By Dr. Angelo Tomedi | Project leader
The severe drought in the semi-arid region of eastern Kenya has subsided, with enough rain recently for some crop production. The quantity of food produced, however, has not been sufficient for many families to feed their children well. Here in the USA the holiday season that we celebrate this time of year coincides with a hunger season in the villages of eastern Kenya. These next few months, before the next harvest begins, are times of food insecurity and worsening child hunger and malnutrition. In order to find the malnourished children most in need of nutrition support, the Kenyan nurses who work in the Global Health Partnerships (GHP) project have been conducting outreach clinics in the most isolated villages. They weigh and measure the children to assess their nutrition status, and give immunizations, vitamins and deworming medicine. Over the past two months 136 children were seen in the outreach clinics. Many of them were undernourished, and those most severely affected were enrolled in the therapeutic feeding program that is sustained by your donations. The recovery of Mirriam (shown in the photos) from severe malnutrition is an example of the impact of your support. When Rebecca brought her 7 month old daughter Mirriam to be seen by the nurses, she was markedly underweight and had the muscle wasting and swollen abdomen typical
of marasmus, or severe undernutrition. After 2 months of therapeutic feeding with the supplements Plumpy’nut and Unimix along with nutrition education, Mirriam transformed into a normal healthy little girl. Your generous support of GHP changed a potentially tragic outcome of death from starvation into a story of a healthy future for this child.
Christmas is celebrated in Kenya, as it is in the USA. GHP will be giving holiday gifts of food and clothing to the poorest families with hungry children, in addition to continuing the therapeutic feeding to cure malnutrition. Your donations this holiday season can turn the hunger season of these Kenyan families into a time for celebration.
Over 95% of the donations that are received by GHP go directly into program services!
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