Latest news with #Ready-to-UseTherapeuticFood
Forbes
15-05-2025
- Health
- Forbes
Critical Risk Of Famine For Children In Gaza
Fighting has surged again, border crossings are still closed and food is dangerously scarce, leaving Palestinian children facing catastrophic hunger and acute malnutrition. UNICEF is there, doing what it can to support and protect children. On May 7, 2025, at Al Farooq Camp in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, a woman holds a small child clutching a sachet of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). UNICEF has established a dedicated clinic in the camp to identify and treat children suffering from acute malnutrition. For over two months, the blockade has prevented vital medical and nutrition supplies from entering the Gaza Strip, leaving an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 children in need of therapeutic care each month. At this clinic, trained staff conduct MUAC (mid-upper-arm circumference) screenings and distribute RUTF to help restore children's health and build their resilience. © UNICEF/UNI792833/Rawan Eleyan. All rights reserved. A new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report warns that the entire population of the Gaza Strip is facing high levels of acute food insecurity; 470,000 (one in five) face starvation. Nearly 71,000 children under the age of 5 and more than 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will require urgent treatment for acute malnutrition in the coming months. Confirmed by 17 UN agencies and NGOs, the report projects that renewed military operations, the ongoing blockade and the critical lack of supplies needed for survival could push food insecurity, acute malnutrition and mortality levels past the famine thresholds. 'The only thing children are seeing coming into Gaza are bombs and missiles.' UNICEF ramped up delivery during the ceasefire, sending nearly 1,000 truckloads of lifesaving aid including vaccines, nutrition supplies and medical equipment. Those stocks are now running dangerously low. 'The only thing children are seeing coming into Gaza are bombs and missiles,' said UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder. Children and adults are surrounded by damaged and destroyed buildings in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on May 12, 2025. Low supply and high demand have sent prices soaring – today, a 55-pound bag of flour costs $300. © UNICEF/UNI794465/Jonathan Crickx. All rights reserved. Despite the aid blockade that began on March 2, UNICEF remains on the ground, working to meet children's most urgent needs. Between March and April, UNICEF managed to: On May 8, 2025 in Deir al-Balah, located in the central Gaza Strip, people gather to fill jerry cans with clean, drinkable water from a UNICEF-supported desalination plant before loading them onto donkey carts for transport. © UNICEF/UNI793029/Rawan Eleyan. All rights reserved. UNICEF is also working to provide mental health and psychosocial support for children in Gaza, where the daily stress of living in a war zone for 19 months, not knowing where or when the next air strike will occur, has taken a heavy toll. Renewed hostilities forced some UNICEF temporary learning spaces to close; now UNICEF is re-opening locations in the Middle and Al Nuseirat areas of central Gaza to help children resume their learning despite disruptions. To date, more than 50,000 children have benefited from these safe learning environments, where they receive structured lessons in Arabic, English and mathematics, alongside recreational activities that restore a sense of normalcy and protect their right to education. Learn more about UNICEF's ongoing support for children in Gaza On May 11, 2025, children participate in a geometry activity at a UNICEF-supported temporary learning space at Al Nakheel Camp in Deir El Balah, Gaza Strip. © UNICEF/UNI794478/Jonathan Crickx. All rights reserved. Approximately 90 percent of Gaza's population — roughly 1.9 million people — have been displaced, often multiple times, cutting off families from their livelihoods. Their farmland has been destroyed and the sea they used for fishing has been restricted. Families are rationing remaining food supplies received during the ceasefire. To help parents feed their children, UNICEF reached 200,000 people with humanitarian cash transfers through digital e-wallets between March and April. But with all border crossings closed since March 2 — the longest the population has ever faced — food prices in markets have spiked to astronomical levels, putting what little food is available out of reach for most families. 'The risk of famine does not arrive suddenly," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. "It unfolds in places where access to food is blocked, where health systems are decimated and where children are left without the bare minimum to survive." "Hunger and acute malnutrition are a daily reality for children across the Gaza Strip," Russell continued. "We have repeatedly warned of this trajectory and call again on all parties to prevent a catastrophe.' Shelves are nearly bare in a shop in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on May 12, 2025. © UNICEF/UNI794462/Jonathan Crickx. All rights reserved. More than 116,000 metric tons of food assistance — enough to feed 1 million people for up to four months — is already positioned in aid corridors, ready to be brought in. Hundreds of pallets of lifesaving nutrition treatments are also prepositioned for entry. 'Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border," said UN World Food Program (WFP) Executive Director Cindy McClalin. "We can't get it to them because of the renewed conflict and the total ban on humanitarian aid imposed in early March. It's imperative that the international community acts urgently to get aid flowing into Gaza again. If we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for many people.' United Nations agencies including UNICEF and WFP stand ready to work with all stakeholders and food security partners to bring in these food and nutrition supplies and distribute them as soon as borders reopen for principled aid delivery. UNICEF urges all parties to prioritize the needs of civilians, allow aid to enter Gaza immediately and uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law. Help UNICEF save more lives. Donate today. Right now, the lives of the most vulnerable children hang in the balance as conflicts and crises jeopardize the care and protection that they deserve. Dependable, uninterrupted and effective foreign aid is critical to the well-being of millions of children. Please contact your members of Congress and urge them to support ongoing U.S. investments in foreign assistance.
