Food Security Chad Project #9971

Sahel, West Africa Food Crisis Emergency

by Merlin USA

Project Report | Jun 1, 2012
An Update from Merlin's Team in Chad

By Andrea Miles | Director of Development

Setting up the Feeding Center, Massaguet

Just received from our colleagues in Chad, an update on Merlin's new Stabilization Unit & Feeding Center in Massaguet.

The Center has now been set up inside Massaguet Hospital - it is a 32 bed ward, with lots of space around the beds so that feeding and medicine trollies can be pushed around the ward with ease, local health staff have space to care for patients and family members can stay by the patients bedsides throughout the day and night if they wish.

This is where children are brought by their families when they are severely malnourished - referred to the Center by mobile clinic teams (see below). These children are in dire need of a managed amount of nutritional intake over a number of days - if these children were not able to stay at the Center, many would sadly end up dying.

A milk room and kitchen are being created next to the ward, so that staff can make up and deliver supplementary feeds quickly to patients' beds. A water tower has also been built, so that there is continual supply of clean, drinkable water. The next priority is to acquire a generator, so the center has electricity 24/7.

Training of local staff

Other Merlin staff have been involved in training local staff to be part of the mobile clinics offering outreach health and feeding programs. Involving local staff allows Merlin to have a deeper understanding of local cultures and traditions, they also help to secure and build trust quickly and effectively with remote rural communities.

More updates will follow over the next few months.

Thank you for your support

The newly qualified, Merlin local staff

Merlin's trainees

Permalink

May 23, 2012
Merlin Respond to the Sahel Region's Food Crisis

By Andrea Miles | Director of Development

Women waiting at an outreach health post.

The Merlin Emergency Response Team sent to Chad to feed and care for vulnerable families living in remote communities, are now fully set up and are caring for over 250,000 people.

In the Sahel region of central Africa more than 15 million people are facing food shortages and over one million children are at risk of severe, acute malnutrition. The situation continues to get worse and experts forecast there will be a peak in food insecurity and malnutrition rates in July 2012 - this sadly, will result in a huge rise in deaths - the majority of which will be children. Merlin want to prevent needless deaths, by offering health and nutrition care now.

Merlin’s Emergency Response Team in Chad

In March 2012, Merlin teams carried out assessments in Chad, to determine health needs and design the most effective response possible. After reviewing the results, an emergency health and nutrition program response was launched immediately.

Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world. Ranked 183 out of 187 on the Health Development Index, one in
five children die before their fifth birthday and the average life expectancy is only 46 years. Currently, 3.6 million people are threatened with malnutrition.

Merlin are making the most of this small window of opportunity to save lives – to stop or slow the expert's forecast that malnutrition and death rates will soar from July onwards.

Our activities will care for over 250,000 - This emergency response will focus on providing life-saving health and nutritional care for over 40,000 pregnant women, new mothers and children under five. It will also benefit local populations of around 273,000 people.

Merlin’s Activities

Merlin has implemented an integrated emergency health and nutrition program in the Hadjer Lamis region of western Chad.

This area has huge needs and not has been receiving aid from other INGOs. The critical threshold rate of 15% for Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) has been reached, and families are exposed to communicable disease outbreaks due to their proximity to Lake Chad and dense populations.

Merlin’s activities include:

screening children under five, pregnant women and new mothers for malnutrition,
establishing 12 outpatient and supplementary feeding sites in existing health centers,
outreach services and mobile teams to reach more remote areas,
establishing a stabilization center at the District Hospital for those children requiring
emergency treatment,
training and support for local health workers, so they can care for patients within
their local neighborhoods,
health and nutrition education sessions, and
ensuring adequate medical and nutrition stocks.

On behalf of all those we care for and everyone at Merlin, thank you for your support.

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.