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Tackling child hunger in Kenya

When food shortages strike a developing country, it is children who are usually hit first and hardest. In North Eastern Kenya, three consecutive years of failed rains have plunged the region into a child hunger crisis.

In the remote Mandera district, which borders Somalia and Ethiopia, over 20,000 children are acutely malnourished and over 4,000 so acutely as to be in urgent danger of dying. Two-year-old Fatima Mohamed, had she not been admitted to a DFID-supported medical centre earlier this year, would have been one of those thousands of under-5s close to death.

Wasting away

When Fatima arrived at the Action Against Hunger centre, her body was wasting away as a result of under-feeding. "I had no milk to give to her and many times all I could get to feed her was just black tea with a little sugar," says her mother, Maryan.

Tests were taken and it was found that, not only was Fatima severely malnourished, she was also suffering from tuberculosis (TB). For the next two months, Fatima remained at the centre where she was provided with specially formulated milk to address her malnutrition and with a course of TB treatment.

New skills

On being discharged, Maryan was given a supply of a ready-to-use therapeutic food, "Plumpy Nut", to administer to Fatima at home and keep malnutrition at bay. But this was not all that Maryan left the centre with. Like all parents of malnourished children, she was also provided with basic lessons on health and hygiene.

With these new skills, which include an awareness of feeding practices for babies and young children, Maryan can play an influential health role in her community, sharing her knowledge with other parents.

Mandera's harsh climate, extreme poverty and proximity to conflict-ravaged Somalia, from where thousands of displaced people have come seeking refuge, have made its communities especially vulnerable to food shortages and dependent on humanitarian aid. Through its support for the efforts of aid agencies like Action Against Hunger, DFID is helping North Eastern Kenya's most at-risk people to survive these critical times.

Facts and stats

Since April 2008 the UK has provided over =A317.9 million to alleviate hunger in Kenya, supporting over 3 million people.

DFID is providing =A31 million to the Action against Hunger (ACF) one-year nutrition intervention in Kenya's North Eastern Province. The ACF programme will treat over 14,000 malnourished children and over 1,000 pregant and lactating women and provide therapeutic food to over 44,000 children. Last year DFID provided =A3900,000 to ACF, benefiting 23.640 women and children.

Since April 2009, DFID has provided =A34.4 million to non-governmental organisations, including Action Against Hunger, feeding over 82,000 starving children and mothers and providing free healthcare to many tens of thousands of people.

Over the last year DFID has provided =A310.5 million to the World Food Programme, supporting over 1.2 million people and providing supplementary feeding to over 50,000 children.