You can save a child like Abdi from deadly hunger
At 18 months, Abdi was at an age where he should have been toddling around his house, learning his first words, laughing and playing. Instead he was too weak to move and struggling to breathe. He had been hungry for so long, he’d lost his strength to eat altogether. “He was in a lot of pain and he was not eating at all,” his mother Alafi said.
Quality medical care in the remote Somali region of Ethiopia where they live is scarce. It can take days to travel to the nearest hospital, and often at a hefty cost. But Alafi had to take decisive action to save her son’s life.
She rushed him to the hospital, where he was admitted to the emergency room and diagnosed with Severe Acute Malnutrition and anaemia. He could barely breathe and had to get a feeding tube in his nose to get some much-needed energy back.
He spent a week in the children’s ward, supported by Save the Children, receiving medicine and food to get him back to health. Just one week later he was ready to leave the ward and continue to receive care through outpatient treatment. Months later, Abdi is like a different child, says Alafi.