MAURITANIA / SAHEL MALNUTRITION

UNICEF estimates that this year more than a million children will suffer from severe acute malnutrition across the eight countries of the Sahel region, which if untreated can quickly lead to death. The government of Mauritania and humanitarian agencies are hoping to respond now to avoid mass starvation, worsening poverty and social dislocation. UNICEF

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:55
• Production Date: 15 February 2012
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: NUTRITION; HEALTH SERVICES
• Geographic Subject: MAURITANIA
• MAMS Id: U120215b

Description

STORY: MAURITANIA / SAHEL MALNUTRITION
TRT: 2.55
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: HASSANI / FRENCH / ENGLISH

DATELINE: 1 FEBRUARY 2012, MAURITANIA

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, Fatima washing dishes
2. Close up, food in pot
3. Med shot, Fatima stirring food in pot
4. Wide shot, donkey cart on road
5. Wide shot, dry crop lands
6. SOUNDBITE (Hassani) Fatima Mohammed, mother:
“When the kids are tired and malnourished, they have fever and diahorea, they don’t have energy.”
7. Wide shot, feeding Centre and people standing outside
8. Med shot, woman feeding children
9. Close up, child drinking
10. Med shot, Amadou Demba daughter being measured
11. SOUNDBITE (Hassani) Amadou Demba, 33:
“I would like two things for the future of my daughter. Firstly she survives and secondly she recovers her health and is not sickly.”
12. Med shot, woman sitting with girl on her lap
13. Med shot, 2 boys
14. Wide shot, women with their children sitting outside
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Lucia Elmi, Mauritania Representative, UNICEF:
“We need to act now because the level of vulnerability in Mauritania is already very high. The high level of poverty and vulnerability for children so we need to act now to prevent larger numbers of children to become moderately and severely acutely malnourished and to rebuild their resilience of these communities to face a very early lean season that starting now.”
16. Wide shot, children
17. Wide shot, women sitting on ground
18. SOUNDBITE (French) Dr Ahmed Ould Aida, Food security and nutrition joint programme coordinator, UN MDG Fund:
“It is truly a difficult population to reach, which is very difficult as they are completely isolated. The coverage of health is poor, security it is a region that is difficult to access because of security, so all of that, access physically, geography security which makes the population very difficult to access and to offer them a package of services to respond to their circumstances.”
19. Med Shot, Dr Aida in storage room with food bags
20. Wide shot, woman with gardening tools
21. Wide shot, cattle
22. Med shot, dead cows in sand
23. Wide shot, informal house and family

Storyline

Hunger stalks Fatima Mohammed and her seven children in the remote region of South East Mauritania.

This year, the rains they depend on their survival have not come. It means there is not enough pasture for the goats to produce milk for children and the crops they grow have failed.

Across the Sahel, a dry arid area of West and Central Africa, a pending tragedy looms for millions of mothers like Fatima, with hungry young mouths to feed.

SOUNDBITE (Hassani) Fatima Mohammed, mother:
“When the kids are tired and malnourished, they have fever and diahorea, they don’t have energy.”

She is now dependent on the weekly supply of corn soya blend, a rich and nutritious food mixed with sugar and oil from the local nutrition centre to feed her children.

Amadou Demba, borrowed US$ 20 to bring his wife and 21 month old daughter 77 kilometres from their remote village, for help at Kifa health centre where they treat severely malnourished children. They have decided to stay with relatives so they can be closer to the therapeutic food supply until his daughter is fully recovered.

SOUNDBITE (Hassani) Amadou Demba, 33:
“I would like two things for the future of my daughter. Firstly she survives and secondly she recovers her health and is not sickly.”

The centre equipped with supplies from UNICEF has seen an influx of malnourished children, when they usually at this time of year have a few cases.

Already, the Government of Mauritania has launched an emergency national plan and UNICEF is working with partners to reinforce the nutrition response and make sure the needed supplies are in place.

SOUNDBITE (English) Lucia Elmi, Mauritania Representative, UNICEF:
“We need to act now because the level of vulnerability in Mauritania is already very high. The high level of poverty and vulnerability for children so we need to act now to prevent larger numbers of children to become moderately and severely acutely malnourished and to rebuild their resilience of these communities to face a very early lean season that starting now.”

The challenge remains reaching children in remote and often isolated areas of this vast and sparsely populated country.

SOUNDBITE (French) Dr Ahmed Ould Aida, Food security and nutrition joint program coordinator, UN MDG Fund:
“It is truly a difficult population to reach, which is very difficult as they are completely isolated. The coverage of health is poor, security it is a region that is difficult to access because of security, so all of that, access physically, geography security which makes the population very difficult to access and to offer them a package of services to respond to their circumstances.”

Efforts are underway to build community resilience through investment in agricultural, health and nutrition services. It is part of a joint initiative by four UN Agencies including UNICEF, WFP, FAO and WHO as well as the Government and a network of NGOS. Over the last three years it has successfully reached some of the remotest communities in the country.

Yet with no rain and an early lean season, these signs of nascent resilience are not enough. Families are running out of food and animals are already perishing.