Médecins Sans Frontières has been responding to an acute nutritional crisis in southern Ethiopia since the middle of May, this year. Although teams have recently been able to reduce activities, recent assessments led MSF to launch new campaigns in areas that were yet to receive aid. One such place is Dodola, in the south of the Oromiya region. Dr Sarah Temmerman, who coordinates the emergency nutritional intervention, describes the situation in this interview.
A child is treated in a MSF feeding centre, Ethiopia
© Juan Carlos Tomasi / MSF
We left for Dodola on October 3rd. September’s assessment showed alarming levels of malnutrition in some parts of the district. Another NGO had committed to intervene there, but this aid failed to materialise. It was therefore essential that we went out. Although the situation was worrying, the health authorities had succeeded in averting a larger crisis by setting up a number of nutritional centres in the area.
What did the MSF intervention consist of?
We contacted local leaders and set up our base, warehouse and a stabilisation centre where severely malnourished children with complications could be treated. Two days later, the team opened four out-patient therapeutic programmes (OTPs) in the most affected areas. Within a week we were caring for 191 children suffering from severe malnutrition and 13 more serious cases that needed caring for in the stabilisation centre.
Are the areas where you work difficult to access?
Two of the four areas are reachable by car and on foot, which means that we can easily bring in medicines and therapeutic food. However, the other two locations, Morke and Gefersa Kara, are far more remote - the trip takes three hours on horseback or donkey. Some days there are more than 20 animals in convoy carrying staff, medicines and crates of therapeutic food. We leave early in the morning and aim to return before sunset. It’s a bit of a challenge, but we manage it.
MSF staff attend to a severely malnuourished child. Ethiopia, 2008.
Elena Torta /MSF
How is it possible that after more than five months and just as the harvest is starting, MSF still finds areas so badly hit by malnutrition?
The situation varies a lot from one place to the next. I have never seen such a “localized” pattern of malnutrition. There are places in real crisis where children are dying of malnutrition, situated right beside areas that have been largely spared. Some areas in the Dodola district are completely isolated. The population lives on a knife edge. The slightest incident such as an illness or a bad harvest can cause children to fall into acute malnutrition. Luck plays a large part in it...
How long will MSF teams remain in Southern Ethiopia?
In most places where we work, the beginning of the harvest and the positive impact of the feeding centres has led to a substantial reduction in the number of patients with moderate or severe malnutrition. A decreasing number of children are being admitted to our stabilization centres. We have also been able to reduce the size of the team and to close some feeding centres. It seems that the worst has passed. We are even planning a hand-over of our activities to the national health authorities in mid-November. Nevertheless, we need to remain alert, continue to explore new areas and be ready to intervene wherever necessary.
MSF nutritional emergency in Ethiopia
In mid-May MSF started emergency nutritional activities in the Oromiya and (SNNP) regions of Ethiopia, and recently in the northern region of Afar. Initially, the programme only accepted severely malnourished patients, mostly children. Since mid-July feeding programmes for moderately malnourished children and their families have also been opened. In the past five months MSF has cared for approximately 31,000 severely malnourished patients and 48,500 moderately malnourished patients across the different districts. In July MSF also carried out a targeted food distribution campaign for 12,500 people who were at risk.