By the end of the year, around 235,000 children are at risk of Severe Acute Malnutrition in South Sudan. Finding these children and getting them to treatment will take every means. A new door-to-door campaign is kicking off in Juba County this week, aimed at finding these children in the grips of malnutrition, referring them to treatment centres and educating communities on how to stave off poor nutrition in children. Guests at the official launch yesterday at the Al Sabbah hospital included Dr. Emmanuel Ija Bay, Minister of Health, Sanitation and Environment, Central Equatoria State and the Mayor of Juba, His Worship Christopher Safarino Wani and Vilma Tyler, UNICEF South Sudan’s chief of nutrition, several hundred community outreach workers and health workers, a military brass band and singers. Just steps away from the celebrations, squats a ward dedicated to the treatment of children who are suffering from malnutrition. Several mothers and their children gathered there, under the shade trees with their sick children resting, the healthy ones playing. They came to Al Sabbah either through word of mouth,or were referred from a health clinic or by medical personnel. But this week, residents all over Juba County will begin seeing one of the 254 UNICEF-trained outreach workers - part of the governments Social Mobilizer Network - at their door, asking after the health of children and talking to caregivers. The outreach workers – who received several weeks of training from UNICEF - come with a toolbox, including the so-called MUAC – a simple color coded tape that measures the Middle Upper Arm Circumference – a simple indicator of possible malnutrition educational flip charts on a range of topics, including best practices for infant and child feeding; and referral slips for those babies and children who need special help at treatment centers. Early detection key, education is prevention “It is very important to find children who are sick early and get them into care,” said Vilma Tyler, chief of nutrition for UNICEF South Sudan. “But helping mothers understand good feeding, hygiene and sanitation practices is essential to help families stay healthy over the long term.” Juba’s Mayor, Christopher Safarino Wani, urged the social mobilizers to search every corner of the city: “During this mass screening campaign, I urge you all to make sure you reach out to all these people even in hard to reach locations.” Juba County will be the the first phase of the campaign which is slated to expand to the high-burden, non-conflict affected states of Warrap and Northern Bahr-Ghazal in the coming weeks, with more than 600 social mobilizers reaching over 600,000 children. Through the mass screening campaign in Juba County, over 116,000 children aged 6 months to 5 years will be screened and it is estimated that 6,500 children will be treated for Severe Acute Malnutrition in UNICEF-supported Oral Therapeutic Feeding Programmes (OTFP). “Social mobilization has been essential in numerous health interventions such as polio eradication and cholera response,” said Dr. Emmanuel Ija Bay, Minister of Health, Sanitation and Environment, Central Equatoria State. “We are proud to deploy them to take on the issue of malnutrition, which traps children into a lifelong cycle of poor nutrition, illness, poverty and inequity.” The World Food Programme will be treating an estimated 16,700 children identified as suffering from Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) in Juba County and admitting them to Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programmes. The need is huge: nationwide, estimates predict that 235,000 children will suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition by the end of the year.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 08:22:20 +0000
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