Families in Yemen who endure prolonged exposure to armed conflict and grinding poverty are forced to live on the thinnest margins of survival – especially when displaced from their homes and lacking access to food, clean water, and basic nutrition and medical services.
Om Salim confronts the cruel realities of hunger every day as a mother of two young children living in extreme poverty. The family must routinely skip meals, and often has nothing to eat for a day if not longer.
When Om Salim’s youngest child recently began showing signs of malnutrition including severe wasting and swelling, she brought him to a WHO-supported therapeutic feeding center (TFC) with nothing but her anguished prayers that he would pull through.
Dr. Athmar Al Saqqaf is the director of the Al-Sadaqa Hospital TFC in Aden governorate. A large number of families arrive to this TFC from surrounding governorates including Abyan and Al Hodeidah. Consequently, it is continuously filled to capacity and beyond with malnourished children and their caregivers.
“We treat children for a number of critical medical complications caused by severe acute malnutrition [SAM] – requiring that we also operate as a pediatric intensive care unit -- so we need skilled staff and adequate equipment," Dr. Athmar explained.
WHO and the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) are the main supporters of the Al-Sadaqa TFC, Dr Athmar said, adding: “We need this support to continue so we can carry on with preventing the deaths of potentially thousands of children.”
Ohod Jomay, age 22, has experienced the torment of seeing her 8-month-old daughter Maryam nearly succumb to severe acute malnutrition before she could get her to the Al-Sadaqa Hospital TFC for life-saving therapeutic feeding and emergency medical care.
WHO in partnership with KSrelief has been providing emergency therapeutic feeding and medical care to about 18,000 infants and children under age five, at eight TFCs in tertiary teaching hospitals located across eight governorates of Yemen. Parents and caregivers arriving to the TFCs are also educated about what they can do to prevent malnutrition, even while lacking many basic necessities. This involves educating them about essential, healthy and affordable food items, to mitigate the recurrence of malnutrition linked to limited nutritional knowledge, living conditions, and other contributing factors.
In Yemen some 46% of children under five are suffering from chronic stunting that can impede their mental and physical development, and increase their vulnerability to chronic diseases in adulthood. It is also estimated that at least 362,000 children under age five are suffering from both acute and chronic malnutrition -- placing them at nine times higher risk of death.
Post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety are commonly experienced by parents who cannot provide for their children, while being constantly worried about their safety, if not their survival.
Despite substantial progress being made in the ongoing fight against hunger in Yemen, much remains to be done to loosen its lethal grip on countless families, children and infants.
Story: Hanan Eshaq, Kevin Cook / WHO-Yemen
Photos: Nesma Khan, Kevin Cook / WHO-Yemen