Supporting nutrition interventions for Darfur’s internally displaced
Mothers returning to the Sortoni IDP camp in North Darfur after gathering firewood. The Sortoni Interanl Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp has a population of 43,000. More than 60% are women and children.
A community health worker doing house visits in Sortoni IDP camp to identify children suffering from severe acute malnutrition and refer them to a UNICEF supported nutrition centre for treatment. As of October 2016 UNICEF had supported the establishment of 1,165 Outpatient Therapeutic Programme (OTP) sites in 15 states in Sudan.
A child is screened and diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition. An estimated 550,000 children in Sudan suffer from severe acute malnutrition. The national prevalence rate places Sudan in the ‘critical’ category with a global acute malnutrition level of 16.5 per cent.
A community health worker follows up with a mother whose child was diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition. Community health workers are a very important part of the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programme. They conduct house to house case-finding of malnourished children and follow up on defaulters. UNICEF has so far trained over 2,500 community workers in 15 states across Sudan.
A health worker conducts further assessment at an Outpatient Therapeutic Programme (OTP) site for a severely malnourished child refereed by a trained community health worker. Quality training of community health workers reduces the likelihood of children being turned away for not meeting admission criteria. In 2016, 209,351 children were treated for for severe acute malnutrition.
A child suffering from severe acute malnutrition is being admitted to an Outpatient Therapeutic Programme (OTP) centre after being assessed by a health worker. As of September 2016, UNICEF established 400 additional OTP centres in Sudan.
A mother feeds “Ready To Use Therapeutic Food” or RUTF to her child who is recovering from severe acute malnutrition. RUTF is rich in energy, proteins and micro nutrients. In 2016, UNICEF has procured 240,000 cartons of RUTF for the treatment of severely acute malnourished children. Unicef would like to thank its donors DFID, the European Union, KOICA, the Japanese Government and USAID Food for Peace that provide crucial resources for UNICEF’s work in Sudan and have all been part of supporting the nutrition response in Sortoni camp.
Community health worker educates mothers on key household practices including hand washing with soap, immediate and exclusive breastfeeding as well as immunization as part of Al Shuffa’a Alsoghar communication initiative which was launched by UNICEF in 27 localities across 7 states.
A mother support group at health centre in Sotrtony camp, consisting of pregnant, lactating mothers and grandmother provides support on exclusive breastfeeding and appropriate complementary feeding. 660 mother support groups were formed in 22 localities across 12 states in Sudan.
Brochures and counselling cards used to facilitate mother support group sessions are collaboration between UNICEF and the Ministry of Health.
- Photos captions by Rashid Abdulai, Alison Parker & Tarig Mekawi
- Photos by Sari Omer
- Graphic design by Dismas Junior Biraronderwa
