Sahel, West Africa Food Crisis Emergency

We’re set up and delivering health care

 Merlin has been working in Chad for nearly three months now. Why did we send out an Emergency Response Team in the first place?  The facts speak for themselves:

• 3.6 million have no food security, i.e. parents can not be sure that they have enough food to feed their family.
• 1.5 million of those people have severe food insecurity, there is a wholly inadequate, availability of food i.e. families do not know if they have food for each day or week.
• 127,000 children are severely malnourished i.e. very near to death.

Merlin's Emergency Response Team

Our emergency response was led by Lea Gilbert (see photos below).  Once on the ground, Lea and the initial team began the set up process.   Merlin’s logistician Justin Bangue searched out an appropriate base, to be used as an office and place to sleep, eat and have a little down time.  He and Lea were also in charge of liaising with country representatives of government donors about ongoing funding and talking to various Chad government departments to make sure all the paper work was in order, including recruitment procedures and non-profit certifications.

Justin also coordinated the delivery of procured supplies and medicines, to make sure everything was in place for our health and mobile teams, to make sure they could start offering services as soon as possible.

The health & nutrition teams come under the supervision of Angela Muruiki, Merlin’s Health Manager in Chad.  She has been leading training sessions with local health staff and outreach teams in basic health and nutrition care.  Angela ensures that every health worker has the required skills to offer quality health care to everyone that needs it, including those living in more rural and remote communities.   Since the outreach services were available, and now word has spread, the number of families visiting the outreach clinics has risen each week, from double to triple figures.

Angela’s team has also set up a therapeutic Feeding Center in Massaguet Hospital, one of only 3 hospitals in Hadjer Lamis province, in the central, west of Chad. On June 13^th alone, the Feeding Center received more than 30 new, severely malnourished children into the feeding program, and a neighboring health clinic registered 50 more. 

Our teams will be there to help 100’s, maybe 1000’s more children, mothers, the elderly, in fact anyone that needs our care, over the coming months. 

Also...Do you think Merlin is doing a good job?

If you love our work, then tell the world! You have an exciting opportunity to help Merlin (Medical Emergency Relief International) make even more of a difference. GreatNonprofits - a site like Amazon Book Reviews or TripAdvisor - is a website where people can share their stories about nonprofits that they really believe in.

Will you help us raise awareness and support for our life saving work, by posting a review of about Merlin?All reviews will be visible to potential donors. It's easy and only takes a few minutes. Please go to:http://greatnonprofits.org/organizations/reviews/medical-emergency-relief-international-usa-inc and log your comment.

With your help, we can gain visibility and ultimately funds for our health care work around the world.

Merlin can respond to situations such as the food crisis in Sahel, because of you.  Thank you.

Links:

• From our website - background to the crisis
• More on our Merlin UK website
• A view from Think Africa Press 'The Perfect Food Storm'