Abdile's Story - A father's devotion helps his young son survive

By Christopher Tidey.

In a community of mothers, Abdile stands apart as the consummate father.

Abdile, his wife, four children and their paternal grandmother left home in Somalia in search of food and water after the drought had claimed their crops and livestock. During the 25-day journey, Abdile’s wife succumbed to starvation, while he was forced to will his family forward, at times literally carrying three of his four children on his back.

“We had no choice, but to continue,” he says. “We had to keep moving or we would die.”

More than medical care

Aden, 3, Abdile’s youngest son, grew increasingly malnourished as their food and water supply dwindled. By the time the family reached the refugee settlement in Dadaab, Aden was so weak that he didn’t have the strength to lift his head or swallow. As he was rushed to the hospital, his 5 kg body was perilously close to shutting down.

That was nearly two weeks ago and Aden is still here. When I went to visit Aden late last week, his weight had risen to 6.1 kg and he was beginning to eat solid food. His muscles remain terribly weak, but he is finally able to stand with support for a few seconds at a time.

Aden’s slow but steady recovery comes as a result of near constant treatment from the dedicated staff at the Hagadera hospital and a regime of therapeutic feeding provided by UNICEF. But I think there is more to his improving condition than medical care alone.

‘He will survive this’

Every time I visit Aden at the hospital, his father is there. Abdile, the only father in the ward, stays with his son, while Aden’s grandmother cares for his three siblings.

Each night, Abdile stays at the hospital so that Aden can fall asleep under his watchful gaze. The delicacy and love with which Abdile touches, feeds, reassures and holds his fragile son is a truly beautiful sight – the embodiment of what it means to be a parent.

Just as he willed his family to survive the journey to Kenya despite the enormity of their loss, he is willing Aden to survive today.

“Now, more than ever, it is important for our family to stay together,” Abdile tells me during our last visit. “My son is getting better day by day, and I know that he will survive this.”

Humanitarian response

Thousands of new malnutrition cases in children are being reported in the Dadaab camps each month. Across the region – in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia – well over 2 million children are believed to be malnourished as a result of the drought, rising food prices and political instability in Somalia.

UNICEF is working to deliver unprecedented quantities of life-saving therapeutic and supplementary foods to children at risk in the Horn of Africa. By plane, truck and ship, we delivered over 1,400 metric tonnes of nutrition supplies to some of the hardest-hit areas in southern Somalia in July – enough to reach more than 65,000 children with supplementary feeding and to treat 17,000 children suffering from severe malnutrition.

Over the next eight weeks, UNICEF will expand supplementary feeding to reach hundreds of thousands more children and their families as quickly as possible.

Help UNICEF provide Therapuetic Food and care for children like Aden. Donate to our East African Food Crisis Appeal today.