On the Road to Recovery

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“There are a lot of people who, when they are not properly fed or treated when they are sick, will die,” said Abdul Shaya. “I have seen a lot of people like this. It happens a lot.”Abdul Shaya had just travelled to Yawan by donkey with his 18-month old granddaughter Mahsa so that she could be treated at Medair’s newly opened nutrition clinic. A small, spry man with bright eyes and an easy smile, he doted over his little granddaughter while waiting to be seen by the nutrition team.“I love my grandchildren as I love my children. They are my own,” he said. “Her mother has just had another baby and is too weak to come, and her father is sick at the moment, which is why I have brought her.”Ever since she stopped breastfeeding, Mahsa had grown very sick. “After the breastfeeding stopped we saw that she was getting weaker and thinner by the day,” said Abdul Shaya. “The food we eat is very hard and tough. She shouldn’t have had to eat those foods, but we didn’t have any special foods for her.” After being examined by the Medair nutrition team, Mahsa was diagnosed as being severely malnourished. We gave Abdul Shaya a large bag of nutrition-rich therapeutic food for Mahsa, which he gratefully received, and told him to return to the clinic in two weeks for follow-up and more food. Malnutrition in AfghanistanEvery year, a shocking 237,000 of Afghanistan’s children die before their fifth birthday, with acute malnutrition being a leading contributor. Malnutrition is most common in remote mountain villages where the growing season is short, the winters are long, and harvests are unreliable. Families must survive throughout the winter on the meagre reserves they can store over the summer. “Most of the time, we see malnutrition in the villages,” said Abdul Shahad, a community health worker with the Ministry of Public Health. “The children are thin, but often have large stomachs and swelling in their feet. Some suffer from loss of appetite while others are desperately hungry. They are sad and lifeless and unable to play. They are not interested in what is happening around them.”In 2010, Medair began a nutrition programme in the remote and impoverished district of Raghistan in Badakhshan province which treated more than 2,000 malnourished children and pregnant women, saving many lives. Encouraged by the impact of their Raghistan nutrition project, Medair expanded its programme into the neighbouring districts of Yawan and Kohistan. We now have three nutrition clinics running, one in each district, with a fourth clinic due to open in Yawan in July. Community mobilisers are visiting villages across the three districts, urging families to bring their malnourished women and children for treatment to the clinics. “I have never seen such thin and sick children as you find in the villages here,” said Adbul Khan, Medair nutrition worker. “It made me very sad and upset when I talked to the mothers. I told them they needed to breastfeed their sick children, but they don’t even have enough food to feed themselves.” Medair is also working to train more than 500 volunteers to encourage families and communities to learn more about nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables, nutrition during pregnancy and lactation, better hygiene practices, and how to care for their sick children. We hope that more than 5,000 households (as many as 35,000 people) will learn from this programme and be better able to protect the health of their children in the future.First Patients in YawanJust two weeks after opening the Yawan clinic, more than 400 people had already been screened, and more than 200 malnourished women and children had been admitted into the programme. Bebe Firoza was among those who waited in the heat outside the clinic tents in those first weeks. She brought her 10-month-old granddaughter Nazaneen for evaluation. Orphaned by her father and abandoned by her mother, Nazaneen is now being raised by her grandmother. “What could I do? Her mother’s father would not accept Nazaneen into his family,” said Bebe Firoza. “Now, her mother has left us. So what could I do? I have to look after her.”Like Mahsa, Nazaneen was diagnosed as being severely malnourished. She was given therapeutic food rations, and Bebe Firoza was told to return with her in two weeks. “She needs to be made healthy because she is suffering,” said Bebe Firoza. “She has been getting worse and that is why I came here. To get her treated.”Hope for MahsaBefore Abdul Shaya left for the return journey to his village, we asked him what would have happened to Mahsa if the clinic had not opened. “In that case we would have kept feeding her the only food that we had and it is quite possible that she would have died,” he replied. “People here do their best, but sometimes the child dies.”Based on the impact of last year’s programme in Raghistan, we have every reason to be hopeful that this programme will save the lives of many children who would otherwise die, and bring real change into the lives of their families. However, the programme’s success depends on the commitment of parents and grandparents to make the often difficult journey to a clinic for ongoing follow-up visits. “I was very sad and desperate but now I am happy because there is a way to treat my granddaughter,” said Abdul Shaya, before departing with Masha for a two-hour trip home. “We are so glad that there are people who are taking care of us.” ___________________________________________________________________________In the weeks and months ahead, we will monitor Mahsa’s recovery and report back with updates. Visit Medair’s website or subscribe to the Medair e-newsletter to follow her story. Our hope is that she and Nazaneen will continue to be brought in for treatment and that they will soon regain their full health and strength. Medair’s nutrition project in remote Afghanistan is making an immediate life-saving difference for Mahsa, Nazaneen, and thousands of other children and pregnant women. Your donations today make our work possible. ___________________________________________________________________________Medair’s nutrition project in Afghanistan is supported by Swiss Solidarity, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), WFP, UNICEF, and private donations. Medair has operated in Afghanistan since 1996 and is serving vulnerable and isolated communities in the provinces of Badakhshan and the Central Highlands. In addition to providing nutritional support and training to malnourished women and children, Medair is helping communities with clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), helping improve the food security of at-risk communities by offering famer training and cash-for-work schemes, supporting communities through emergency response when natural disaster occurs, and working with local government to reduce the risk of damage from future disasters. This web feature was produced with resources gathered by Medair field and headquarters staff. The views expressed herein are those solely of Medair and should not be taken, in any way, to reflect the official opinion of any other organisation.