30 Days Can Save a Life: Reflections of a Nutritionist

“I came to Mandera, Kenya on October 5th 2005. My first day on the job I was in our feeding center and in walks this mother carrying an 8-year-old girl that was half the size that she should be. I’d been a nurse at Sloan Kettering Hospital taking care of patients with cancer. I thought I was ready to go and work in Kenya. But nothing could have prepared me for seeing this girl so close to death. Her name was Habiba. Her mother and her sister had taken turns carrying Habiba and her new born sister as they walked for three days from their remote village. A village with no clean water let alone health care. The drought had already started in Kenya, so there was no water along the way. The family of four had shared one bottle of water and one bottle of milk for their meals for three days. And it was hot. So when they arrived they were exhausted, dehydrated and pleading for help.

When Habiba arrived she was close to death. She could barely manage a blank stare when I looked in her eyes. She was suffering from malnutrition, tuberculosis, malaria, and anemia. I brought her a cup of our specialized formula called F75, its’ a treatment that has the right balance of nutrients needed by a severely malnourished body. It slowly wakes up the person’s stomach, liver, spleen, kidneys and other body systems and tells them that it’s time to start working. Habiba had been deprived of food for so long that she no longer remembered what it was like to eat. Our staff and her family gently urged her to eat and she was fed every three hours for a week. At the end of the week Habiba could sit against the wall by herself and take the cup and drink it. And for the first time since I arrived, I saw Habiba’s mother smile.

But Habiba still had a long way to go. In the second week we gave her a higher-calorie therapeutic milk. She began drinking more and playing with her baby sister. We then started treating her tuberculosis. In the third week she stood for the first time in over a year. I will never forget the morning when I walked into the feeding center and Habiba walked over to me and greeted me with a hug. I could not believe that this smiling little girl was the girl that was so close to death.

While Habiba was getting better, her mother was taught how to weave mats. She sold the mats and with the money she made, she purchased clothes for herself and her daughters.

40 days after arriving, a smiling healthy Habiba walked out of our center. I didn’t believe it was possible, but I watched her walk out. We followed Habiba for nine months to treat her tuberculosis and make sure that she did not become malnourished again.

We also started water, sanitation, and hygiene programs in her community. Today as you can see, Habiba is a happy and healthy young girl. I saw 600 children come into our center near death and walk out healthy. If we can get a child into a feeding center, we can save their lives.”

Kelly Delaney works as the Medical and Nutrition
Coordinator in Kenya and South Sudan for Action Against Hunger.