Meet Maimouna

Meet Maimouna, a three-year-old farmer’s daughter living on the outskirts of the Central African Republic’s capital, Bangui.

In a country battling with high food prices and a decline in agriculture, many children, like Maimouna, are malnourished.

Maimouna arrives to a therapeutic feeding centre at Bangui Paediatric Centre after a 55 mile trek with her aunt, as her mother is too ill to accompany her. She is suffering from "kwashiorkor", a form of severe acute malnutrition. This type of malnutrition is characterised by the appearance of oedema: a swelling of the limbs caused by excessive water retention. A child suffering from kwashiorkor is at high risk of death and requires immediate treatment.

To celebrate World Food Day 2010, you can follow Maimouna’s day-by-day recovery.

25th September 2010

Once Maimouna arrived at the centre, Action Against Hunger staff members immediately take her measurements. Maimouna weighs a mere 10kg. This is grossly insufficient for her age and height. Her nutritional status is also checked by measuring her mid-upper arm circumference, known as MUAC

26th September 2010

Additional tests are performed and the doctor requests a chest X-ray because Maimouna suffers from a persistent cough. We discover that she has pneumonia; malnutrition is often induced, among other factors, by diseases such as pneumonia. Maimouna immediately receives medical treatment.

27th September 2010

Maimouna and her aunt meet again with the doctor. Daily monitoring is needed to properly assess her progress. It also allows her aunty to u

28th Sepetmber 2010

Maimouna has now been ill for a whole month. Before coming to the clinic, she was treated with traditional medicines at home, but there has been no improvement which her aunt brought her to the clinic.

29th September 2010

Maimouna receives therapeutic milk five times per day. The milk is rich in vitamins and minerals, but low in protein, sugar and fat. Maimouna is at the most critical and sensitive stage of her treatment, so our goal is to treat her medical symptoms and for her condition to stabilise, rather than focusing on increasing her weight.

30th September 2010

It is important that Maimouna is in a calm, stable atmosphere whilst she takes her milk. Maimouna’s aunt is there to softly encourage her. The milk must not be forced, so Action Against Hunger staff members advise parents and carers on the correct practice.

1st October 2010

Some of Maimouna’s fellow patients at the centre are suffering from another type of severe acute malnutrition, known as “severe wasting”. This type of malnutrition is characterised by a massive loss of body fat and muscle tissue and is recognisable by an emaciated body with a paunchy belly.

2nd October 2010

Maimouna’s condition is slowly improving. After five days, her oedema is disappearing and Action Against Hunger staff members refer her to the next phase of her treatment. In this so-called transition phase, Maimouna will receive a different therapeutic milk, however, she must still remain on antibiotics.

3rd October 2010

The daily monitoring of Maimouna’s weight continues. Good news! The curves show a drop in weight, which indicates that the oedema is fading.

4th October 2010

The therapeutic feeding centre not only treats severely malnourished children, but also holds regular information and awareness raising sessions for mothers and carers. A small change in care and feeding practices can prevent their children from relapsing into malnutrition.

5th October 2010

Malnourished child need specialist care by trained professionals; general paediatric nursing is not sufficient, therefore, our teams train local staff in the treatment of malnutrition. By working in close collaboration with local communities and training local staff, we are providing long-term solutions for the treatment of malnutrition.

6th October 2010

After a week at the centre, Maimouna is doing really well. She continues her nutritional treatment, and can finally play with the other children. Playtime cannot be underestimated as it is important to stimulate their development.

7th October 2010

Good hygiene at the centre is also crucial. All parents and/or carers receive soap and hygiene training when they arrive at the centre. Children are always washed at the hottest time of the day to avoid hypothermia.

8th October 2010

According to her latest health check, Maimouna is doing well and will now enter the final phase of her treatment.

9th October 2010

Maimouna receives ready-to-use therapeutic food, a nutrient rich, high protein treatment which will aid her recovery

10th October 2010

Whilst Maimouna gets stronger, more acutely malnourished children arrive at the centre. The Central African Republic has alarming malnutrition rates which not only affects a child’s life, but impacts upon the whole community.

11th October 2010

Another little girl, Kossi, is also at the centre today. She also suffers from acute malnutrition, but has maintained her appetite with no medical complications; therefore she does not need to stay at the centre. Instead she will receive a weekly amount of therapeutic food.that’s ready prepared for use at home.

12th October 2010

Depending on the situation, we also provide extra supplementary food to families to ensure that the family has enough food to feed all their children and the malnourished child receives the specialised therapeutic food needed for his or her recovery.

13th October 2010

While Maimouna and other children are treated at the centre, Action Against Hunger’s team is also implementing activities in villages aimed at preventing malnutrition, promoting its early detection and its management within the community. It is crucial to address the causes of malnutrition to prevent children from developing malnutrition.

14th October 2010

Her latest medical assessment shows that Maimouna has now regained her health! She no longer has any oedema, has reached her target weight, and no longer has medical complications. Her aunty is understandably relieved.

15th October 2010

Today Maimouna is well enough to leave the centre! She will be given ready to use therapeutic foods to prevent any relapse and her aunty is now fully aware of Maimouna’s nutritional needs. It is fantastic news that Maimouna has made a full recovery, but we must not forget the thousands of other children who need our help. Our fight against hunger will continue…

From Trickle to Torrent

A blog by Action Against Hunger’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Advisor, Nick Radin


"The road to Hombo is a muddy mess. When it rains in D.R. Congo, driving a few miles, even in a four-by-four vehicle, can take hours. I’m travelling to see our water installations in Hombo with Mamady Camara, who began working with Action Against Hunger seven years ago in his native Guinea, and now manages our water, sanitation and hygiene programmes in the zone. We’re also accompanied by two national staff, Congolese water technicians named André and Bonaventure, who grew up in the area and know it inside and out.

