Nutrition and Health

Nutrition

Action contre la Faim ’s nutrition programs treat and prevent acute malnutrition in those most vulnerable, including young children and women who are pregnant or nursing. The programs are launched most often during times of crisis—when an earthquake devastates a city, when civil war tears apart a country, when drought leads to famine, when families flee violence only to confront hunger. The contexts for our programs can be as varied as the crises: from rural mountain villages, to ethnically divided cities, to the confines of overcrowded relocation camps for internally displaced peoples.

Based on the unique demands of each situation, its context, and the local culture, Action contre la Faim designs a nutrition program that will best meet the needs of the target population. The core components of this program include an evaluation of the community’s nutritional needs, the treatment and prevention of malnutrition, and technical training for the local and national staff in charge of nutrition and public health. The approach is guided by a strategy of flexible response to conditions that can rapidly change. As soon as conditions allow, we work to integrate the programs into existing public health structures to ensure the future nutritional well-being of the community.

Evaluation of Nutritional Needs

Understanding the root causes of a specific outbreak of malnutrition is essential to the design and implementation of an effective program. Action Acontre la Faim draws on the full range of its technical expertise—in nutrition, food security, water and sanitation, and health—to conduct an analysis of the situation. In addition to baseline data on core nutritional indicators, the assessment includes information on the culture, its infrastructure, and the local geography. The resulting evaluation helps to determine the number and placement of feeding centers required for an effective response to the crisis.

Treatment & Prevention of Acute Malnutrition

Drawing on more than a quarter century of experience, Action contre la Faim has developed an effective method to treat acute malnutrition that includes field-tested protocols and nutritional products backed by an international scientific advisory board. Therapeutic Feeding Centers provide round-theclock care for those most severely affected by acute malnutrition—infants, young children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers. Without proper treatment, these women and children would face imminent death. With treatment, the vast majority return to their families after 30 days.

To prevent a relapse in those recently discharged from Therapeutic Feeding Centers, and to assist those who suffer from acute malnutrition but require less intensive care, Supplementary Feeding Centers provide treatment on a weekly basis. Our staff carefully monitor the nutritional health of their beneficiaries, and dispense therapeutically formulated food that can be consumed without special preparation and easily transported to remote locations. Often mobile, these centers also help those who cannot reach the network of Therapeutic Feeding Centers. In addition to the medical and nutritional care, Action contre la Faim organizes activities at both types of feeding centers to encourage social interaction, strengthen family cohesion, and educate caregivers on hygiene and nutrition.

Technical Training & Support for Local Staff

Even at the outbreak of a crisis, when all efforts are focused on providing treatment and saving lives, we’re already helping to strengthen and rebuild the health infrastructure. We do this from the outset by fielding a team that overwhelming consists of local staff members. As soon as the situation stabilizes, we begin to adapt our programs so they can integrate into a country’s existing public health system. When the crisis subsides and Action contre la Faim can eventually depart, the local staff remain to continue working on behalf of their community’s nutritional health.

Health

Integral to Action contre la Faim’s field programs is a core concern with health. When someone suffers from malnutrition, they face an increased risk of disease and illness. For malnourished infants and young children, this increased risk can often mean the difference between life and death. Similarly, those weakened by sickness can readily fall victim to malnutrition, which then leads to a spiraling decline in their condition. And when malnutrition and sickness coincide, otherwise easy to treat illnesses, like diarrhea, can suddenly turn fatal. In fact, malnutrition remains an underlying cause in 53% of all deaths among children under five1.

Disease & Malnutrition: A Self-Reinforcing Relationship

Recognizing the symbiotic relationship between malnutrition and sickness, Action contre la Faim also fights the diseases that accompany poor nutrition. Through our efforts to fight acute moderate and severe malnutrition, we not only strive to save children from starvation, we seek to restore them to health. When a child undergoes treatment at a feeding center, we administer medication to prevent the kinds of infection and illness that can be most devastating if allowed to take root. The medications dispensed will vary depending on region, country, and national health protocols, but most frequently we administer three: Amoxicillin, an antibiotic effective against a wide spectrum of infections; Medendazole, which kills most intestinal worms; and an anti-malarial drug.

Other health related activities include vaccination programs and vitamin A and iron supplementation for mothers and children, and instruction on how to foster health through good nutritional practices. In keeping with our overall approach to humanitarian aid, we coordinate closely with the existing public health system to ensure that our work draws on and strengthens local expertise. In the aftermath of a crisis, Action contre la Faim can help restore the public health infrastructure by fielding mobile health clinics to areas affected by epidemic, by rehabilitating and restocking public health centers, and by training local medical personnel on such topics as vaccinations, prenatal health care, and methods for identifying the symptoms of disease & malnutrition.

1 - Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group (CHERG) estimates of the percent distribution of under-five deaths by cause available in the WHO, World Health Report 2005.