CNN
02-04-2025
- Business
- CNN
Amid USAID chaos, some humanitarian aid groups still aren't getting paid for lifesaving programs
Edesia, a Rhode Island-based company that makes 'Plumpy'Nut' — packets of specially fortified and highly caloric peanut butter paste that saves the lives of severely malnourished babies and children — recently laid off 10% of its staff and even briefly paused production altogether for more than two weeks. Its CEO says they are having serious cash flow problems. In Georgia, MANA Nutrition — a plant that produces similar 'Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food,' or RUTF, packets of peanut butter — is leaning heavily on a line of credit from Bank of America to stay afloat for the time being, according to the company's founder. Neither company has gotten paid by the US Agency for International Development in months — not since the last quarter of 2024. 'We are irreparably breaking a good system for no particular reason,' said Mark Moore, MANA's CEO and co-founder. 'And the impact on children — it's not at all dramatic to say that it's going to cost, at the very least, tens of thousands of lives.' Edesia and MANA are among the scores of organizations grappling with canceled USAID contracts and little to no payment from the agency. Both Edesia and MANA had their USAID contracts canceled before they were reinstated; for MANA, the cancellation was rescinded after Elon Musk personally weighed in. USAID, spurred by a court ruling, has begun issuing payments to other organizations — but those payments have been sporadic and minimal. A federal judge has ordered USAID to pay out contracts and grants for all foreign assistance work done by mid-February. However, processing those payments has been slow going, and as of a March 27 court filing, more than 6,000 payments still needed to be processed. The payment issues are among the many consequences of the Trump administration's efforts to abruptly shut down USAID and dramatically restructure foreign aid. The combination of the US government's sweeping freeze on foreign aid in late January, mass reductions in USAID staff, and thousands of contract terminations had already caused a significant impact — even for aid groups that are still supposed to be receiving money. Some of those same groups are owed money for work done before the freeze. The administration's move to shutter the agency by July is expected to further exacerbate the consequences. The respective CEOs of Edesia and MANA Nutrition, Navyn Salem and Moore, told CNN in recent days that they can only guess when they might next get paid by USAID for the hundreds of thousands of boxes of lifesaving peanut butter paste they have already produced for the government agency. Their contacts at USAID — who, according to Salem and Moore, were initially fired or put on leave before eventually being brought back to work — can no longer provide them with any clear answers. Other humanitarian organizations have similarly struggled to get answers as USAID has been gutted and their usual points of contacts are cut off from the internal systems. They fear this will only get worse as the vast majority of USAID personnel are expected to lose their jobs as the Trump administration moves to abolish the agency and fold it under the State Department. Fewer than 900 USAID direct-hire employees remained on the job as of March 21, according to another notice from the agency to Congress. USAID said in a letter sent to Congress last week that it issued more than $250 million in payments between March 10 and March 21. However, sources who spoke to CNN said payments to aid groups have trickled in — if they have arrived at all. Several humanitarian officials told CNN they are still owed money for work they had completed. One humanitarian official said their organization has received 'so little it's basically nothing.' 'They need to start issuing significant payments for existing lifesaving programs or organizations won't be able to continue,' they told CNN. An association that represents humanitarian aid contractors has heard from the more than 70 groups they represent that they are getting paid in 'dribs and drabs,' a source familiar said. Another humanitarian official said if they don't get paid, even for grants that have not been terminated, their organization cannot continue their programs. 'We might have to shut them down proactively simply because we cannot pay salaries or rent,' they told CNN. Because of slow payment or funding cuts, many humanitarian organizations have had to furlough or lay off staff. Nearly 19,000 American jobs have been lost and more than 166,000 global jobs have been lost, according to USAID Stop Work. A State Department spokesperson confirmed to CNN that 'between March 10 and March 21, 2025, USAID disbursed a total of over $257 million,' which 'equates to approximately $25 million per business day.' 'This work continues, as does streamlining the previously problematic and fragmented payment structure,' the spokesperson said. Even if payments are made, it is not enough to fully stem the impact of USAID's dismantlement. 'Some of the damage is irreparable,' the first humanitarian official said. 'There are so many layers of impact. We can rehire, but trust with communities and some governments is broken.' 'No one will think of the US as a sure thing anymore,' they told CNN. With the suspension of assistance and stop-work orders put in place in late January, efforts to combat infectious diseases like tuberculosis and to treat people, including children, with HIV/AIDS have been stymied. Local employees who worked with nonprofit organizations abroad may now be at risk in countries where affiliation with the US makes them a target. Moore, the MANA CEO, said his organization is making contingency plans for USAID potentially never returning to the equation, including by reaching out directly to nongovernmental organizations that could partner in distributing his company's packets of peanut butter. 'We're scrounging hard to drum up partners who could go around the USAID system,' he said. 'It's a stopgap idea, but planning long term will be hard.'
