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In areas once affected by famine, Ethiopia builds capacity to wipe out malnutrition
By Indrias Getachew
GETER MEDA, Ethiopia, 24 January 2012 – Seven-month-old Aynadis played with her mother, Seta Temesgen, as they waited to be screened at the Geter Meda Health Post.
Several weeks ago, Aynadis was diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition – a condition that can be deadly if untreated.
Ms. Temesgen believes her work as a field labourer contributed to Aynadis’s condition.
“We don’t stay at home to feed them,” she said about mothers in their agrarian community. “We spend our day in the fields, and the babies spend the day on our backs… If we are working, we don’t want to miss the work, so we only feed them when they start crying, and that harms them.”
But Aynadis is fortunate. She was referred to the village’s outpatient therapeutic feeding programme (OTP), where she has been receiving life-saving treatment. Today’s check-up will show how much progress she has made since her diagnosis.
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