The sound of hunger

Sometimes words and pictures aren’t enough

We’ve all heard a baby cry. It prompts us to respond – to comfort, to change, to feed. But when a child is truly hungry, when they are suffering the real pain of hunger, there’s something quite different in the sound of their cry.

The video below is quite difficult to watch. It shows a little boy in Yemen suffering from the pain of hunger. You can see it in his face and you can hear it in his cry.

The doctor in the video is Dr Adel. He’s testing Nabil’s appetite to help determine whether he needs to be admitted to hospital for emergency treatment.

Dr Adel has been working with malnourished children since 2014. He’s seen hunger before, but not like this. These are a few of his words:

“In all my years working, I have never seen hunger on this scale. Children in Yemen are in a very bad state.

Today, I went to the tent where eight-month-old Nabil is living with his family.

Two weeks ago, I met him for the first time. I measured his weight, height and the circumference of his arm.

He weighed just four kilos – that’s about half the weight he should be.

As you can see... he’s just skin on bones.

Dr Adel works around the clock to save children’s lives in Yemen

I know his parents are doing their best to care for him, but their task is next to impossible. I understand what they are going through – I have felt what they are feeling.

Because of the war, I was forced to leave my home too. My daughter became malnourished, but I was able to treat her.

Nabil will now go back to hospital, where he will receive the therapeutic food he needs. The team there will treat his diarrhoea and his cough.

My great hope is his condition will stabilise and we will be able to support him to put on weight.

That is why I am so committed to this work. I would work all the hours I have, anywhere, to care for children – because they are the future.”