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UNICEF obtained 90 tonnes of ‘ready-to-use
therapeutic food (RUTF) (Plumpy Nuts)’ on the night
of June 30, 2008 as part of its emergency relief,
Media and External Relations Department with the
UNICEF disclosed.
Indrias Getachew, Communication Officer in the
department told Fortune that UNICEF has so
far secured half of the total of the life-saving
therapeutic supplies purchased from NUTRISET, a
company based in France, which includes the June 30
consignment. The remainder is expected to arrive in
two weeks’ time. The officer further pointed out
that UNICEF procured a total of 772 tonnes of Plumpy
Nut for 52 million dollars, which includes the cost
of freight. By June 13, 2008, the first batch had
arrived in Ethiopia.
UNICEF trucks ferried the 90 tonnes of Plumpy Nut on
the second of July from UNICEF’s warehouse in Addis
Abeba to the hard-hit woredas (districts) of SNNPR,
Oromia and Somalia regional states. The therapeutic
food is meant to meet the urgent needs of acutely
malnourished children, Indrias stated.
Public Relations Team Leader with the Disaster
Prevention and Preparedness Agency (DPPA), Sisay
Tadesse, confirmed that unlike other food stuffs,
his agency does not directly involve itself in the
distribution of therapeutic food, as the
dispatching, transporting, and apportioning of these
foods are carried out by UNICEF, although the agency
controls the availability of the supplies to the
targeted children through its sources.
UNICEF has managed to provide life-sustaining food
to only 18,800 of the over 100,000 children acutely
suffering from malnourishment found in over 100
drought-prone districts. The provision of Plumpy
Nuts would benefit this number monthly, for the next
three months. When the total number of the seriously
malnourished children is taken into consideration,
it is apparent that the UNICEF will soon be running
short, unless the international community and donor
agencies quickly respond to its appeal to rescue the
lives that are at stake.
A press release from UNICEF reveals the gravity of
the situation of the Ethiopian child by citing from
the reputed Lancet Medical Journal: “A child with
severe acute malnutrition faces a 9-10 fold risk of
dying unless properly treated with therapeutic
foods.”
Despite its urgent request for donations amounting
to 49 million dollars, UNICEF has managed to secure
only 5.6 million dollars so far, this implyies a
slow response from the humanitarian agencies and the
international community .
“We are in a race against time as we try to bring
in enough supplies to save lives….These malnourished
children cannot wait,” said Bjoro Ljongqvist, UNICEF
representative to Ethiopia, underlining the urgent
need to curb the malignant situation as quickly as
possible, or suffer the unforeseen consequences of
delayed action.
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