Sunday, August 07, 2005

The real war- war against Hunger

Isaacs Spiritlife mentioned the shadow of the 7/7/7 (July 7 and then the year 2005 equals 7 in numerology- a very high frequency number. Much as 11/11 is. 11/11 Harmonic concordance and of course 9/11. The shadow was the bombings in London. The Light was new energy coming for to make for change. But also, the G8 Live concert to end hunger. As the bombings occured, I knew. I knew this momentus worldwide AOL satellite technology concert beamed worldwide would be overshadowed by the duality that is the war on terror.

Pray for radical change soon and hope for miracle. Americans need to wake up to this now and speak up to our Governments inaction. Numbers are staggering and so unacceptable. 3.5 million of the 12 million affected by famine? One thing to fight for Democracy in Countries rich with oil and an entirely different but necessary thing to helllllo use our resources to feed starving people! Makes me so angry!
Snap your fingers. Wait 3 seconds. Snap it again. 3 seconds. Snap again. Thats the rate that a child dies of hunger. While we in America- me included- are trying to lose weight! The imbalance is staggering. Why are so many silent? Jill

Health Experts Say Thousands in Niger Will Never Recover from Malnutrition
Agence France-Presse
Thursday 04 August 2005

Three children played happily in the courtyard of an orphanage in this southern Niger town, as their beaming mothers looked on.

Only a month ago the three were at death's door as a result of severe malnutrition in a region where hundreds of thousands are threatened by food shortages.

But while they appear to have fully recovered in the wake of emergency treatment, doctors warned that many other children might be affected for the rest of their lives.

Since June, Dr. Guissa Mahamane of the Africa Muslim Agency which runs the orphanage and his colleagues have been feeding some 500 malnourished children a day with milk and a vitamin-enriched porridge based on rice or millet.

"We have no experience in the nutritional field but the results are encouraging," he said, while adding, "If I encounter a case of severe malnutrition I refer it to the specialists."

Dr. Mego Terzian of Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF or Doctors without Borders) said that the number of such cases admitted to the agency's intensive treatment centres in Niger had leapt by nearly 30 percent in a week.

"Last week we admitted 1,283 children suffering from acute malnutrition to our five centres, against 990 the week before," he told AFP.

Severe lack of food weakens the victim's resistance to disease, and life expectancy is reduced, he said.

In Niger a malnourished child is particularly vulnerable to septicaemia, lung problems and malaria, which affects 800,000 people a year in the country.

Terzian said all three were found to be already present in many children brought to the MSF feeding centres, with the prospect of neurological and other illnesses in later life.

French Red Cross nutrionist Dr. Guy Zimmermann said that "long-term malnutrition restricts growth in children and makes them susceptible to all forms of infection."

Children in the last stages of malnutrition require highly specialized treatment if their lives are to be saved, he added.

As well as being gradually restored to health with proper feeding, their various infections must also be cured.

"The child cannot even swallow water, and must be fed by drip," Zimmermann said.

Even when apparently saved, "there are almost inevitably after-effects which can damage the brain and have psychological consequences."

According to MSF, a total of 856 children have pulled through in its centres, but the death rate is hovering around five percent.

There are no official figures for the number of dead in Niger, but the United Nations reckons that 3.5 million of the country's 12 million inhabitants are threatened by famine.

About 800,000 children are concerned, of whom 150,000 are suffering from serious malnutrition.

The international community was slow to react and while food aid is beginning to arrive in the country it is in inadequate amounts and not always in the form that starving families need.

The deputy head of the UN Children's Fund, Rima Saleh, is due in Maradi on Friday, UNICEF regional official Kent Page said.

Accompanied by Canadian aid minister Aileen Carroll, she will visit the UNICEF-aided MSF feeding centre here and donate 10 tonnes of millet, the staple food, to the village of Guidan Dobi, 35 kilometres (21 miles) away, where many children are suffering from lack of food.

No comments: