From Despair to Healing: How a Community Tackled Malnutrition

At just 18 months old, Ramatou Traoré was entrusted to her grandparents due to her mother's pregnancy. Prematurely weaned from breast milk and deprived of the essential nutrients critical for her growth, Ramatou soon fell victim to severe acute malnutrition. Despite her grandparents’ efforts to treat her with traditional medicines, they found themselves unable to cure her condition.

During a nutrition demonstration and malnutrition screening session, members of the local nutrition support group, with the support of the community health worker, diagnosed Ramatou with severe acute malnutrition and generalized nutritional edema.  

Since 2021, USAID funded Keneya Nieta (Household and Community Health) has enhanced the capabilities of local nutrition support group members by equipping them with essential tools and consistent coaching to aid in the comprehensive malnutrition screening process. They play a crucial role in the early detection and efficient management of malnutrition. This support has significantly bolstered nutrition initiatives, with nutrition groups screening an impressive 156,705 children monthly for malnutrition. This extensive screening process has been pivotal in detecting and addressing malnutrition at its earliest stages.

Confronted with the severity of her condition, the community health worker urgently advised Ramatou's family to seek immediate, specialized treatment at the health center. Despite this recommendation, Ramatou's grandparentsdecided to keep her at home, resigned to the belief that her condition was beyond recovery.Ramatou's grandmother, Djeneba Ouattara, expressed their despair:

We felt it was no longer necessary to take her to the center for treatment, as we were convinced that it was unfortunately too late to save her.”

USAID Keneya Nieta maintains a close collaboration with the technical services of health districts across the Mopti, Ségou, and Sikasso regions, facilitating regular coaching visits to villages. On one such visit, local nutrition support group members highlighted the urgency of enhancing parental awareness and improving their healthcare seeking behavior to the community development agent and the health district nutrition manager. Following this, the community development agent and the nutrition manager reached out to Ramatou's parents, informing them of their child's severe malnutrition. They underscored that the only effective treatment was available at the health center, offered free of charge and requiring just three weeks. The parents agreed to take their child to the Sikasso Referral Health Center for the necessary treatment. Nana Diamoutènè, a local nutrition support group member stated that:

The condition of the child concerned us as a committee responsible for improving maternal, neonatal and child health in the community. Therefore, we had to do everything possible to save the child from malnutrition.”

After a three-week stay at the intensive nutritional recovery unit at the Sikasso Referral Health Center, Ramatou continued her treatment at home. Over the next seven weeks, her treatment was complemented by regular check-ups at the health center and diligent follow-up from local nutrition support group members. At the end of a ten-week treatment period, she had fully recovered.

USAID through its Keneya Nieta activity is committed to strengthening the skills of nutrition support group, in the Mopti, Ségou and Sikasso, to improve maternal, newborn and child health indicators within communities. These initiatives are strategically designed to support the Malian government's goals of reducing maternal, neonatal, and infant mortality.