Emergency Nutrition in Niger - Doctors Without Borders 2010

Across West Africa at least 139 million people continue to live in extreme poverty and remain vulnerable to food insecurity forced displacement conflict recurrent natural disasters epidemics and social tensions. Several countries in the region face serious nutrition emergencies including Niger Nigeria and Burkina Faso and many of the estimated five million acutely malnourished children are in need of life-saving medical treatment. CIDA's contribution is supporting Doctors Without Borders to address the emergency nutrition situation in the Zinder Region of Niger. Project activities focus on detecting and referring children suffering from acute malnutrition; providing emergency medical treatment for acute malnutrition and associated diseases; conducting training and capacity building on malnutrition management in local health facilities; and conducting community-based malnutrition prevention initiatives.