Unicef to save 200,000 children in far north from malnutrition

Most children in this area are struggling to resist a severe acute malnutrition with complications, a disturbing pathology in the far north of Cameroon, affected area at this time by a new outbreak of cholera.

The Kar Hay locality, the main town of the region of the far North, saw a "high prevalence" of malnutrition sometimes associated with HIV, according to Dr. Richard Olivier Koum Kitti, head of the health district of the Borough.

It is a trend for the entire region which culminates at 42.79% prevalence of chronic malnutrition on a population estimated at 3.5 million inhabitants, against 33% nationally, according to official estimates which stated about 1.8% of acute malnourished children and 8.6% other classified acute global malnourished.

To explain this situation, sociological surveys point to a poor diet due to poor conditions of life of the peoples of the far North toiling for some of them sometimes under extreme poverty caused by food crises related to drought and floods. The regional delegate of the water and energy, Alifa Salleh added "The far North is a region of extremes", which suffers from an arid soil and a scarcity of resources in water compounded by low rainfall.

This is one of the reasons why it faces endemics like cholera, malaria, infectious and parasitic diseases linked to dirty water, in the opinion of Dr. Fabrice Biongol, Chief Medical Officer of the medical center, close to the health area of Kar Hay, which listed last week about 15 cases of severe acute malnourished and twenty of the malnourished treble.

With several others, these two localities however benefit from a program of prevention and management of malnutrition conducted by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), thanks to Japanese funding taking also into account the health of the mother and the child as well as the supply of drinking water through the construction of drilling in schools.

Amounting to about 14 million U.S. dollars for 2013, the Japanese financial assistance amounted to 3.2 million dollars for this year. It materializes for the part relating to prevention and support of malnutrition through the provision of food inputs and logistical support for more than 200,000 children in five health districts of the far North.

Already, the doctor welcomes the increase in the number of pregnant women who go to the health facility for the monitoring of their pregnancies and childbirth. Even if, as Kar Hay, the problems associated with insufficient equipment and personnel added to the aging infrastructure and the absence of electricity make the work arduous.

The Extreme - North of Cameroon is an important area for agricultural production for products such as cereals, whose harvesting is unfortunately oriented towards the manufacturing of "bili-bili", a local beer with a high content of alcohol.

Food kits provided by Unicef successful record however that some parents did not hesitate to rush themselves to rations received for their malnourished children or expand consumption to other non-eligible family members, causing often failure to comply with the required doses and the failure of support, said Dr. Fabrice Biongol.