Hanad Abdi Aden is a two-year old male child who lives in Bullagadud village in the north of Kismayo district, among a family with 6 children. In August 2019, IOM introduced nutrition services for treatment of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in this community, which had recently been under the control of Al Shabaab for several years.
Hanad became very sick and was brought by his mother to the health facility’s outpatient unit, where the medical staff diagnosed the child with “severe acute malnutrition” (SAM) and linked him immediately to the nutrition clinic for care and therapeutic food (plumpynut). The mother was guided on how to properly and hygienically feed plumpynut to the Hanad, and she was given an appointment to come back to the clinic in one week. After several weeks of therapeutic food, medical care, and monitoring, Hanad had gained a lot of weight and was fully recovering.
Hanad’s mother talked about how she was feeling: “I am so happy because my child recovered from the bad malnutrition and he is playing with the other children. I really appreciate the health workers in the Bullagadud clinic for what they did for Hanad and saving his life.” The mother highlighted a previous malnutrition death a year earlier before IOM and Ministry of Health started health and nutrition services in Bullagadud. “There was a sick malnourished child who had the same symptoms as mine, before this clinic was here in the village. That child was unlucky and could not get proper nutritional assistant in the village, and the parents couldn’t afford to take the child to other places to look for treatment. The child died while we watched helplessly. Thankfully we are now safe from such horrible thing and our children can grow up healthy.”