Children are prone to malnutrition in emergencies

Malnutrition increases and poses the highest risk to children during emergencies due to a lack of food and unsafe water. 

Sometimes children are said to suffer from under nutrition rather than malnutrition.  This is because they do not get enough food rather than just not getting enough of the right types of food.

UNICEF sets up therapeutic feeding centres for severely malnourished children during emergencies.  Therapeutic means it contributes to the cure of disease over time.  These centres provide special support to children 24 hours a day as by the time they get there they are in need of constant care if they are to survive.  When a person is very malnourished their body system changes so they can't eat normally.  Different foods such as therapeutic milk and plumpy nut are used as they are made to be taken in by weakened bodies.

Plumpy Nut

Plumpy Nut is made from powdered milk, ground peanuts, oil, powdered sugar, vitamins and minerals. It comes in foil packets and does not need refrigeration, making it ideal for distribution during emergencies. It doesn't need to be cooked and is sealed to avoid contamination. It tastes like peanut butter and children love to eat it, especially when they are in desperate need of food after an emergency.

Ethiopia suffered a food crisis in 2008 and plumpy nut was distributed to prevent the spread of severe malnourishment in drought affected areas of the country. The fact that it is easily transportable and rich in kilocalories (500 per sachet) makes plumpy nut an ideal therapeutic food in these circumstances. In Ethiopia, UNICEF used community 'Health Extension Workers' - leaders in local communities who were responsible for its distribution. This community focus ensures that distribution can be far-reaching. It also means that sachets are delivered to individual homes. Children can then avoid being exposed to possible infection at specialised feeding centres and it frees up mothers to look after her other children or continue work.


Food Crisis in Madagascar: Climate Change Causes the Failure of Seasonal Rains
-Guy Hubbard, Antananarivo, 27 July 2009

The effects of climate change are being felt in Madagascar where the biannual rains have failed to appear for the past two years. Farmers normally plant and harvest sweet potato and maize twice a year in accordance with these rains; enough to keep their families fed throughout the dry season. Drought has seen the once mighty rivers dry to a trickle. The crops have died and people are beginning to starve.

Liatinahie is a farmer and mother of 10. She and her husband lost their crops early in 2009 and began to run out of food. Everyone was hungry, but their youngest daughter suffered the most.

"I had seeds and planted sweet potatoes, but because there was no rain, they dried up," recalled Liatinahie. "I noticed my daughter was getting thinner but there was no food and when she got even thinner I took her to the health centre."

UNICEF is using an early warning system to attempt to alleviate the crisis. Community volunteers go door to door and children who appear at risk of malnourishment are sent to the local health centres where they are examined. The centres give them doses of ready-to-use therapeutic food.

6 weeks of treatment leaves Liatinahie's daughter chubbier and almost completely well. She is lucky to have received help early; there can be long term impacts of malnutrition such as slow development and learning difficulties.

Because the drought is due to global climate change, the farmers fear that malnutrition will become a way of life on the island.

Source: UNICEF International Website

If an emergency has been going on for a long time UNICEF will target pregnant women and children under 5 for special help.  UNIMIX porridge is often given out to these families.  This is a high protein porridge fortified with vitamins and minerals.  It has 400 calories per 100 gms of flour.