‎As Malnutrition Persists, Ethiopians ‎Vow To Help One Another

By: LES NEUHAUS

Amira Usman, left , holds her baby Dita Adem along with another malnourished baby at a clinic, in the town of Harar near the Somaliland border. (AP/Les Neuhaus)

HARAR, Ethiopia, June 11, 2006 – Buzzed by flies, Amira Usman cradled her listless, two-year-old son in her arms, talking about her relief at getting him to a clinic set up to deal with severe malnutrition in this desolate stretch of eastern Ethiopia's highlands. Usman has lost two children to malnutrition - and if it weren't for the clinic, chances are Dita would be dead as well.

"When I brought him in, they gave him milk and he started to get better right away," the 25-year-old said. "I was scared for his life."

Dita and dozens of other malnourished children are getting help from a new program that is training Ethiopians to provide much-needed care to their fellow Ethiopians in this poor land.

The program, which started in December, is getting a formidable test. The United Nations says severe drought has put eight million people at risk of starvation in the East African countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti.

"We hope to be able to decrease hunger levels here by 50 per cent in the next few years, but that's not going to happen if we don't start helping our own," said Hadi Sani, director of the Haromaya Health Center in Harar, a town about 515 kilometers east of the capital, Addis Ababa.

The training program is a project of the Ethiopian Ministry of Health and the U.S.-based International Medical Corps. So far, more than 300 people have been trained as nurses and health care volunteers for 33 clinics in the highlands.

"The country needs more skilled health care workers, and for capacity building to be a reality, it's vital that we train more people willing to do the job," said Merafia Mamo, a regional coordinator for the U.S. group, which has worked in training, relief and development around the world since 1984.

"In that way, Ethiopians will be able to, and already do, help each other and depend less on outside help," Mamo added.

Millions are at risk of famine in eastern Africa because the drought wiped out this year's crops. And despite recent rain, aid groups warn that unless donor nations help provide enough emergency food, water and medicine, more people could die than perished in the region's drought of 2000. That calamity killed nearly 100,000 people in Ethiopia alone.

Although the current food shortfall may be more serious, hunger is a recurring problem across Africa as stocks run low and prices rise in the lean months before the next harvest.

"This is a high area for severely malnourished children," said Kidanemariam Tamirat, a graduate of the training program who works at a clinic in Kore, about 55 kilometers southeast of Harar. "I took the course and now I have something to do. These children go very hungry."

Tamirat recently examined a one-year-old girl named Kiar with thin arms, gaunt eyes and sagging skin.

Checking her height and weight against World Health Organization charts, Tamirat determined the little girl was healthy enough to make it another week without being hospitalized. Instead, he sent Kiar and her grandmother, Alieman Abdillahi, home with extra food.

"Some are wasting away and I have to make difficult decisions of whether we can admit them," Tamirat said.

Even admitting a patient can be a problem. Tamirat said Kiar's grandmother would have stayed with her if she had been accepted for care.

"If the grandmother has to stay here, then the others in her home will be neglected," Tamirat said.

Source: AP