35-year-old Libia knows the harsh reality of living with food insecurity. A few years ago, she lost her youngest child to complications caused by malnutrition, and the loss haunts her every day. However, as a parent and farmer in rural Al Dhale’e governorate, one of the regions of Yemen hardest-hit by conflict, food shortages and disease, her story is far from unusual.
Yemen’s food insecurity crisis is causing immense suffering among its population. An estimated 2.4 million Yemeni children are currently at risk and in urgent need of high-quality treatment for acute malnutrition—treatment that many of them will never receive. The country’s pre-existing poverty and nutritional issues were exacerbated by the outbreak of civil war in 2014, devastating infrastructure and disrupting imports. Now, after nine years of conflict, the healthcare system is only partly functional. The remaining facilities struggle to meet the needs of their communities due to limited staff, expertise and supplies.
To tackle the health and nutrition crisis, International Medical Corps supports health facilities around the country—including in Al Dhale’e governorate where Libia and her family live. We have rolled out a community management of at-risk mothers and infants (MAMI) approach, which aims to link up and build upon existing community-based nutrition, healthcare and maternal services to provide holistic care for mothers and babies—two of the most vulnerable groups.
We began by training local health workers in the MAMI approach. Working with the Ministry of Public Health and Population, and other partners, we trained health workers from six facilities across the governorate, covering warning signs and symptoms of malnutrition in infants and mothers, risk factors, infant feeding practices and maternal well-being.
We also trained 70 community health and nutrition volunteers on the MAMI approach. These volunteers act as a vital link between health facilities and local communities, and can provide guidance and referrals to nearby services for people who need them.
Hajer Mohamed Naji is a community health and nutrition volunteer who attended the MAMI training. Just a few weeks after completing the course, Hajer was on a routine visit to local homes when she met Libia and her one-month-old son, Abdullah. Hajer was concerned about Abdullah, who had a fever, was breathing rapidly and wasn’t breastfeeding. Following the procedures she had learned in the MAMI training, Hajer explained the seriousness of Abdullah’s condition to his parents and urgently referred them to their nearest health facility.
Jihad Khaleh, the nutrition worker at the facility, had also attended the MAMI training. When he assessed Abdullah’s condition, he quickly realized that the baby was suffering from severe acute malnutrition with complications. He immediately referred Abdullah and his mother to Al Naser Hospital, in the governorate’s capital, for inpatient intensive care. But even as Abdullah’s condition stabilized, Jihad’s work didn’t stop. He connected Libia to the health facility’s infant and young-child feeding (IYCF) counselor to support her breastfeeding, and to a doctor with psychosocial support expertise to help with the symptoms of postpartum depression he noticed she was experiencing.
Abdullah’s treatment was a success, thanks in no small part to the timeliness and effectiveness of Hajer and Jihad’s actions. After seven days in inpatient care in the hospital, Abdullah was discharged and sent back to the local clinic for close follow-up through the outpatient department. With treatment, care, and continued home visits from Hajer, Abdullah continues to recover quickly. Meanwhile, the IYCF counselling and psychosocial support have helped Libia feel more positive and confident in her parenting.
“I am happy to see my child’s health is improving, day after day,” says Libia. “For a moment in time, the memory of my child, whom I lost at the age of two due to malnutrition, came back to me. I was terrified that the tragedy would happen again. Thanks to International Medical Corps for supporting our communities, preserving the health of our children and saving them from death.”
For Jihad, the experience proved the value of the training he had attended. “I am so glad to be one of the health workers who received MAMI training, which enables me to successfully assess children under six months of age, as well as their mothers—like in the case of Libia and her child Abdullah. We will continue to follow up with their cases to ensure they receive prompt and proper healthcare assistance,” he says.
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