Malnourished Afghan children receive treatment through government feeding program

FARAH, AFGHANISTAN

05.22.2010

Story by Senior Airman Rylan Albright 

Provincial Reconstruction Team Farah

FARAH, Afghanistan - Provincial Reconstruction Team Farah civil affairs and medical personnel met with Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan medical officials to assess the Supplemental Feeding Program, May 22, at the Farah Hospital in Farah province, Afghanistan.

The Supplemental Feeding Program is a weekly government program, financially funded by the PRT, designed to feed malnourished children living in Farah Province.

"The purpose is to identify and treat clinically malnourished children and restore nutritional balance to where they are able to properly recover," said U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Ronald Purcell of Cleveland, Ohio, PRT medical officer.

During severe malnutrition, the human body will shut down its need for food, creating a deadly cycle where lack of food and desire to eat, further increases the malnourished state the children are already in. The Supplemental Feeding Program is designed to break this cycle by boosting the body's desire to eat.

"This program is not to bring the children back to normal body weight. It acts as a way to intervene with the malnutrition process," said Purcell, "The point is to restore hunger and get them [the children] to eat and get healthy."

The goal is to place the malnourished children on the program for four weeks, in hopes that their hunger drive will be boosted by the end of the four weeks.

The program, conducted by Farah Provincial medical officials, offers its service to children between the ages of six months and five years. There have been several cases where the program has reached out to children over the age of five, including a case one week ago where a six-year-old boy was treated for being severely malnourished.

"The children who are enrolled in the program have a very high rate of success with beating malnutrition," said U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman First Class Amanda Little of Welch, West Virginia, PRT Medical non-commissioned officer in charge.

The food consists of a mixture of powdered milk, vegetable oil, peanuts, and a wide variety of vitamins. Together, these ingredients provide malnourished children with the proper balance of fats, proteins, and vitamins.

Mothers and fathers who were bringing in their children told the PRT that they were very happy and thankful for the feeding program. Several families travelled from Pusht Rod, a district north of Farah City, to receive the treatment for their children.

Farah Hospital is currently the only medical clinic in the province to provide the service, however, plans to expand the program and train medical officials in Pusht-e-Koh are being coordinated through GIRoA and the PRT. If the expansion of the program in Pusht-e-Koh proves to be successful, additional districts may be considered.

The PRT is influencing the medical officials who conduct the program to receive funding through GIRoA, in hopes that the program can become fully self-sustainable with little or no outside influence or funding.

• Date Taken: 05.22.2010
• Date Posted: 05.25.2010 06:14
• Story ID: 50226
• Location: FARAH, AF