Ekaran, cradling Lomurkai in her arms, receives health related advice from Cecilia, a dedicated community health volunteer, accompanied by Assumpta Kiriongi from Save the Children.

By Assumpta Kiriongi

A trip to Turkana County leads us to a village that has been severely affected by the ongoing drought. We are hit by the scorching sun as soon as we alight from the vehicle. It is so dry, you can almost smell the dry wind.

Cecilia, a Community Health Volunteer (CHV) attached to this village leads us to meet 13-month-old Lomurkai with his mother, Ekaran. She looks happy to see Cecilia and soon, we understand why.

“I am the sole breadwinner of my family. I have a small kiosk where I sell food items to earn an income. My other source of food and income was my herd of goats and sheep. However, the drought swept most of them leaving only 5 out of 30 animals. We did not have any food at home and that is how Lomurkai fell very ill for lack of food,” says Ekaran.

Ekaran further notes that the distance from her home to the nearest health facility is about 30 kilometers; therefore, it was very hard to leave the rest of her children at home to take her ill son to the hospital.

“I am grateful because the village “doctor” Cecilia came to my rescue. She gave me peanut paste which I have been giving Lomurkai; one sachet a day. As you can see, he is now healthy. Cecilia has also been offering health education classes to our village to ensure that our children do not fall sick. I am grateful for this support and I hope that the village doctors can continue to help more children like my son,” says Ekaran.

Cecilia is among 248 CHVs who have been trained through the Global Malnutrition Initiative (GMI) Project being implemented in the villages of Turkana. She tells us that during one of her visits, she found that little Lomurkai was acutely malnourished, hence advised his mother to enroll him into the Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) program.

Through the GMI project, Cecilia and the other 247 CHVs have been trained to provide integrated care for severe acute malnutrition and moderate acute malnutrition at the community level. Through this, they are able to reach many community members who are unable to get health services for themselves and their children due to the distance to the nearest health facility among other factors.

Ekaran still has her fears. She fears for her child's future since she is not able to provide nutritious meals for her family. She can only afford one meal a day, and sometimes even that is uncertain. She worries that her child might become weak again due to their limited resources. “I am always concerned for my child. I would want him to be a doctor or a “mbunge” – Member of Parliament,” says the optimistic mother.

Her fears are valid…

Children suffering from severe and moderate acute malnutrition are at a significantly higher risk of mortality. Urgent action and accountability is necessary to achieve the World Health Organization’s targets of reducing wasting rates to 5% by 2025 and 3% by 2030. Unfortunately, globally, more than 80% of severely malnourished children do not receive treatment. In Kenya, the coverage for treatment services is even lower, with only about half of severely malnourished children and a third of moderately malnourished children accessing the required care.

The barriers to accessing treatment in the arid and semi-arid areas are numerous. Long distances to health facilities offering integrated management of acute malnutrition (IMAM) services pose a significant challenge. Additionally, lack of knowledge among mothers and caregivers about identifying acute malnutrition and the irregular supply of therapeutic commodities further hinder access to treatment.

To address these challenges, Save the Children in collaboration with the national and county government of Turkana has been implementing the Global Malnutrition Initiative project, which supports the Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM) approach by linking the treatment of Severe Acute Malnutrition /Moderate Acute Malnutrition into the services provided by CHVs. This has shown promising results in the areas the project is being implemented in. Further, 879 children with moderate acute malnutrition and 99 with severe acute malnutrition have been supported to enroll into the community management of acute malnutrition where they have accessed treatment.