Over the last six months, the people of Hombo have taken in a wave of new arrivals coming to escape violence and seeking refuge with local families. Compared to surrounding villages, Hombo is perceived as relatively safe because of its close proximity to a base of U.N. Peacekeepers. This recent influx of displaced people has increased the village’s population by nearly 40 percent and put enormous pressure on local resources.

Before Action Against Hunger arrived, the only clean water source for all of Hombo was an unprotected spring - barely more than a trickle, really. You had to stand there for more than two minutes just to fill one 20-litre jerry can with water. This may not seem like a long time, but because there were 5,000 people that needed water every single day, they would sometimes have to wait in line for hours to get it.

Since each family was only permitted to fill one jerry can of water per day, not nearly enough for all their daily needs and far below minimum humanitarian standards, they were forced to draw much of their water from a nearby river.
This is the same river where people bathe, mothers wash their families’ laundry and animals drink and defecate. You can get a whole host of illnesses from drinking dirty water like this, including cholera, diarrhea and dysentery, which kill thousands of children in D.R. Congo every year.

We get out of our vehicle by the river in Hombo and are greeted by a group of women ecstatically whooping and hollering. They are gathering clean water from the tanks Action Against Hunger has installed by the river, and the joy on their faces is contagious.

In June, our teams set up a series of tanks to treat and fully decontaminate water that’s drawn from the river. The clean water from these tanks is then fed directly into a row of taps, where the women and children of Hombo now come to collect water each day. These taps provide more than enough water for the whole village, including the 2,000 newcomers that have arrived over the last few months, which means that all families now have access to as much safe water as they need.

I’m introduced to Bashige Dorcase, who, full of relief, no longer worries about having enough clean drinking water for all her children. Mamaday shows me the place near the river where our hygiene promoters are conducting sessions on practices like hand-washing, safe water handling and latrine usage. These are crucial steps in stopping the spread of water-borne illnesses that have ravaged communities across Congo, and they’re part of our integrated approach to fighting hunger and disease.

In addition to caring for her own children, Bashige has taken in her three young nephews. Full of relief, she tells me how she no longer worries about having enough clean drinking water for all her children. She also says that the residents of Hombo are getting along much better since they don’t argue any more over access to the limited water supply.

Bashige and her family aren’t the only ones whose lives have been changed. Two months after Action Against Hunger came to Hombo, the number of people seeking treatment for diarrhea at the local health centre was cut by more than half. There’s been a dramatic 95 percent drop in reported cholera cases, too.

My job takes me to villages across East and Central Africa just like Hombo. But seeing hope and gratitude on the faces of women like Bashige never gets old for me. At home in New York, it’s sometimes easy to forget how something as simple as a glass of clean water can make a world of difference. But today, it’s obvious. I hear it in the joyous shouts of the people of Hombo”

Action Against Hunger | ACF International is an international humanitarian organisation committed to ending child hunger. For more information, please visit: www.actionagainsthunger.org.uk and become a fan at http://acf-uk-facebook.tk/

Rebuilding Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI—Action Against Hunger | ACF International has provided emergency services in clean water, nutrition, sanitation and hygiene to more than 100,000 people since the earthquake devastated the Haitian capital one month ago today. The humanitarian organisation has also expanded its current operations in Port de Paix and Gonaives, cities that have experienced an influx of hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors fleeing the capital.



Update from Port-au-Prince

* Clean water: Action Against Hunger has installed 41 large water reservoirs and five water treatment stations in hard-hit neighbourhoods across Port-au-Prince that provide daily clean drinking water access to nearly 70,000 people.

* Sanitation: The humanitarian agency is constructing 100 latrines equipped with hand-washing stations and has mobilised 60 staff members to conduct public awareness campaigns in displacement camps on best hygiene practices in emergency settings.

* Nutrition Services: A dozen makeshift tents are now operational in Port-au-Prince, providing nearly 500 mothers and their young children with a safe setting for breastfeeding, as well as counselling and psycho-social support, each day. The centres also provide feedings to forty infants whose mothers were killed or injured in the earthquake.

* Distributions: Since the earthquake, Action Against Hunger has distributed 62 tons of high-protein BP5 biscuits, 3,600 blankets and more than 2,000 emergency kits containing plastic sheeting, soap, buckets and other essential items. Some 35,000 people have benefited from Action Against Hunger’s distributions.


Strengthening programmes in surrounding areas

In response to the arrival of an estimated 500,000 survivors from Port-au-Prince who have taken refuge with families in nearby cities of Gonaives and Port de Paix, Action Against Hunger has scaled up programmes in nutrition, health, clean water and sanitation already underway prior to the earthquake. Having run programmes in these cities since 2001, the organisation is focused on the treatment of severely malnourished children; the installation of clean drinking water stations, latrines and other sanitation facilities; and the provision of technical and logistical support for local health centres and hospitals.



The consequences of this disaster are unimaginable and it will take a long time before Haitians will be able to return to any kind of normality. The cameras might no longer focus on Haiti, but our teams are there, working together with communities to make a difference to tens of thousands of survivors.



Action Against Hunger has launched a public emergency appeal. Call 08456 003618 or click here