MEDINA: "I'M SO HAPPY AND EXCITED THAT MUNIRA IS NOW RUNNING ALL AROUND"
Medina, 21, lives with her husband Isac and their 18-month-old daughter, Munira, in Guchi, Ethiopia. In her small village, Medina makes great efforts for her family. Her husband is often away, herding the family livestock for hours at a time to earn an income. Despite being nine months pregnant, during these long periods Medina continues to care for the family, fetching water, doing housework and cooking.
Families like Medina's, who depend on livestock for food and income, constantly face the realities of the climate crisis. Drought and long dry seasons mean that small-scale farmers are often unable to feed their livestock. Without money or access to food or milk, communities, especially young children, go hungry.
The starvation period often occurs during the dry season. For some of the poorest people, this leads to an increase in cases of severe malnutrition. "When it doesn't rain, the cattle are hungry and have nothing to eat, so in turn we don't get milk and we go hungry," explains Medina.
Eight months ago, Medina's daughter Munira started losing weight and refusing to eat. "Munira was not eating," explains Medina. "I had no strength, I didn't know what to do. I held her the whole time. At first, Medina thought Munira would recover on her own, and began treating her daughter with traditional remedies.
Munira could not keep her food down, and vomited straight after eating. Medina became increasingly worried and desperate because she did not know what her daughter's problem was. She watched her daughter lose weight every day.
"The only way I can express the pain I went through is that I was running with Munira from one hospital to another and looking for help, leaving all the work I had to do behind," says Medina. For months, Medina knocked on neighbours' doors asking for help. She even went to hospitals, but no one knew how to treat Munira.
The stress of watching her daughter's health deteriorate caused Medina to lose her appetite. Soon after, she began to lose weight herself. "Everyone was worried, my whole family was worried. I stopped eating because I was so worried that she would die," says Medina.
One day, Action Against Hunger health and nutrition staff visited the community of Medina to raise awareness about malnutrition. It was then that Medina learned about Action Against Hunger's malnutrition treatment programmes.
Munira was admitted to a life-saving programme where she was treated with medication and provided with ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), a peanut-based paste used to treat children suffering from malnutrition. "The Action Against Hunger staff checked her weight and gave me therapeutic food to give her three times a day," says Medina, noting, "They make sure we are following the instructions and eating the therapeutic food properly by checking her weight."
After her treatment and careful follow-up, Medina noticed a positive change in her daughter. "I noticed that her belly was getting bigger and her body was getting bulkier." Medina's perseverance has saved Munira's life. "I am so happy and excited that Munira is now running all around," says Medina. "Now I can do anything I want at home because she runs and plays. That makes me very happy. And only dreams occupy Medina's thoughts: "When she grows up, I want to send her to school and I wish her all the best for the future."
