Last fall, Action Against Hunger’s nutrition team visited the village Mir Hoat in the Badin district of Sindh province, Pakistan, where malnutrition rates are consistently over the emergency threshold. Over 18% of the children are malnourished in Mir Hoat, with nearly 4% of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. While our team was screening children for malnutrition, they met Noor Bano, a mother of four. Her eldest child, Nazeer Ahmad, who was one month from his fifth birthday, was severely malnourished, weighing a mere 17 pounds.

Noor Bano told the nutrition team that she had taken Nazeer to many private doctors in the past. It helped him in the short-term, but his overall health did not improve.  Our team referred her to the nearest Action Against Hunger center where Nazeer was enrolled in the Out-Patient Therapeutic Program (OTP) to receive treatment for undernutrition. The team also visited Noor Bano's home to assess for the underlying causes of malnutrition, such as poor feeding and hygiene practices.  They found that the children's grandmother, Maryam, was the primary caretaker while Noor Bano and her husband worked in the fields.

Maryam was counseled on how diet diversity and good hygiene practices can prevent further malnutrition. Seasonal vegetables like spinach, okra, eggplant, and gourds were encouraged, as were staple foods like rice and wheat products. The team also promoted locally available fruits like mango, banana, papaya, dates, and chikoo and proteins like milk and milk products, meat products, and eggs.  Nazeer's nutritional status improved greatly thanks to the therapeutic foods, improved hygiene conditions, age-appropriate feeding, and a strengthened immune system.

Action Against Hunger is part of the Pakistan Emergency Food Security Alliance. This is a consortium of six International Non-Governmental Organizations, supported by the European Union, which seeks to bring about a shift in chronic food insecurity while providing innovative solutions to overcome malnutrition by addressing the underlying causes. Using an integrated approach and pooling resources and technical expertise, the project continues to provide essential nutrition support for thousands of malnourished children, just like Nazeer.