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STORY: UNICEF / AFGHANISTAN CHILDREN MALNUTRITION
TRT: 5:46
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNICEF ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 28-29 SEPTEMBER 2021, HERAT PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN
28-29 SEPTEMBER 2021, HERAT PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN
1. Tracking, UNICEF vehicle on the road in Herat.
2. Wide shot, UNICEF team arrives at WFP food distribution site in Herat city
3. Wide shot, UNICEF representative, centre left, and WFP Country Director, centre right, at a WFP food distribution site in Herat city
4. Wide shot, women queuing for registration at WFP food distribution site
5. Pan left, men and women queue for registration at a WFP food distribution site in Herat city
6. Wide shot, men queue for registration at a WFP food distribution site in Herat city
7. Med shot, NGO worker at WFP food distribution interacts with food rations beneficiary in Herat city
8. Close up, NGO worker stamping card
9. Wide shot, food rations prepared for distribution at WFP food distribution site in Herat city
10. Wide shot, women at WFP food distribution site collection food rations
11. Close up, NGO worker registers information at WFP food distribution site in Herat city
12. Various shots, workers assisting beneficiaries with transporting food rations
13. Med shots, beneficiaries load rickshaw with food rations at WFP food distribution site in Herat city
14. Various shots, UNICEF Representative, centre, and WFP country Director, right, arrive at the Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Centre (ITFC) in Herat Regional Hospital
15. Med shot, four-month-old twins Aisha and Youssef are being provided with medical care and therapeutic food at the UNICEF-supported Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Centre in Herat Regional Hospital for infants suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) with complications
16. Med shot, 6 week old Zakia, who is suffering from severe acute malnutrition with complications, is being fed by her mother with therapeutic milk through a nasogastric tube as she is too sick to breastfeed
17. Various shots, 18-months old Amina is recovering from severe acute malnutrition with complications at the UNICEF-supported Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Centre in Herat Regional Hospital
18. Med shot, UNICEF health and nutrition officer speaks to mother at ITFC in Herat Regional Hospital
19. Med shot, seven-month old Dillah is being treated for an injury and provided with therapeutic foods at the UNICEF-supported Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Centre in Herat Regional Hospital
20. Med shot, seven-days-old Asnat was born preterm and is now provided with medical care at the Herat Regional Hospital
21. Med shot, fifty-days-old Marwa, is being treated at the paediatric ward in Herat Regional Hospital for a respiratory infection
22. Close up, child waiting for malnutrition screening at the Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Centre (ITFC) in Herat Regional Hospital
23. Tilt down, fifteen-days old Roya was born preterm and is now provided with medical care at the Herat Regional Hospital
24. Various shots, three-year-old Hasna being treated for chest infection at the paediatric ward in Herat Regional Hospital
25. Tracking, Director of paediatric unit at Herat Regional Hospital and WFP Country Director walk out of hospital ward
26. Various shots, boy washes his face at a UNICEF installed water point at the Herat Regional Hospital
27. Various shots, UNICEF Representative arrives at a Child Friendly Space in the Shark-e-Sabz IDP settlement in the outskirts of Herat city
28. Various shots, girls skip rope as part of the recreational activities at a Child Friendly Space in the Shark-e-Sabz IDP settlement in the outskirts of Herat city
29. Various shots, UNICEF representative, centre, and WFP Country Director, right, speaking to NGO partner at a Child Friendly Space in the Shark-e-Sabz IDP settlement in the outskirts of Herat city
30. Various shots, UNICEF Representative arrives at clinic for the Mobile Health and Nutrition Team at Shark-e-Sabz IDP settlement in the outskirts of Herat city
31. Med shot, UNICEF Representative interacts with girl receiving malnutrition treatment at the nutrition clinic at Shark-e-Sabz IDP settlement in the outskirts of Herat city
32. Med shot, UNICEF Representative at the nutrition clinic at Shark-e-Sabz IDP settlement in the outskirts of Herat city
33. Med shot, UNICEF Representative interacts with a newborn suffering from acute severe malnutrition at the nutrition clinic at Shark-e-Sabz IDP settlement in the outskirts of Herat city
34. Med shot, children and mother wait at health and nutrition clinic at Shark-e-Sabz IDP settlement in the outskirts of Herat city
Wrapping up a two-day visit to Herat, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan, Hervé Ludovic De Lys, and WFP Afghanistan Representative and Country Director, Mary-Ellen McGroarty, sounded the alarm on the dire state of malnutrition and food insecurity sweeping across the country.
In a joint press release, UNICEF and WFP said without reliable access to water, food and basic health and nutrition services, Afghan children and their families are bearing the brunt of years of conflict and the current economic crisis.
14 million people in Afghanistan are facing acute food insecurity, and an estimated 3.2 million children under the age of five expected to suffer from acute malnutrition by the end of the year. At least one million of these children are at risk of dying due to severe acute malnutrition without immediate treatment.
De Lys and McGroarty spoke with Jahan Bibi, whose 18-month-old daughter is being treated for severe acute malnutrition at the Herat Regional hospital. She brought her daughter to the hospital as she could no longer breastfeed her baby.
With winter fast approaching, it is now a race against time to assist Afghan families also lacking access to safe water and health and nutrition services.
De Lys said, as more families struggle to put food on the table, the nutritional health of mothers and their children is getting worse by the day. He added that rapidly spreading outbreaks of measles and acute watery diarrhoea will only exacerbate the situation.
According to WFP surveys 95 per cent of households in Afghanistan are not consuming enough food, adults are eating less and skipping meals so their children can eat more.
Mary-Ellen McGroarty, WFP Afghanistan’s Representative and Country Director, expressed huge concern about the desperate choices families are being forced to take. She said unless humanitarians intervene now, malnutrition will only become more severe. She called on the international community to release the funds they pledged weeks ago, or the impact could be irreversible.
McGroarty and De Lys also visited a food distribution centre in Herat city where they met with families struggling to make ends meet amidst drought and lack of jobs. They also visited a settlement for internally displaced families where mobile health and nutrition teams are providing life-saving services to women and children, supported by UNICEF and WFP.
The two UN agencies said they are adding 100 more mobile health and nutrition teams. Already 168 mobile teams are providing a lifeline for children and mothers in hard-to-reach areas.
Since the beginning of 2021, WFP has provided lifesaving food and nutrition assistance to 8.7 million people, including treatment and prevention of malnutrition for nearly 400,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women and 790,000 children under-five. Close to four million people were reached in September alone. Additionally, this year, more than 210,000 children with severe acute malnutrition were provided with lifesaving treatment through UNICEF-supported services. Ready-to-use therapeutic food for more than 42,000 children and therapeutic milk for 5,200 children was also delivered to UNICEF partners in the past eight weeks.