Forbes
31-03-2025
- Health
- Forbes
Hope On Wheels: UNICEF Mobile Teams Deliver Health Care In Yemen
Four-year-old Adham eats from a packet of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) after being diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition supplied by a UNICEF-supported mobile team in Dhamar, Yemen. © UNICEF/UNI736173/Haleem After 10 years of war, Yemen is gripped by malnutrition, disease outbreaks, lack of access to health care and other urgent services, and other life-threatening risks to the most vulnerable — all evidence of a full-scale humanitarian crisis. One in two children under 5 are acutely malnourished; over 537,000 suffer from severe acute malnutrition, a condition that is agonizing, life-threatening and entirely preventable. In addition, 1.4 million pregnant and lactating women are malnourished, perpetuating the cycle of intergenerational suffering. 'Mothers and children are the foundation of any society. When they are healthy, the whole country is healthy.' UNICEF and its donors support the implementation of many interventions in Yemen, helping people in the war-torn country get access to health and nutrition services, safe water and education. UNICEF's mobile teams are one example of a vital service platform bringing essential health and nutrition services directly to families in remote parts of the country. 'Mothers and children are the foundation of any society. When they are healthy, the whole country is healthy,' says Khawla Ahmed Abdullah Al-Hilmani, a 29-year-old midwife who works on one of the mobile teams. A UNICEF-supported mobile team provide services from a building in Dhamar, southwestern Yemen, for families who cannot reach health centers. © UNICEF/UNI736179/Ahmed Haleem. All rights reserved. Support from the Swiss National Committee for UNICEF has enabled the deployment of mobile teams in several governorates, including Hajjah, Hodeidah, Taiz, Dhamar and Al Dhale`a, reaching the most vulnerable including children under 5 and pregnant and breastfeeding women. Jamila Ali Al-Moshki, a midwife from Dhamar, explains why the deployment of mobile teams is so important for the local population: 'Before this mobile team, we had no appropriate place to accept patients, screen and treat them for malnutrition and other minor illness or vaccinate children. I hope this project continues, as it helps so many people here.' In Yemen, UNICEF-supported clinics staffed by mobile teams target malnourished children whose families cannot take them to health centers. © UNICEF/UNI736208/Ahmed Haleem. All rights reserved. In Hajjah governorate, for example, mobile teams are deployed to work in places where fixed health centers are inaccessible or non-functional. Every day, these UNICEF-supported mobile teams reach thousands of families, doing medical check-ups, nutritional screening and vaccinations and providing nutritional support and consultations. Munira, 4, is screened for malnutrition by a UNICEF mobile team member. © UNICEF/UNI736157/Ahmed Haleem. All rights reserved. Dr. Ali Abdullah Aziz Al-Khader, Director of the Health Office in Dhamar District, explains why the mobile team in Dhamar is extremely important: 'Dhamar is located between two governorates, so a team here is easily accessible for many people who otherwise would not be able to get the medical help they need,' he says. 'Yes, we face many difficulties, but we never stop working because for many people this team is the only chance for treatment and recovery.' Despite all the challenges — logistical hurdles, ongoing conflict and the constant need for medical supplies — they continue working with support from organizations like UNICEF and their donors, saving one life after another. Learn more about UNICEF's work for children in Yemen Located in southwestern Yemen, the city of Dhamar lacks sufficient health care services. © UNICEF/UNI736209/Ahmed Haleem. All rights reserved. For many families, the mobile teams are more than just vehicles carrying medical supplies and people who share advice on how to take care of their babies. They are a beacon of hope. 'My son is three years old and suffers from malnutrition,' says Ishraq Mohammed Al-Masnai, a young mother from Dhamar. 'I am grateful to the doctors in this team. Thanks to them, my son and I receive all the necessary treatment.' In Dhamar, 4-year-old Adham (top photo) receives treatment from a mobile team operating under the supervision of the Health and Environment Office. He is just one of the hundreds of children who receive help and lifesaving care from the mobile team in the area. A doctor prepares to vaccinate a child in a UNICEF-supported health clinic in Dhamar, Yemen. © UNICEF/UNI736197/Ahmed Haleem. All rights reserved. Khawla Ahmed Abdullah Al-Hilmani, a midwife, says, 'We help pregnant women and young mothers, educate them about nutrition and reproductive health, and provide antenatal and post-natal services. However, sometimes people do not fully understand the idea of vaccination and regular