United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) under its Rapid Response Mechanism in collaboration with UN Central Emergency Response Fund and European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) have embarked on the treatment of 14,000 malnourished children in Government Girls Arabic Secondary School (GGASS) in Mafa local government area of Borno State.
The GGASS has a unique population of people who have experienced multiple displacements, having arrived at the camp after the closure of the Muna and custom Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Maiduguri. It has a population of 33,140 individuals comprising 6, 643 households. The camp was established in 2016 and has been a cholera outbreak epicentre. The camp also has regular new arrivals of people who are fleeing attacks from far communities.
On the intervention, UNICEF nutrition officer in charge of nutrition account and surveillance, Nura Shehu, said GGASS IDP camp is an outpatient clinic where children come to receive treatment and go back home, adding that the clinic admits malnourished children without medical complications.
He said of the 14,000 malnourished children in the camp, 5,000 of them have severe acute malnutrition while the remaining 9,000 children have moderate malnutrition, adding that the clinic treats malnourished children without complications and sends them back home, while the malnourished children with complications are taken to the UNICEF medical stabilisation centre for treatment after which they would be referred to the outpatient centre for treatment in addition to administration of nutritional supplement such as Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).
He said, “Children have over the years bore the highest brunt of the lack of adequate water facilities in the camp with cholera outbreaks, high cases of malnutrition and truancy in school”.
In their separate remarks, Asmau Ali whose two-year-old malnourished child is receiving treatment in the UNICEF health facility as well as Hadiza Ahmadu, a mother with a three-year-old malnourished child in the centre, appreciated UNICEF and partners for saving their children from dying of malnutrition.
