A Doctor's Call for Help is Answered

March 2010 - Southern Central African Republic was always considered economically stable, with a buzzing diamond and wood trade, making the region relatively affluent. However, with a decline in industry, a reliance on imported food, and a lack of investment in local agriculture, signs of acute malnutrition have begun to surface.

On 6th June 2009, a doctor from the city of Carnot appealed for help via his local radio station. In this unexpected broadcast, he pleaded with the national and international community to help him treat an unprecedented level of malnourished children arriving at his hospital for treatment.

Action Against Hunger, along with MSF, quickly mobilised their teams to carry out rapid nutritional assessments in Carnot, Berberati and other neighbouring cities. The doctor’s suspicions were confirmed, and a high percentage of children suffering severe acute malnutrition was uncovered. In Carnot, over a fifth of all children measured were diagnosed with this most serious form of hunger.

Following these alarming results, Action Against Hunger | ACF International launched an emergency response, setting up temporary therapeutic feeding centres in local hospitals, implementing outpatient treatment programmes, and sending teams of nutritionists on home visits. The news spread fast and dozens of families brought their children to be assessed, and treated. The doctor’s call for help was answered.

However, the magnitude of the problem still had to be determined. In November 2009, Action Against Hunger’s Nutrition Evaluator, Bernadette Cichon, travelled to CAR and recruited a local team to carry out nutritional surveys in Berberati – the third largest city in the country - so assessments could be made on whether further intervention was needed.

Once recruited, the team was trained on how to take specific height and weight measurements which act, amongst other factors, as key indicators in assessing whether a child is acutely malnourished. The team travelled all over the city and worked around the clock, managing to assess over 1,000 households in just two weeks.

Encouraged by the co-operation and warm welcome from the families assessed, the nutritional survey teams collate all their data, and assess the next steps in addressing long-term food security in the Southern region. All whilst Action Against Hunger’s immediate humanitarian work continues.

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