Nutrition
Every year, some 19 million children across the world suffer from severe acute malnutrition, and as many as five million of them die from hunger-related causes. Countless others will suffer permanent physical damage, including stunted growth and developmental delays.
Action Against Hunger's nutrition programs treat and prevent acute malnutrition in those most vulnerable, including young children and women who are pregnant or nursing. The programs are launched most often during times of crisis—when an earthquake devastates a city, when civil war tears apart a country, when drought leads to famine, when families flee violence only to confront hunger. The contexts for our programs can be as varied as the crises: from rural mountain villages, to ethnically divided cities, to the confines of overcrowded relocation camps for internally displaced peoples. Action Against Hunger has also launched The Campaign to End Malnutrition to reach the millions of children affected by acute malnutrition around the globe.
Based on the unique demands of each situation, its context, and the local culture, Action Against Hunger designs a nutrition program that will best meet the needs of the target population. The core components of this program include an evaluation of the community’s nutritional needs, the treatment and prevention of malnutrition, and technical training for the local and national staff in charge of nutrition and public health. The approach is guided by a strategy of flexible response to conditions that can rapidly change. As soon as conditions allow, we work to integrate the programs into existing public health structures to ensure the future nutritional well-being of the community.
Evaluation of Nutritional Needs
Understanding the root causes of a specific outbreak of malnutrition is essential to the design and implementation of an effective program. Action Against Hunger draws on the full range of its technical expertise—in nutrition, food security, water and sanitation, and health—to conduct an analysis of the situation. In addition to baseline data on core nutritional indicators, the assessment includes information on the culture, its infrastructure, and the local geography. The resulting evaluation helps to determine the number and placement of feeding centers required for an effective response to the crisis.
Treatment & Prevention of Acute Malnutrition
Drawing on more than a quarter century of experience, Action Against Hunger has developed an effective method to treat acute malnutrition that includes field-tested protocols and nutritional products backed by an international scientific advisory board. Therapeutic Feeding Centers provide round-theclock care for those most severely affected by acute malnutrition—infants, young children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers. Without proper treatment, these women and children would face imminent death. With treatment, the vast majority return to their families after 30 days.
To prevent a relapse in those recently discharged from Therapeutic Feeding Centers, and to assist those who suffer from acute malnutrition but require less intensive care, Supplementary Feeding Centers provide treatment on a weekly basis. Our staff carefully monitor the nutritional health of their beneficiaries, and dispense therapeutically formulated food that can be consumed without special preparation and easily transported to remote locations. Often mobile, these centers also help those who cannot reach the network of Therapeutic Feeding Centers. In addition to the medical and nutritional care, Action Against Hunger organizes activities at both types of feeding centers to encourage social interaction, strengthen family cohesion, and educate caregivers on hygiene and nutrition.
Technical Training & Support for Local Staff
Even at the outbreak of a crisis, when all efforts are focused on providing treatment and saving lives, we’re already helping to strengthen and rebuild the health infrastructure. We do this from the outset by fielding a team that overwhelming consists of local staff members. As soon as the situation stabilizes, we begin to adapt our programs so they can integrate into a country’s existing public health system. When the crisis subsides and Action Against Hunger can eventually depart, the local staff remain to continue working on behalf of their community’s nutritional health.
