Pakistan Floods - Emergency Nutrition - Action Against Hunger 2011

18 March 2011 - In 2010 Pakistan experienced the worst monsoon flooding in its history. At its height over 20 million people were affected and over 7 million people were made homeless by the flooding. While most of the flood-affected people have returned to their home areas millions of people still require humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs and to begin the process of resuming their normal lives. A devastating consequence of the floods has been the increase in the number of young children suffering from acute malnutrition particularly in Sindh Province. CIDA’s contribution is helping Action Against Hunger Canada address the emergency nutrition needs of the flood-affected population in southern Sindh. Specific project activities include setting up a network of therapeutic feeding units outpatient therapeutic programs and supplementary feeding centers to provide the appropriate treatment and care for approximately 7 500 acutely malnourished young children and pregnant and lactating women. Action Against Hunger also provides training to local health professionals and community-level nutrition volunteers on the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) model in order to support the inclusion of this effective and efficient approach to the management of malnutrition into routine health services in Sindh Province.