The Painful Truth of the Earth: Hunger!
- Today, more than 733 million people struggle with hunger.
- 2.4 billion people around the world do not have consistent access to sufficient and safe food. Approximately more than 333 million people face severe food insufficiency...
- In countries below the hunger line, 148 million children under the age of 5 cannot complete their development in good health due to malnutrition.
- In Afghanistan, 875 thousand children under the age of 5 are at risk of death due to malnutrition.
- Approximately 8 million children under the age of 5 in 15 countries affected by the hunger crisis are at risk of death from severe wasting if they do not have urgent access to therapeutic food and care, and this number is increasing by the minute.
- In 2021 alone, a child or young person under the age of 5 died every 4.4 seconds due to malnutrition; During the same period, 1.9 million babies were stillborn.
What are we doing?
We apply medical nutrition treatment in our nutritional health centers we established to prevent malnutrition diseases and health problems caused by hunger.
What is malnutrition?
Malnutrition: It is a disease state that usually lasts for a long time and occurs as a result of inadequate or unbalanced nutrition. Severe hunger can cause loss of body weight and growth retardation. Therefore, it is not possible for malnutrition patients to be adequately nourished with daily foods, and they can only survive with medical nutrition.
Medical nutrition therapy: It is the treatment process applied for malnutrition disease caused by hunger. Children who are exposed to long-term hunger begin to be unable to digest or eat normal food after a while. In this process, nutritional therapy comes into play under the supervision of a doctor and special nutritious foods (RUTF) are prepared according to the patient's needs. These foods are consumed at certain intervals and in certain amounts. After regular use, the treated child begins to gain weight and develop in a healthy way. After a certain period of time, body development returns to normal and the child recovers. If long-term starvation occurs again, malnutrition recurs and the treatment process begins again.
As Earth Doctors; provides nutritional health services in countries experiencing severe hunger; We continue our treatments to reduce severe and moderate malnutrition in children under 5 years of age and pregnant and breastfeeding women.
We have provided nutritional examination and treatment services to hundreds of thousands of people since 2012, and we continue to do so.
We have been fighting hunger in Gaza, where the humanitarian crisis has been increasing since October 7, and providing nutritional support to the people of the region.
Regions where we continue to actively provide nutritional therapy;
- Yemen Nutrition Health Center
Between 2016 and 2018, we provided nutritional treatments for children under the age of 5 and pregnant/breastfeeding mothers struggling with hunger in our 7 health centers. As of 2021, we continue to provide our health services at Yemen Taiz Nutrition Health Center.
- Chad-Sido Nutritional Health Center
Our Chad-Sido Refugee Health Center, which has been providing primary health care since 2016 due to the inadequacy of the health system in the country and the increasing need, started to provide medical nutrition treatment services for those in need struggling with malnutrition as of 2018. We continue our work by including pediatric and gynecological examination and pregnancy services within the scope of our activities.
- Somali Nutrition Health Center
Somalia Mogadishu Health Center, where we provide primary health services, started to provide services in the field of nutritional health in October 2021. In addition to our center in Mogadishu, a new nutritional health center was established in Galmudug province in February 2022. Since 2023, we have been continuing our activities in our Mogadishu Health Center with examination and treatment services in the field of nutritional health, pediatrics and gynecological examination, ultrasound and laboratory services.
- Afghanistan Nutrition Health Center
With 15 nutritional health centers and 11 mobile health teams established in 15 provinces of Afghanistan and started operating in January 2020; We continue our examination and nutrition treatment services for those in need, especially pregnant/breastfeeding mothers and children.
