The U.S. government, through USAID, has teamed up with the Ministry of Health and Social Services and UNICEF to provide 14 metric tons of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) to children under five years old in Namibia.
This vital aid will help address malnutrition and improve child health.
According to a statement from the U.S Embassy in Windhoek this week, the donation is part of an agreement between USAID and Chevron which has committed N$5.7 million to support water access projects and N$1 million for emergency drought relief for food-insecure people in the country.
The food is a specialized nutritional product distributed through health facilities that helps children with severe malnutrition to recover.
Enrollment lasts for three months for severe cases, and once the patient reaches a designated milestone, they can either be discharged or progress to the Ready-to-Use Supplementary Food, which is intended for moderate malnutrition cases.
According to the embassy, the Karas Regional Health Directorate confirmed that malnutrition in children under five years is primarily manifested through diarrhea, which is how these children are diagnosed and subsequently enrolled in the program.
However, a complicating factor is that Karas residents frequently migrate due to a lack of employment opportunities; they tend to go where they can find a source of income and take their children along as well, they added.
“We are grateful for this initiative by the U.S. government. We have been eagerly awaiting the delivery of RUTF to our clinics, as we have witnessed many children suffering from malnutrition. It has been years since we last received any supplies,” said clinic nurse Petrus.
“My daughter was very sickly and had diarrhea, so I took her to the clinic for a consultation. I had no idea that the problem was malnutrition,” says Sophie (not her real name). Her child, who is one year and three months old, weighed 7.3kg during the consultation in May 2024. “The treatment is going very well, and her weight has increased to above 9kg by August.”
Sophie receives her prescription for RUTF every two weeks from the village pharmacy. “When we first started with RUTF, my daughter didn’t take it well. I mixed it with porridge, and then she became receptive to it and now enjoys eating it. Thank you for helping Namibia with this life-saving product,” Sophie says with a smile.
According to the April/September 2024 Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, an estimated 1.4 million Namibians, nearly half of the country’s population, are experiencing acute food insecurity, a figure that has doubled over the past 12 months.
The crisis spans all 14 regions, with cereal production plummeting by 53% and dam water levels dropping by 70%, compared to last year.
The Karas region is predominantly semi-arid and dry, but this year the drought was so bad that it resulted in a substantial drop in production as well as the income from farm labor which so many people depend on.
Lack of food and income has eroded household food security leading over time to severe health consequences, including malnutrition in both adults and children.
According to the World Food Program global hunger index, 24% of Namibian children under the age of five are stunted, and six percent are experiencing wasting. Stunted describes children who are too short for their age while wasting means they are too thin for their height – both conditions are caused by malnutrition.
