DR CONGO / CHILD SURVIVAL

Poor nutrition has left 46 per cent of children under five chronically malnourished in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. UNICEF-supported health centres with a community approach to treating malnutrition are helping to dramatically improve children's health and nutritional status. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:31
• Production Date: 26 August 2009
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: SOCIAL GROUPS; HEALTH; NUTRITION
• Geographic Subject: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
• MAMS Id: U090826c

Description

STORY: DR CONGO / CHILD SURVIVAL
TRT: 2:31
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH / SWAHILI / NATS

DATELINE: MARCH 2009 LUBUNGA, KISANGANI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

Shotlist

MARCH 2009, LUBUNGA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

1. Wide shot, fishermen on scaffolding fishing
2. Close up, fisherman inside wooden fishing net
3. Wide shot, fisherman throwing a net in the water
4. Med shot, children eating
5. Wide shot, mother walking with her baby in her back
6. Wide shot, child being examined by two doctors
7. Close up, doctors examining child’s stomach
8. Close up, malnourished child’s face
9. Close up, baby girl at the clinic
10. Wide shot, counselling class
11. Wide shot, mothers with children in the waiting area
12. Med shot, child on a weighing scale
13. Close up, scale
14. Med shot, nurse measuring the malnourished child’s arm
15. Close up, measuring tape around child’s arm
16. Med shot, nurses looking at nutrition table
17. Close up, nutrition table
18. Close up, hand writing
19. Med shot, nurse measuring a child
20. Med shot, nurse holding child’s hand
21. Med shot, nurse measuring child’s height
22. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Mandula’s Mother:
“She used to eat a lot and play with her friends. Now, she has lost her appetite, and at night she doesn’t sleep or play anymore.”
23. Wide shot, mother and child with a nurse
24. Med shot, nurse opening plumpy nut for Mandula
25. Close up, plumpy nut sachet being opened
26. Close up, Mandula eating plumpy nut
27. Wide shot, mother, child and nurse
28. Wide shot, nurse talking to community
29. Close up, mother
30. Med shot, nurse counselling women on better eating habits
31. Close up, poster to illustrate better eating habits
32. SOUNDBITE (French) Abel Nimpojeje, Nutritionist, Action Against Hunger:
“We find that the main cause of malnutrition is feeding habits. It is during our awareness campaigns that we try to get them to diversify what they eat, such as more agriculture food as well as fish. There are also many cases of malaria, and if a child is sick, he or she will have problems with digestion and become malnourished.”
33. Med shot, child eating rice and vegetables
34. Wide shot, children held by their mother eating rice and vegetables
35. Close up, plate of food made of rice and vegetables
36. Close up, children eating
37. Wide shot, mothers and babies in the health centre
38. Wide shot, nurse counselling parents
39. Wide shot, nurse counselling parents
40. Close up, baby being weighed
41. Med shot, nurse vaccinating baby
42. Wide shot, mothers and babies in the health centre
43. Close up, baby
44. Med shot, child holding on to mother
45. Close up, baby with mother

Storyline

Lubunga is a small fishing village on the Congo River. Survival, here in the north-eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is hard, even at the best of times.

Poor nutrition has left 46 per cent of children under five chronically malnourished. And while children are not starving to death, their bodies are too weak to fight bouts of malaria, acute respiratory infections or diarrhoea.

UNICEF is working with Action Against Hunger, a global non-governmental organisation, and the ministry of health to roll out community-based therapeutic feeding and monitoring centres in different provinces.

This health centre is one of the many that is making a dramatic impact on children’s wellbeing. A simple check on a child’s health and nutrition status is at the basis of keeping children healthy.

Three-year-old Mandula’s condition is being monitored each week. Her treatment is adjusted as needed

SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Mandula’s Mother:
“She used to eat a lot and play with her friends. Now, she has lost her appetite, and at night she doesn’t sleep or play anymore.”

Mandula is prescribed a one-month treatment, at no cost, of plumpy nut - a ready-to-eat nutritional supplement of peanut butter, milk, oil and micronutrients. It will probably take a month for Mandula to fully recover.

This clinic also runs a weekly nutrition class that informs mothers on how best to prepare nutritious and healthy food cheaply.

SOUNDBITE (French) Abel Nimpojeje, Nutritionist, Action Against Hunger:
“We find that the main cause of malnutrition is feeding habits. It is during our awareness campaigns that we try to get them to diversify what they eat, such as more agriculture food as well as fish. There are also many cases of malaria, and if a child is sick, he or she will have problems with digestion and become malnourished.”

Many Congolese children depend on this community approach to treating malnutrition that began in 2008. But despite efforts in place to bring down children’s mortality rate, the DRC still has a long way to go before all its children have their right to survival fulfilled.