Khabar Khair (Only Good News) – Fatima Rashad

   Yemen suffers severe acute malnutrition cases, with more than half a million cases in some Yemeni governorates, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Acute Malnutrition analysis released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and partners.

     “We’ve been warning that Yemen is on the brink of a catastrophic food security crisis, If the war doesn’t end now, ” said Ms. Lise Grande, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen.

   Many organizations, institutions and associations in Aden have reduced malnutrition, Khabar Khair (Only Good News) kept track of the preventive Nutrition project which is implemented by the Society for Humanitarian Solidarity with the support and funding of the World Food Program. Zakaria Yeslam (Programs Director in the Society) stated: “The preventive Nutrition project in the governorate of Aden, covers 4 districts (Mansoura, Khor Maksar, Al Mualla, Crater). The number of distribution points is 228, with 684 female volunteers, distributed over the four targeted districts. 

The Preventive Nutrition Project aims to reduce and prevent malnutrition for both children and women.

     He added, ” awareness-raising campaigns were conducted to educate pregnant women about the importance of breastfeeding, and the and the importance of taking preemptive actions. Moreover, a all infants and young children (6 – 24 months) were nutritionally surveyed, malnourished children were referred to health facilities, and soy and Plumpy’Doz™ (peanut butter) were distributed to children, pregnant and lactating women, in addition to contributing to raising the capabilities of female volunteers and rehabilitating them in Female Community Health Volunteers. Female volunteers were trained through ” the preventive Nutrition program ” before the project starts .

    Zakaria summarizes the total number of quantities distributed during July to September 2021:

 (57,603) tons of soya blend, and (24,252) tons of Plumpy’Doz™, implemented by the Society for Humanitarian Solidarity (SHS)with the support of the World Food Program. The total number of targeted beneficiaries in the four districts is 31,044 children, and 43,569 pregnant women and nursing mothers.

     From the distribution area, Umm Salem told us: “we were trained to deal with the cases we face. When we go out to conduct surveys, we sometimes encounter people who have no idea about the line of our work, so they bush us off and tell us there are no children nor pregnant women in the house then we find out there are pregnant and nursing women in the house, and this is what makes us helpless when it comes to providing food properly.”

     Her colleague Sahar said: “We were able to provide food aid by headmen of neighborhoods ,and food aids were distributed officially and systematically, after the cases are thoroughly surveyed  , and while distributing, we found the cases waiting for us at the agreed specific point.”

     Despite having uninvolved groups, there was a clear awareness among a large segment of Pregnant and nursing women who came to get food aid from associations and organizations, believing in the importance of such thing, as confirmed by one of the project leaders.

    Umm Khaled, one of the beneficiaries who came to get food aid, says: “I am interested in such issue because I have a malnourished child, and I used to go to the health center near the house to get food aid, noting that, the food distributed previously was not acceptable, unlike the food distributed now which has a distinct taste that all children like.