Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Skip to main content
Tasnim,63, feeds milk to her severely malnourished six-month-old grandson

Tasnim* lives in northern Garissa with her daughter and grandson, Garad* who is just six months old and is suffering from severe malnutrition. The family has suffered terribly as a result of the drought, losing almost all their livestock, which are the livelihood for millions of people in the region. She brought her grandson to the stabilisation center in a hospital in Garissa after her daughter fell ill and was unable to breastfeed him. Usually, they would turn to milk from the animals to feed their children, but most of their livestock have died, and the ones that remain are so malnourished that they no longer produce milk. The only food they have at home is porridge, and Garad* is too young to eat it. Garad* has been suffering from diarrhea for over two weeks now, and struggles to keep milk and other medicine down but is continuing to receive treatment at a Save the Children supported stabilisation clinic.  Tasnim’s* story in her own words: I have been here for five nights because he is sick. He is used to animal milk and the animals dried up of milk. We used to have goats and cows but they died. Only a few remain and they don’t have any milk. When my daughter got sick and was taken to Garissa Hospital, this is when he became unwell. He was breastfeeding at the time when his mother got sick and that is why he got sick (malnourished). We only cook porridge at home that doesn’t contain any nutrients in it and he is not yet old enough to eat porridge. He has diarrhoea but he can’t take any medicine. I have even given him the medicine I was given but he threw up. It is nearly 20 days since his mother was admitted to the ward. But they are treating him now and the treatment is running smoothly. He is being given milk through an injection, but he hasn’t recovered and the diarrhoea hasn’t stopped. We are giving him medicine but he vomits immediately after it's given to him. He is one of the children who can't take the medicine. He is sick, he can’t eat anything.

The effects of climate change and the need to invest in nutrition to avert a disaster

15 Nov 2022 Kenya

Blog by Festo Chikani Wangéle

Senior Advocacy and Policy Coordinator, Save the Children Kenya Country Office

Today, Kenya, along with the rest of the Horn of Africa, is experiencing one of the worst droughts in 40 years. Over 4.35 million Kenyans are going hungry while over 942,000 children require urgent treatment for acute malnutrition. One of the main causes of this unprecedented two-year drought is climate change, which has generated a lot of debate at the ongoing COP 27 summit, with climate change adaptation being one of the key highlights of this year’s discussions. Climate change is a long-term threat to food security and nutrition; it reduces crop yields, impairs nutrient quality and dietary diversity, and disrupts water and sanitation. Save the Children’s recent Generation Hope report shows that 774 million children in the world are exposed to high climate risks. It found that over 100 billion dollars could be saved every year responding to disasters if contingency planning, social protection and financial inclusion were improved.

Tasnim*, 63, feeds milk to her severely malnourished six month old grandson *Garad at a Save the Children supported stabilisation center in Garissa, Kenya.

WE STAND SIDE BY SIDE WITH CHILDREN IN THE WORLD'S 
TOUGHEST PLACES.

Today, Kenya, along with the rest of the Horn of Africa, is experiencing one of the worst droughts in 40 years. Over 4.35 million Kenyans are going hungry while over 942,000 children require urgent treatment for acute malnutrition.

One of the main causes of this unprecedented two-year drought is climate change, which has generated a lot of debate at the ongoing COP 27 summit, with climate change adaptation being one of the key highlights of this year’s discussions. Climate change is a long-term threat to food security and nutrition; it reduces crop yields, impairs nutrient quality and dietary diversity, and disrupts water and sanitation.

Save the Children’s recent Generation Hope report shows that 774 million children in the world are exposed to high climate risks. It found that over 100 billion dollars could be saved every year responding to disasters if contingency planning, social protection and financial inclusion were improved.

However, without such contingency planning, the lives and livelihoods of millions are at risk. Tragically, in the Horn of Africa alone, one person dies from hunger every 48 seconds! Kenya’s Turkana, Mandera, Garissa and Wajir counties are experiencing worse malnutrition levels than in the 2011 Horn of Africa crisis and 2017 Drought Emergency.

What are the human stories behind these shocking figures?  

In Turkana, 34.8%[1] of children are malnourished. To put this into perspective, the malnutrition prevalence threshold in emergencies is 15%.  This is forcing families to go without meals for days, while others are making do with plain boiled maize (corn) as a meal.

Patrick Kalale, Nutrition Officer, Save the Children’s Turkana Field Office, reports that the situation is further deteriorating, with mothers having to share the food supplements meant to treat their malnourished children with their other ‘healthy’ children.

Furthermore, Akalale, a mother of a 16-month-old child, was so malnourished to a point you could not tell she was pregnant. As shocking as this is, Turkana county is not alone in this regard.  In Kenya, over 115,700 pregnant and breastfeeding women are currently acutely malnourished and in need of urgent treatment.  

While in Garissa, Katra Farah, Nutrition Officer at Save the Children’s Garissa Field Office, reveals that “thousands of children are struggling to get food with some school-going children dropping out of school because of the biting hunger.”  

What are we doing?

Save the Children has supported 350 emergency integrated outreaches to provide health, nutrition, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and protection services to children under 5 and their households who can’t access health facilities due to long distances. 124,970 children under 5 years and 57,256 pregnant and breastfeeding women have been screened and treated for malnutrition.

Farmers in Garissa and Wajir have benefitted from animal feeds and livestock vaccination to prevent infectious diseases.  We have also scaled up cash transfer to families in Garissa, Wajir, Turkana and Mandera.

At the national level, as part of the Global Malnutrition Initiative, Save the Children in collaboration with other partners has been advocating for policy and protocols that will allow Community Health Workers to treat acute malnutrition alongside other related sicknesses such as pneumonia. And we continue to advocate for increased health and nutrition financing at the national and local levels.

The need for international political leadership

The situation has reached unprecedented levels of need, yet the funding gap is fast drying up. Only 60% of the population in need has been reached with lifesaving interventions.

We call upon governments, G7 and western leaders, international communities and partners to invest adequate resources, especially for the lower income countries towards climate adaptation, addressing losses and damages that threaten the full realization of the rights of children.

We further call upon them to increase financial assistance towards humanitarian emergency response in the Horn of Africa to avert loss of human life and loss of livelihoods. Lastly, a multi-sectoral approach in addressing malnutrition and food insecurity in the Horn of Africa is needed.

Interested in learning more about our response to the Hunger Crisis? Click here to find out.


[1] Turkana Smart Survey Report 2022

Related Blogs