Report Back: Kenyan Famine
3/03/2008
When the ChildFund Crisis Team found little Brian and Edwin, both boys were severely and dangerously malnourished. Edwin two and a half years old weighed 12kg – he should be 16kg.
Edwin’s ‘big’ brother Brian, a year older, weighed only 9.2 kilograms – half what he should be!
The ChildFund team noted the boys’ swollen bellies, a clear symptom of the hunger disease kwashiorkor. Lack of food causes a protein deficiency where fluids in the blood break down, and drain into the stomach. It can permanently stunt a child’s growth, and is potentially fatal. The boys had reached this condition because of the drought in Kenya.
They live with their grandparents on a small plot of land, but the family’s cattle had died. Therefore there was no income to buy food, and not even any milk to struggle by on.
ChildFund rushed the two boys to hospital. They received medical care and special supplementary feeding. Edwin improved dramatically with the special care, and his weight is up to a strong and steady 15.5 kg.
Brian’s struggle has been much harder. In the hospital he was diagnosed with tuberculosis as well as malnutrition. He has spent more than a month in hospital, and still needs special attention. The good news is his weight has increased to 12.4kg, and he improves a little more each day.
Brian and Edwin are just two of the children in famine-struck Kenya helped by your donation through ChildFund New Zealand – thank you for helping save their lives!
The good news for drought-hit Kenya is that rains have finally arrived. Crops have started growing, so families can look forward in hope. However rains remain unpredictable and it is still months until crops are ready for harvest – to provide food and income. That’s why the help from New Zealanders through ChildFund remains absolutely vital to save children’s lives.
What’s been achieved already!
- 107 tonnes of high protein corn-soya blend distributed to children through 160 Early Childhood Development Centres (ECD)
- 50 Salter scales and 50 height boards procured for growth monitoring
- 15,533 children under 5 recorded for feeding programme
- 2,750 pregnant and lactating mothers screened for feeding programme
- 20,095 children received Vitamin A supplements (to protect against blindness and immune deficiencies)
- 9,377 children receive tablets to treat worms
- 93 children (like Brian & Edwin) admitted to hospitals for emergency treatment
- 21 x 2,300 litre waters tanks + 2 x 4,600 litre water tanks provided for ECDs
- maize and bean seeds for planting distributed to two school garden farms
- improved access to safe drinking water and sanitation for 53,660 men, women and children in four districts
The ChildFund Alliance Introduces Revolutionary Universal Child Development Scale
The ChildFund Alliance has produced a Child Development Scale designed for use in developing countries. It is the first universal tool created by an international non-governmental organisation that is designed to be useful regardless of the culture or circumstances in which a child lives.
The scale is designed to be used in partnership with parents or primary caregivers and administered by trained volunteers, rather than requiring skilled child development professionals.
It screens the development of children in order to describe their strengths and identify those who need further evaluation. It also aids parents in understanding their child’s needs. The scale covers five areas of child development for children from birth to age 5. A database system allows tracking of a child’s results.
“The scale helps identify children’s strengths in cognitive, social / emotional and communication and motor skills – both the use of large and small muscles,” said Dr. Mary Moran, ChildFund Alliance's Senior Early Childhood Development Specialist, who is providing oversight to rollout the scale. “It also identifies children whose development is at risk in a specific area or overall.”
