Anzal’s mother was
ready to take her daughter to the Stabilization Center with our team,
but her father Mohamud – who did not believe that a medical intervention
would change anything – rejected that proposition. “I told them not to
take her away, I can bury her here. I was hopeless,” he says dejectedly.
“I just lost my herd of 30 goats to the drought and here I was about to
lose my daughter.”
In vain, the Action Against Hunger team tried to convince him to take
Anzal into the Stabilization Center. One week later, the team came
again to conduct another checkup.
At the Outpatient Therapeutic Center in Aato, Health Educator Abdikarim measures Anzal.
Photo: Fardosa Hussein / Action Against Hunger, Somalia
“We checked on Anzal and found that she was still hanging on. We
tried to give her dad our piece of mind and persuade him to change his
stance, but he was adamant and stood his ground. We were disappointed.
Thankfully, he reluctantly accepted on our third visit,” says Abdikarim,
Action Against Hunger Health Educator.
“Even though I accepted it, deep down I felt it wasn’t the best decision – I was wrong,” Mohamud says.
When Anzal was finally admitted to the Stabilization Center, she was
extremely emaciated. Her temperature was over 100 degrees, and she had a
lot of trouble feeding due to sores in her mouth. Anzal was fed through
a tube for four days, put on antibiotics and painkillers to relieve her
fever, and given therapeutic milk to treat her severe malnutrition. Her
response was immediate.
“On day two, she was no longer feverish and, within a week, her oral
sores completely healed. She was able to feed well. Anzal responded to
treatment well and she gradually gained weight by the day,” says
Abdinur, one of the nurses at the Stabilization Center.
In the Stabilization
Center, Xukun learned from Action Against Hunger health educators about
health and nutrition, including ways to help keep her daughter healthy.
When she had recovered enough, Anzal was transferred to a Action Against
Hunger Outpatient Therapeutic program in her home village of Aato,
where she continued to receive nutrition treatment for two months.
Health
Educator Abdikarim did not give up on Anzal and her family. His
persistence convinced her father, Mohamud, to send Anzal for lifesaving
treatment at an Action Against Hunger Stabilization Center.
Photo: Fardosa Hussein / Action Against Hunger, Somalia
Finally, she was transferred to the Action Against Hunger
supplementary feeding program for another two months before she was
discharged. When she returned home, Anzal continued to be closely
monitored by Action Against Hunger Community Health Workers to ensure
that there was no possibility of relapse.
“I nicknamed Anzal ‘Action Against Hunger’ because they saved her life,” Xukun says.
“Anzal’s case has eased our referrals from Aato. Now every parent
believes that, if Anzal made it, their children can make it, too,”
Abdikarim says.
Action Against Hunger’s Food Security and Livelihood team in ElBarde
are planning to include Xukun in their upcoming Cash for Work program to
help her earn an income to support her children and prevent another
case of malnutrition in her family.