…as malnutrition cases rise due to ongoing drought
By Beverly Bizeki
In Bikita District, Masvingo, villagers are starting to feel the heat of an El Nino-induced drought ravaging the country and the climate crisis has not spared children from its biting effects as food scarcity is striking with the district already recorded 56 cases of malnutrition.
Bikita is one of the areas characterized by climate variability including late rains, high temperatures and short rainfall season, issues that are directly affecting children’s health due to food shortages within families.
In response to the crisis, the Ministry of Health and Child Care, with support from United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and its nutrition partners implemented the ‘Care group model’ in the Dewure area of Bikita.
This is a community-based services health information system aimed at preventing children’s malnutrition by providing mothers and other caregivers with information on how to provide a nutritious diet for children as well as screening for malnutrition.
Bikita District Nutritionist Advance Zidya said the situation was already escalating as they have recorded 56 cases so far, which is higher compared to last year, attributing the detection and record of cases to the community care groups as well as the drought.
“The care group approach is welcomed in Bikita as village health workers conduct screening every month and villagers understand the concept because those who would have been found with malnutrition do come to the clinic for treatment. Our burden during this time of the year, in a normal year is usually small.
“It is unfortunate that we have 56 cases at the moment which is a high number and we expect more in the next two to three months because of drought but the good thing is we still have supplies of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF Plumpy Nut) and we expect our partners UNICEF and World Vision to put more resources for the project towards the RUTFs and transport as the clinic does not provide admissions for severe cases,” said Zidya.
The care groups conduct cooking demos where they share notes on how to prepare nutritious meals using locally available resources and the groups came up with traditional recipes familiar to the people in the area.
One of the lead mothers in the care groups Otilia Makara said the demos were useful to the communities as they use locally available foodstuffs that provide at least all the required nutrients for child development.
“We use local ingredients like mufushwa (dried vegetables) beans, peas, sweet potatoes, and mealie-meal to provide nutritious meals for children and we urge fellow mothers from our communities to use foodstuffs available in our villages to provide meals with at least four nutrients for their children.
“This has been effective in lessening malnutrition in children. We are also noting a reduction in Gender Based Violence cases as some cases can be attributed to food shortage in homes,” said Makara.
Village 7B health worker Miriam Dhliwayo commended the program although she lamented the acute food shortages in the district.
“Due to drought most children might have fallen victim to malnutrition had it not been for the lessons shared to lactating women and caregivers on meal preparations in these challenging times.
“The cooking demos have taught us to prepare meals like porridge without sugar although the situation is dire for us as we did not get anything from our fields this year,” Dhliwayo said.
UNICEF Chief Communications Officer Yves Willemot said the climate change crisis was a children’s rights crisis affecting their health, education and protection rights.
“As climate change becomes more frequent and increases in severity, it is affecting children more and impacts their right to health and nutrition as it goes with an increased scarcity of water and food. It also impacts the educational and protection rights of children, some households in Zimbabwe are facing a reduction of income from agricultural activities which affect households’ capacity to pay for children’s school fees,” said Willemot.
Willemot said the care groups were bringing a sense of hope to communities although there was need to scale up the community-based platforms to save more children.
“Here in Bikita, there is a sense of hope because even though the situation might be dire the community is billing its resilience by looking for responses to food scarcity. The care groups’ approach illustrates how in a dire situation, changes in food preparation can be an effective way of dealing with scarcity of food guaranteeing that children continue to get nutritious and diverse food needed for development and to protect themselves from malnutrition.
“The challenge that we have is these community-based platforms that have shown effectiveness need to be scaled up. As UNICEF we are calling upon the donor community to be generous in making funding available so that more of these initiatives can be rolled out and many children can be saved from malnutrition,” said Willemot.
Statistics from UNICEF show that around 181 million children worldwide under 5 years of age which is one in four children are experiencing severe child poverty which makes them prone to 50 percent wasting, a life-threatening form of malnutrition.
“Of the 181 million, 580 000 are Zimbabwean children although the number might increase due to the ongoing drought,” he said.
UNICEF is currently appealing for US$84.9 million to fund its emergency response aimed at assisting children and women affected by the El Nino crisis in Zimbabwe.
