Zaha is 27. She has given birth to five children, one of whom died. She returned to Médecins Sans Frontières’ nutrition center in Maradi because her youngest child, Rachida, is ill again. Last year, in 2005, Rachida developed severe acute malnutrition. She was treated and survived. Less than a year later, she is malnourished again. At 16 months old, she weighs only seven kilos. She was admitted into the program immediately because she risked losing more weight without rapid treatment.
Zaha’s husband does not live at home. He is away regularly, spending a few days here and three months there. Zaha appeals to friends with resources and to her parents for help to feed her children.
Sahia has already lost four children to malnutrition. Now her six-month-old twins, Hassana and Husseina, are malnourished and she’s worried they might die too. Hassana, at six months old, weighs only seven pounds. That is what a newborn should weigh. But after just one week, with two packets of ready-to-use food each day, the little girl has already put on one pound. (Excerpt from "The Food of Life," 60 Minutes (CBS), October 21, 2007)
Zaha and Sahia never have enough to feed their family. The extent of their shortfall depends on the time of year. The youngest children have very specific nutritional needs, so this inadequate diet – both in terms of quantity and quality – can trigger one or multiple episodes of acute malnutrition. Sometimes, the malnutrition is severe. But with an appropriate nutritional product, the children have recovered considerable strength in less than one month. Zaha and Sahia must still struggle every day to obtain the minimum amount of food for their children. Their problem has not been solved. But they can be proud that they have taken care of their children, who are still alive.
In 2005, a year of exceptional food insecurity in Niger, MSF treated over 60,000 severely malnourished children using therapeutic ready-to-use food (RUF). Given the excellent results on a large scale for severe cases, MSF extended the use of therapeutic RUF through the outpatient strategy to moderately malnourished children. In 2006 nearly 65,000 children were treated, 92.5% of whom suffered from moderate malnutrition and 7.5% from severe malnutrition.