WUNRN
In
a study of almost 2,000 children in 15
sites in Isiolo District conducted by the ALRMP in October, between 30 and 46
percent of children were found to be at risk of malnutrition.
A
major nutritional problem in this region is a widespread tendency not to
exclusively breastfeed babies during their first six months.
|
Children
in North Eastern Kenya are especially vulnerable to malnutrition. |
MOYALE, 18 December 2009 (IRIN) - Two-year-old
Safia Emoi is weak, thin and listless. She has just arrived at the Heillu
Health centre with her mother Amima Mohammed, who set off early to make the 4km
trek to the clinic in the outskirts of the upper
“Up
until recently, things were a bit better for me and my family,” Amima Mohammed,
35, said. However, a prolonged drought has killed livestock, in turn affecting
children’s nutrition and milk consumption.
“We are
hungry most of the time. I make some strong tea in the morning and then we have
one meal of maize during the day,” said the mother of six.
There
are dozens of children enrolled in a supplementary feeding programme run by
Concern Worldwide in Moyale; in the past three months, the NGO recorded an
average of 70 to 80 admissions per month. “I have seen other children getting
better when given ready-to-eat therapeutic food, so I know Safia will too,”
said her mother.
According
to the Arid Lands Resource Management Project (ALRMP), agro-pastoral and
pastoral communities are among the worst affected by food insecurity after four
consecutive rainy seasons failed.
Despite
ongoing mid-October to December short rains, drought-related stress, such as
inadequate food and pasture, remains high in Moyale and other Eastern Province
Districts such as Isiolo, Garbatulla, and Marsabit.
The
proportion of children classified as “at risk” of malnutrition (mid-upper-arm
circumference, MUAC, less than 135mm, in ages 6-59 months) in October remained
higher than respective five-year averages in the districts, according to ALRMP
surveillance data, stated a Kenya Food Security Update for
November.
An MUAC
of less than 110mm indicates severe acute malnutrition; between 110mm and 125mm
moderate acute malnutrition, while one between 125 and 135mm shows that the
child is at risk of acute malnutrition and should be followed up for growth
monitoring.
Food security
In a study of almost 2,000 children in 15 sites in Isiolo
District conducted by the ALRMP in October, between 30 and 46 percent of
children were found to be at risk of malnutrition.
The
nutrition status of children is worse in areas with high livestock deaths and
extreme poverty, a community officer at Isiolo’s ALRMP office, Lordman Lekalkalai,
told IRIN, adding that although water stress had gone down with the rains, food
insecurity had not eased.
According
to government figures, rates of stunting among children are much higher in such
areas - 42 percent in Eastern Province, compared with 29 percent in Nairobi.
|
Amima
Mohammed with 2 year old Safia Emoi, Moyale |
Lekalkalai
suggested that interventions such as the provision of Unimix, a fortified maize
meal, to children under five and livestock off-take programmes should be
extended in the short term.
Abdi
Shukri, a resident of Kampi Wachole in Isiolo, told IRIN that his five children
often became sick due to poor nutrition but he could not afford to buy
vegetables, fruit or milk. Now working as a porter after fleeing conflict in
his Gambella area farm, he said: “A kilogramme of beans is selling at 140
shillings [about $US2]. I cannot afford it because that is the amount of money
I earn in a day.”
Paul
Kimeu, Isiolo District Drought Management Officer, noted that the pastoralist
lifestyle and a lack of dietary diversity predisposed residents to
under-nutrition. “Supplementary feeding even where available is also inadequate
to meet the number of those in need,” he added.
The wrong kind of food
Another
nutritional problem in this region is a widespread tendency not to breastfeed
babies during their first six months. According to the UN Children’s Fund,
exclusive breastfeeding is the perfect way to provide the best food for a
baby’s first six months as breastfed infants are much less likely to die from
diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections and other diseases.
But
Humphrey Mosomi, a nutritionist with World Vision Kenya in Marsabit district,
said some 60 percent of mothers gave their babies additional food as well as
water within two weeks of birth.
Improving
pastoral community awareness of better child-feeding practices was vital,
Mosomi told IRIN.
“For
example, boys may be introduced to camel milk early as a rite of initiation so
they will like the animals they will herd in future,” he said. “The belief is
that if the male child is first introduced to his mother’s milk, he will become
a useless boy.
“There
is also influence from grandmothers. They say the children are dying of thirst
and that they must be given water,” he said. In an effort to improve the
situation, traditional birth attendants, who, as older women, enjoy respect in
the community, are being educated about the importance of exclusive
breastfeeding.
Challenges
Cultural
beliefs also fuel poor child health, noted Mosomi. “It takes a long time to
convince someone to sell a cow or a goat to buy food. [People refuse] to sell
so as not to be viewed as poor or to look cowardly. If, as a leader, you sold
off your cows during the drought, people may refuse to vote for you.
“Sometimes,
the cows are there, the milk is there, but it is not available to the children.
The herders are ‘favoured’ and allocated the bigger share of milk, for
instance,” he noted, adding that there was a need for advocacy.
In May
2008, Marsabit recorded a global acute malnutrition (GAM) rate of 16 percent;
the World Health Organization’s emergency threshold is 15 percent.
Poor
access to far-off supplementary feeding programme sites and low literacy are
other factors. “Some mothers take the children for immunization but they don’t
understand why this is important. They go because the doctor said return on a
certain date,” he said. “The [nurses] may also not have the time to explain to
the mothers about the interventions.”
In
Marsabit’s Korr Division, for instance, there is one health facility with about
three nurses serving a population of 8,000.
An
update by the USAID Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) for
November stated: “Pastoral food security remained poor in October, as livestock
productivity remained low due to the poor body conditions, while livestock
prices declined…
“While
generally high ‘risk of malnutrition’ rates are attributed mainly to a lack of
food as a result of low purchasing capacities and low milk supply at the
household level, diseases such as cholera and malaria, and poor hygiene and
childcare practices have also accentuated the higher than normal rates of child
malnutrition, ” said FEWS Net.
Children
who are sick are not able to feed well, while poor childcare practices such as
diluting breastmilk with water, and other unhygienic practices expose children
to diseases such as diarrhoea and worm infestation for instance, preventing
proper nutrient absorption and retention.
Through
a European Commission Humanitarian Aid contribution, the UN World Food
Programme (WFP) will provide special supplementary rations to 450,000 children
under the age of five, as well as to pregnant and nursing mothers, in the
northern districts of Mandera, Marsabit, Samburu, Turkana and Wajir.
"Children
under five are always hit hardest by a crisis and suffer the most," said Burkard Oberle, WFP Country
Director. "Given the high levels of malnutrition in these five districts,
this additional support will effectively help curb malnutrition levels."
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