UNICEF facing critical funding gap for severely malnourished Afghan children

United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in Afghanistan on Thursday said it is facing a critical funding gap for ready-to-use-food for severely malnourished children in Afghanistan.

Melanie Galvin, UNICEF Chief of Nutrition said in a video recording posted to Twitter that without additional funds to stock health facilities with this lifesaving treatment, thousands of children could die from severe acute malnutrition.

She said 875,000 children will suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year.

“In short term, severe acute malnutrition is life threatening. In the long term it can have growth and mental development issues that affect a child throughout their lives,” said Galvin.

She said ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) was the simple solution. 

“This is a highly efficient and effective, small package that we give to children, and they can be cured in as little as eight weeks,” she said.

UNICEF supplies the packages to hospitals and health facilities across, but, according to Galvin, the agency is “facing a funding shortage and are unable to buy the RUTF that we need to treat the 875,000 SAM cases that we’re expecting in 2023,” said Galvin.

We have an urgent funding gap of $21 million, she said.

“With those funds, we need to fill the RUTF gap. We will also use it to train nutrition counselors, community health workers, nutrition nurses and doctors so that they can identify and treat these severely, acutely malnourished children. And we will also be able to scale up in dense urban environments that are underserved at this time,” she said.

Severe acute malnutrition can be a death sentence, but it doesn’t have to be. With the right resources, we can stop it, she added.