MALNUTRITION: Afghanistan, Merlin

Merlin has launched a nutrition programme in Afghanistan to help tackle the shockingly high rates of mother and child deaths in the country.
This month, we are delivering 100 metric tonnes of nutrient-rich food to malnourished women and children, and a further 15 tonnes of therapeutic food and equipment to treat severe acute malnutrition in the north-east of the country.
Dr U Aye Maung, Merlin's Country Health Director in Afghanistan, says:
"A third of children under five in the country are underweight, and more than half of all children are suffering from chronic malnutrition. Caused by a combination of poverty and past droughts, it is a serious health problem here with our teams seeing an increasing number of malnourished children."
As a major factor of mother and child deaths, we are targeting under-served populations including children under five, women, and pregnant and lactating mothers.
The programme, operating in Kunduz and Badakhshan provinces, is taking a holistic approach to the problem, using both static and mobile clinics, as well as working to include nutrition as a core component of health services in Afghanistan.
Ben Mascall, Afghanistan Country Director, says:
"Based on our experience of tackling malnutrition in other Asian countries, Merlin health staff are working hard to ensure the same success is repeated here and we can save the lives of as many children and mothers as possible."
In Kunduz province, we are screening and treating malnutrition in over 40 health facilities, as well as establishing 12 supplementary feeding centres and training female community health workers to address issues such as breastfeeding.
In Badakhshan province, we have included nutrition as part of the outreach services in our mobile clinics, serving communities in the remotest parts of the province with no access to health care, while also carrying out referrals for more serious cases. This is achieved through a team of dedicated Merlin health workers who travel on foot to reach communities, while transporting food and medicine by donkey to areas beyond the reach of cars.
These community outreach services also focus on educating community members on the causes and treatment of malnutrition to help prevent its occurrence.
This is the first time any organisation has attempted to address malnutrition through mobile clinics in Afghanistan, and we hope it can serve as a model to be adopted nationally.
It is complex work, when considering the mountainous terrain, natural disasters and snowfall that can cut off villages for six months of the year, but we are confident that we will make a difference.
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