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NIGER / MALNUTRITION
STORY: NIGER / NUTRITION
TRT: 3.42
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: HAUSA / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 8 JUNE 2012, MADAROUNFA INTENSIVE THERAPEUTIC FEEDING CENTER, MARADI REGION, NIGER
1. Close up, sick baby
2. Close up, worried mother
3. Med shot, doctors checking on a sick baby
4. Close up, sick baby
5. Wide shot, doctors checking on a sick baby
6. Med shot, mother and children at the health center
7. Wide shot, mothers entering the health center
8. Med shot, a mother entering the health center
9. Wide shot, Ouma entering the health center
10. SOUNDBITE (Hausa) Ouma Abdul, Mother:
“My daughter arrived here in a really bad state.”
11. Close up, mosquito net
12. SOUNDBITE (Hausa) Ouma Abdul, Mother:
“I was really worried and scared because I had already lost one child to malnutrition.”
13. Close up, mosquito net
14. SOUNDBITE (Hausa) Ouma Abdul, Mother:
“I was really worried that she too was going to die.”
15. Close up, mosquito net
16. Wide shot, Ouma sitting next to her daughter
17. Med shot, mother and daughter on an hospital bed
18. SOUNDBITE (Hausa) Ouma Abdul, Mother:
“Back then it was just like today, the harvest was not ready and we had used up all our food reserves.”
19. Wide shot, mothers on hospital bed
20. Med shot, Ouma sitting next to her daughter
21. SOUNDBITE (French) Sa’a Amadou, Head Nurse Madarounfa CRENI:
“In 2005, I can say it was catastrophic. The work was difficult to bear back then.
22. Close up, doctor checking on a baby
23. SOUNDBITE (French) Sa’a Amadou, Head Nurse Madarounfa CRENI:
“It was something we were not used to at all as we had just been recruited that year. It wasn’t easy for us.”
24. Close up, doctor checking on a baby
25. Med shot, Mother on an hospital bed
26. Wide shot, doctors at work
27. Wide shot, health center exterior, mothers waiting
28. Various shots, hospital
29. SOUNDBITE (French) Sa’a Amadou, Head Nurse Madarounfa CRENI:
“Today we are experienced. Whatever the situation, and one hopes that it will not be more catastrophic than 2005, but whatever the situation, we are prepared to face it.”
Med shot, doctor checking on a baby
30. Various shots, hospital
31. Med shot, Ouma and her daughter on an hospital bed
32. Close up, Ouma
33. SOUNDBITE (Hausa) Ouma Abdul, Mother:
“I am so thankful with the treatment I’ve received because I arrived here with a dying child who couldn’t sit up, couldn’t eat and couldn’t even move. And now here she is eating on her own and even crying because she’s still hungry. I’m so happy because I’ll be returning to my village with a living, healthy baby.”
34. Close up, Ouma’s daughter drinking milk
Once again, Niger is facing a nutrition and food crisis, and as always it is the youngest that are the most vulnerable.
SOUNDBITE (Hausa) Ouma Abdul, Mother:
“My daughter arrived here in a really bad state. I was really worried and scared because I had already lost one child to malnutrition. I was really worried that she too was going to die.”
Almost 400,000 children under five are at risk of severe acute malnutrition in Niger today.
Hospitals across the country are filled with young victims.
In 2004 a severe drought and locust invasion destroyed up to a hundred percent of the crop in some regions, leaving more than three million people short of food. By mid-2005, an estimated 800,000 children under five were affected, of whom at least 160,000 were malnourished and 32,000 severely malnourished.
The health impact of the 2005 food crisis in Niger was at first largely underestimated. The majority of humanitarian interventions focused on food supply instead of health risks associated with malnutrition. However, as people are weakened by malnutrition, the risk of death from diseases increases.
This is the third food crisis to hit Niger since 2005.
SOUNDBITE (Hausa) Ouma Abdul, Mother:
“Back then it was just like today, the harvest was not ready and we had used up all our food reserves.”
That year thousands of mothers watched their children die of malnutrition.
SOUNDBITE (French) Sa’a Amadou, Head Nurse Madarounfa CRENI:
“In 2005, I can say it was catastrophic. The work was difficult to bear back then. It was something we were not used to at all as we had just been recruited that year. It wasn’t easy for us.”
Today the situation is vastly improved.
Thanks to an action plan by UNICEF, Niger’s ministry of health and other NGO partners, nutrition is now integrated into the country’s health services.
More than 850 centers across the country are now equipped to treat severe acute malnutrition.
Better equipment, supplies and training of health professionals, improved monitoring and evaluation, and coordination between the health services and NGOs have all helped reduce child deaths.
SOUNDBITE (French) Sa’a Amadou, Head Nurse Madarounfa CRENI:
“Today we are experienced. Whatever the situation, and one hopes that it will not be more catastrophic than 2005, but whatever the situation, we are prepared to face it.”
After two weeks of treatment Ouma Abdul’s daughter is out of danger and they are getting ready to return home.
SOUNDBITE (Hausa) Ouma Abdul, Mother:
“I am so thankful with the treatment I’ve received because I arrived here with a dying child who couldn’t sit up, couldn’t eat and couldn’t even move. And now here she is eating on her own and even crying because she’s still hungry. I’m so happy because I’ll be returning to my village with a living, healthy baby.”
Thanks to the joint efforts of Niger’s ministry of health, UNICEF’s and other NGO partners, the death rate due to malnutrition in Niger has dropped to just 1.5 percent.
Eighty-five percent of children admitted now recover from severe acute malnutrition.
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