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Malnutrition is especially common in children who live in isolated, mountain villages like the ones found in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province. Badakhshan is an empty land, barren and silent. Mountains stretch as far as the eye can see. Clusters of crude mud-brick homes stand on hillsides, usually near a river or stream.
Badakhshan’s remote communities face long winters, poor growing conditions, and high rates of malnutrition. Thin soils and steep slopes make for difficult farming, while heavy rains throughout the growing season lead to flooding and landslides. During the winter months, heavy snowfall makes travel to or from many of these small villages impossible except on foot or horseback.
In 2011, the international relief agency Medair expanded on its existing nutrition project in Raghistan district and reached out to villages in the districts of Yawan and Kohistan. Community mobilisers visited villages across all three districts, urging families to bring their malnourished children and pregnant or breastfeeding women to one of four Medair-supported clinics.
Within just two weeks of opening its doors this spring, staff at the clinic in Yawan village had screened more than 400 people for malnutrition and admitted more than 200 malnourished children and women into the nutrition program.
Fardin’s Recovery
One of those children was Fardin, son of Danial. Like many households, Danial and his family had endured a difficult winter. During the long, cold months that started the year, the family had survived on a meagre diet that was barely enough to sustain them. “We just lived on a little wheat,” said Danial. “We could not eat anything but bread.”
The winter was particularly hard on little Fardin, Danial’s youngest son. “He was breastfed for six months,” said Danial. “But we then gave him bread and animal milk, and he was not willing to eat them. He became malnourished. He suffered from a high fever and his feet were as thin as a finger. His skin was tight against his bones.”
Having heard of the success of Medair’s nutrition program in the neighbouring district of Raghistan, Danial eagerly brought Fardin in to be assessed by the Medair team, and enrolled him in the program. “We have a lot of confidence in Medair because we had heard last year about the work they were doing in other districts,” he said. “We know they are offering good care for the people.”
After nearly a month in the program, Fardin’s health had dramatically improved. Now a healthy and plump boy, he happily slurped on a package of therapeutic food as his father held him proudly.
“Unbelievable! He has made a lot of improvement,” said Danial with a grateful smile. “At first he was indifferent to everything around him. But now he is curious again and looks around. My child was about to die, but now Medair has helped us and we are so grateful to have them here.”
Between April and October 2011, Medair was able to treat more than 2,000 malnourished children like Fardin along with more than 3,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women in Badakhshan.
Still, malnutrition will remain a critical problem in Afghanistan unless communities take responsibility for improving their own well-being. With this in mind, Medair supported a grassroots training campaign that reached almost 10,000 people with information about the importance of eating fruits and vegetables, nutrition during pregnancy and lactation, good hygiene practices, and how to care for sick children.
“You only need to look at the faces of the people here to see that there is a big problem with malnutrition,” said Gharib Nawaz, the Governor of Kohistan, at the opening of the Paspul clinic in June. “I am 100 percent positive about the opening of this nutrition clinic. Foreign NGOs are not interested in working in these parts. We are thankful for Medair, that despite the difficulties involved in working in this place, they come here to help us.”
Medair brings emergency relief and rehabilitation to the most vulnerable people affected by disasters, conflict, and other crises. Since 1989, Medair has provided humanitarian aid in 27 countries and currently works in Afghanistan, D.R. Congo, Haiti, Madagascar, Somalia (Somaliland), South Sudan, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. (www.medair.org)
Source: [1] 1. Levels and Trends in Child Mortality, Report 2011. UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. www.unicef.org/media/files/Child_Mortality_Report_2011_Final.pdf
