Therapeutic treatments save children’s lives
Kimia Gotu and her two-year-old daughter, Destu, received help last year from a UNICEF-supported therapeutic feeding centre in Ethiopia, along with many other severely malnourished children and their caretakers, after Destu was diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition. “I came to this place when my child got sick because we did not have enough food at home,” said Kimia.
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© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-0429/Tegene
A woman feeds her severely malnourished child therapeutic milk F75 at the UNICEF-supported feeding unit of Bissidimo Hospital, in the East Harerghe Zone of Oromia Region. |
Drought and soaring food prices have left millions of people in Ethiopia - and around the world - requiring humanitarian assistance and tens of thousands of children are severely malnourished. Ethiopia’s children are the hardest hit by the crisis, as the high cost of food aggravates their already vulnerable situation.
UNICEF is on the ground helping malnourished children like Destu by distributing easy-to-digest therapeutic foods, including Plumpy’nut and high-energy biscuits, and supporting feeding programmes and health centres. Through the generosity of our donors, UNICEF has helped save the lives of thousands of malnourished children in Ethiopia. And we continue to be first responders to these emergency situations to ensure more children can survive and grow up healthy.
| Children are the first to become weak and die in these circumstances, which is what we are witnessing … right now. But children with severe acute malnutrition do not have to die. We know how to save their lives.” |
| - Bjorn Ljungqvist, UNICEF Representative in Ethiopia
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