Child malnutrition among nomads in Waat

The NGO World Vision has expressed alarm at the results of a nutritional survey it undertook in Waat district (7.24 N 28.58 E), southern Sudan, which found that 54 percent of two- to three-year-olds are malnourished, with a global malnutrition rate of 17 percent among children under five. The agency surveyed more than 1,000 children and their mothers or caregivers, who were returning to their villages after grazing their cattle in the ‘toic’ or wetlands. The survey also indicated that little more than 40 percent of the children had been vaccinated against measles and tuberculosis (TB). World Vision has admitted more than 100 children to a therapeutic feeding centre since 1 May, it added. The nutritional survey indicated a marked improvement in the health of the children and women receiving therapeutic feeding but found the status of about 3,000 children who went to the ‘toic’ and had not been receiving any food supplements to be “very poor,” said Molly Mwangi, World Vision’s Health Coordinator in Sudan. The NGO was working hard to vaccinate the children, particularly against measles and polio, and to raise awareness about hygiene and nutrition to reduce diarrhoeal diseases because almost none of the households had toilets and water was scarce, leaving children dangerously at risk of dehydration, Mwangi added.