check-ups.' Two-year-old Ibtisam, who suffers from malnutrition and receives treatment from the same team, has made remarkable progress, thanks to the care she has received. She and other young children who suffer from malnutrition get regular check-ups along with Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food and micronutrient supplements distributed by the mobile team. Their parents get qualified advice about proper care and nutrition for their children along with vaccinations and other medical services they may need. Three-month-old Nawaf is vaccinated by a UNICEF mobile team member in Dhamar, Yemen. © UNICEF/UNI736192/Ahmed Haleem. All rights reserved. Despite impressive achievements and support from local and international partners, these initiatives face many challenges. Insecurity, fuel shortages, funding cuts and disrupted supply chains make it hard to predict how and whether the project will develop, reaching more families in need. While the mobile teams have dramatically increased health care access in Yemen, not all regions receive the comprehensive care they need due to funding gaps. However, UNICEF, along with its partners, remains optimistic and dedicated to their goals, expanding these services further and building on the success already seen in governorates like Al Hodeida, Hajjah and Raymah. 'In 2025, we continue to support 3,200 health facilities, the treatment of 600,000 malnourished children, 70 mobile teams, 42,000 community health workers and 27 therapeutic feeding centers," UNICEF Representative in Yemen Peter Hawkins said on March 25. "For this to continue, we need sustained funding. Otherwise, 7.6 million people in Yemen risk not having access to primary health care." Related: Foreign Aid Funding Cuts Harm the World's Children Some of the children benefiting from the assistance provided by a UNICEF-supported mobile team in Yemen. © UNICEF/UNI736184/Ahmed Haleem. All rights reserved. These mobile teams are not just about delivering health and nutrition services; they represent a powerful commitment to reach every child, every family and every community in need, saving the future of Yemen one life at a time. 'Yemen's children cannot wait another decade," said Hawkins. "They need peace. They need justice. But above all, they need us to act — now. Let us not fail them.' Right now, the lives of the most vulnerable children hang in the balance as conflicts and crises jeopardize the care and protection that they deserve. Dependable, uninterrupted and effective foreign aid is critical to the well-being of millions of children. Please contact your members of Congress and urge them to support ongoing U.S. investments in foreign assistance. Help UNICEF reach more children in need. Donate today. This story was adapted from
Express Tribune
06-03-2025
- Health
- Express Tribune
Medicine theft scandal uncovered in Dera Ghazi Khan
A major scandal involving the theft and illegal sale of government medicines has been uncovered in Dera Ghazi Khan, leading to the arrest of eight individuals, including Health Department employees. According to officials, the arrests followed the interception of a government employee, Parvez, who was caught smuggling government medicines to Peshawar. Authorities recovered medicines worth millions of rupees. The case, registered under an FIR at the Gadai police station, has been transferred to the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) and senior health officials for further investigation. Over the past two days, an investigative team led by ACE Circle Officer Malik Abdul Majid and Chief Drug Inspector Faisal Mehmood Khan raided the Basic Health Unit in Sarwarwali. Large quantities of medicines, including Diagnostic Testing Laboratory (DTL) supplies, were seized. Three rooms at the Sarwarwali Health Centre and two rooms at the District Health Office have been sealed as part of the probe. Health Department sources revealed that the stolen medicines included 1,400 cartons of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) supplements for malnourished children, with an estimated value of Rs1 billion. Preliminary investigations indicate that a widespread network of individuals, including government health officials, has been smuggling medicines from hospitals and selling them in Peshawar, Lahore, and Quetta. The ring, operating for the past six years, allegedly obtained medicines through corrupt deals with employees at various hospitals and health centers across the country. The Anti-Corruption Establishment has arrested key suspects, including Ali Usman and Zafar from Lahore, and Parvez, Ikramullah, Athar Sheerani, Bashir Ahmed, Amir Taimur, and Siraj from Dera Ghazi Khan. The accused were presented before Area Magistrate Muhammad Ashan, where the investigation officer requested a 12-day remand. However, the court granted only a two-day physical remand, requiring the suspects to be produced again on March 8. Authorities have indicated that more arrests are expected as the investigation progresses.
