Emerg Nutrition & Health Care, East Africa Crisis

November 2011 Activities

November brought very heavy rains to the regions that Merlin work in, and some health facilities and remote villages were difficult or impossible to access.  In some areas the rain meant there were less water shortages and pasture began to regenerate.

Bale region

• Nutrition activities were carried out in all 8 woredas  (districts) of Bale, covering 116 kebeles (villages).
• Merlin staff helped with a second round of polio immunisation.
• 4082 children between 0 and 5 years were checked to see if they were suffering from malnutrition.  Unfortunately, 142 children were found to be severely malnourished.
• Thankfully, 196 children who had previously been diagnosed as severely malnourished were given the ‘all clear’.
• Over 5100 men and women were given health education, when they came to Merlin’s mobile health clinics to collect food and medicines.  They were offered information on how to prevent and protect against acute watery diarrhoea (AWD).  AWD can easily lead to cholera, a disease which spreads rapidly and can be fatal within a few hours of being caught, especially if the child or adult’s immune system is weakened from lack of nutrition.
• Public bathroom facilities were built: 8 pit latrines, each with 4 seats and 1 trench latrine with 14 seats. 10 local cleaners were enrolled to make sure the bathrooms will be kept clean. Soap, hand bowls and washing facilities were also provided.

Borena Region

• Nutrition activities were carried out in 5 woredas, covering 73 health facilities.
• 715 children were checked for malnutrition, of which 69 were suffering from severe malnutrition and put into the therapeutic feeding program.  On average children stay in this program for 25 – 30 days.
• 65 children were allowed to leave the therapeutic feeding centre, having gained a sufficient amount of weight.
• More than 6140 people attended health education sessions.  Topics covered included; the importance of breast feeding, the need to give babies additional food from 6 months with continued breast feeding up to 2 yrs and beyond, the importance of continued feeding when a child is sick and what is nutritional food.

Gode Region

• 6 health teams covered 5 woredas and Merlin staff also supported six static clinics.
• Nearly 6200 people were seen by Merlin’s health teams.
• 1189 children were screened for malnutrition, of which 132 were admitted into the therapeutic feeding program.
• Another 39 children were allowed back to their families, fully recovered after being part of the program in previous weeks.
• Merlin staff supported the continuing polio campaign.  65 children were vaccinated.
• Over 7000 people attended health education sessions.
• The feeding program continues to expand to other areas of Gode region, including support to an additional 7 static health clinics.

A more general update will follow in a few weeks.  Thank you again for your support of our work.

Links:

• Find out more about our work in Ethiopia