STORY: ICRC provides food supplements to children affected by conflict in Cameroon
SHOOTING TIME: June 13, 2024
DATELINE: June 26, 2024
LENGTH: 00:03:53
LOCATION: Yaounde
CATEGORY: SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Makary Integrated Health Center
2. various of Inna Abaicho and her son
3. SOUNDBITE 1 (French): INNA ABAICHO, Mother of a malnourished child
4. various of Abanchime Kachalla
5. SOUNDBITE 2 (French): ABANCHIME KACHALLA, chief of Makary Integrated Health Center
6. SOUNDBITE 3 (French): JOSEPHINE GUINA'A, Supervisor of malnutrition ward at Makary Integrated Health Center

STORYLINE:

It dawned bright and sunny in Makary locality of Cameroon's Far North region.

Inna Abaicho was among the first to arrive with her son at Makary Integrated Health Center. The child is 14 months but looks skinny because of poor nutrition. Malnutrition comes with symptoms involving weight loss, reduced appetite, and tiredness and the boy shows such signs.

SOUNDBITE 1 (French): INNA ABAICHO, Mother of a malnourished child
"I didn't eat well during the pregnancy until I gave birth. The child got sick. He had diarrhea. We took him to the district hospital. I've been taking (plumpy nuts) for five weeks to feed my child, he's eating but he's changing little."

Malnourished children and parents are not rare at the malnutrition ward of the Makary Integrated Health Center, which serves more than 32,000 people in the war-ridden region.

Years of violence by terror group Boko Haram has left thousands of families in abject poverty.

"The situation is alarming. We receive more and more malnourished children every week, despite the efforts of the Cameroonian state and its partners," said Abanchime Kachalla, chief of Makary Integrated Health Center.

SOUNDBITE 2 (French): ABANCHIME KACHALLA, chief of Makary Integrated Health Center
"We have 135 children who are malnourished. The WHO's margin of malnourished persons should not exceed 1.5 percent. But unfortunately, we've exceeded the threshold, so the problem exists. We're at a little more than two percent. Most of our people grow their crops in the Lake Chad area. And it's a bit difficult to get to Lake Chad, so for the past three to four years, people have been unable to grow their crops. They grow crops on the land nearby, and the yields are very low. Thanks to the support of partners like the ICRC, who come to distribute food, things are getting back to normal."

SOUNDBITE 3 (French): JOSEPHINE GUINA'A, Supervisor of malnutrition ward at Makary Integrated Health Center
"We receive a lot of babies under five years old, around 35 cases of malnutrition per month. And in peak periods, the number could surge to 75 cases a month."

The ICRC runs feeding programs, including the provision of Plumpy'Nut, a type of ready-to-use therapeutic food.

The feeding programs have made a "remarkable" impact on children's health and development, saving countless lives one day at a time, Kachalla said.

Apart from therapeutic feeding programs, the ICRC has made sure that the health center is up and running.

The center, which had only one staff member at the beginning, now has 14, with the support of the ICRC, Kachalla said. "That is very appreciable, because we have almost all the staff we need in this health center."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Yaounde.
(XHTV)