boricha District, located in Ethiopia's Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples' Region. The area has been hit hard by the ongoing drought emergency in eastern Africa."Here in Anja Jaffa, farmers don't have anything," says Ms. Yohannes. "When we go from house to house visiting them, we check their plots. We check what they have to eat." The drought has affected crops across the region, she explains, adding: "It is not just here, it is everywhere. There is no rain."'Nothing on our
farm' Ms. Kare surveys her field of withering corn. Some plants look deceptively green, but when she opens them up, half of the cob is bare."I am in trouble," she says.
"There is nothing on our farm. My husband and I are going out to work in other people's homes – that's how we are eating. Ihave not had anything to eat yet today. Ihave nothing."Ms. Kare and her family are among the more than 6million Ethiopians requiring emergency food assistance this year, but food aid has not yet reached their
household.Treatment at the local level Since 2008 – when the lethal combination of drought, inflation, global recession and constraints on food-aid
supplies led to the onset of a nutrition emergency here – UNICEF has been helping the government train health extension workers such as Ms. Yohannes. These local case managers learn to
treat severe acute malnutrition at the community level.Ms. Yohannes and her team started the UNICEF-supported Outpatient Therapeutic-Feeding Programme (OTP) in Anja Jaffa village. For the last
five months, undernourished children who do not have medical complications have been able to receive therapeutic feeding close to home through the programme. Ready-to-use-therapeutic food Ms. Yohannes asserts that there are many benefits to offering feeding close to home. For example, children and their parents no longer have to
travel long distances before receiving care. "Before, [parents] would have to sit out in the sun, and they and their children would suffer," she says. "They had to walk for half
an hour to get there." But now, OTP health workers in the village distribute the ready-to-use-therapeutic food Plumpy'nut, a peanut paste fortified with milk and vitamins. They also visit
mothers at home once a week to monitor how much children are eating.More aid needed Besides supporting decentralized treatment like the service provided by
the health extension workers of Anja Jaffa, UNICEF is responding to the situation in Ethiopia with other interventions in a range of areas – including emergency nutrition, health, water and
sanitation, child protection and education. However, the nutrition emergency remains dire. Following a mid-year review, UNICEF increased its funding target for emergency nutrition needs in
Ethiopia from $20 million to $30 million. Overall, UNICEF has appealed for $52 million in international support for its emergency response in Ethiopia this year. To date, most of that amount
remains unfunded.
A man dressed as "El Cipitio" (R), a legendary character of Salvadoran folklore, performs for children at a refugee center for people displaced by Hurricane Ida, in Verapaz, 71 km (44 ...