- According to an official, about 5,500 pregnant and lactating mothers in Garissa county are malnourished.
- However, only 23, 500 children and 3,900 mothers are in the programme that supplies them with therapeutic supplies.
Image: STEPHEN ASTARIKO
Abdullahi Isack, a ten-month old baby and the last born of a family of six, is emaciated and often keeps on holding onto his mother’s breast.
He is among the more than 39,800 children currently categorised as malnourished in Garissa county.
Isack and his mother, Fatuma Adhan Bile, had walked about five kilometres to Sankuri dispensary to get therapeutic food, which is given to children with severe acute malnutrition.
Image: STEPHEN ASTARIKO
At the facility, the child is taken through various assessment stages to identify his nutrition status, including weight and height, which are then compared to the standard Body Mass Index of a child.
“This is my second visit to this facility. I have five other children at home and there is no water. My only water source is the Tana River where we use a 20-litre jerrycan to fetch water,” Bile said.
Majority of pastoralists have lost a significant number of livestock, with calls for more intervention from government and international community.
“We have appealed to the government and well-wishers to help us because we are extremely hurt by the drought. I have a few cows which I am supposed to feed and walk to the river to fetch water for the family,” she said.
Image: STEPHEN ASTARIKO
According to experts, malnutrition reduces a child’s brain power, making them susceptible to diseases and infections, such as diarrhoea and vomiting.
The condition also inhibits the child’s growth and limits their production in future.
In an interview at facility on Monday, Garissa county nutrition coordinator Shamhat Yussuf said the drought situation in the county is dire despite the concerted efforts by the national and county governments, as well as partners to intervene.
Yussuf said the situation could worsen going by the recent weatherman warnings.
According to the coordinator, some 39,800 children under five years and about 5,500 pregnant and lactating mothers in the county are malnourished.
However, only 23, 500 children and 3,900 mothers are in the programme that supplies them with therapeutic supplies.
She said, so far, four children have died since January 2022 due to malnutrition-related complications, adding that numbers could rise if drought situation persists in the coming months.
“The biggest challenges have been tracing those who are already in the programme because they keep on moving with their animals to look for pasture and water,” Yussuf said.
She said Lagdera and Balambala are worst hit by undernourishment of children under five years, noting that lactating mothers who are malnourished have a negative impact on their children.
The officer said the county, with support from partners, has increased screening and identification of malnourished children by doubling outreaches to villages in the interior.
In a programme dubbed 'Partnership for Resilience and Economic Growth' that brings together all USAID-funded projects, partners working in various sectors on drought intervention have come together to complement the government’s efforts.
Save the Children, a humanitarian organisation, has been supporting the county department of health in conducting integrated medical outreaches in hard-to-reach villages that do not have health facilities close to them.
Sugow Mathey, a nutrition coordinator at the organisation said they have increased the identification and screening of malnourished children who are put under the nutrition programme in partnership with the county.
The identified beneficiaries are supplied with supplemental food, which is provided by the World Food Programme and Unicef. The supplies are only available at public health facilities.
“Save the Children has also been doing water trucking for health facilities to sustain operations at dispensaries and health facilities. The water is also used by communities around due to the severe drought,” Mathey said.
Cash transfers have also been done to households that have suffered severe malnutrition to cushion them and enable them to buy food.
Mathey said the organisation has been helping the healthcare workers in capacity building to ensure they reach and screen more children and enrol them into the programme.
(edited by Amol Awuor)