Emergency in Kabul: Children in hospital are dying of hunger, but also of cold!

In Kabul, at Indira Gandhi Hospital, the only public children's hospital in all of Afghanistan, medical teams have been in despair since the Taliban took power.

Food rations for malnourished children have run out.The lack of heating in the rooms makes the situation even more catastrophic. The hospital does not have the money to buy the heating oil that would be needed to run current heating system. Hospital park trees are cut dow one by one but wood is only intented for kitchens. In the rooms of small patients it is 11°C!

The doctors there tell of the horror and the feeling of helplessness.

The deaths if children follow one another. In one week 25 children from malnutrition ward died.

Doctors and nurses who had been taking the food they could to prevent children from dying of hunger, can no longer help because they have not received salaries for 3 months and they and their family are now in danger of not having enough food to survive.

There are huge needs while humanitarian aid is long overdue.

When it arrives, it will be primarily be food.

Morever, in Kabul the winter is very cold, and feeding the children without warming them will not save them.

This is why I am asking for your help this hospital in Kabul:

-for the purchase of electric heating modules, knowing that it is a good solution because the hospital does not have to pay for electricity.

-and also for the purchase of food rations

We must act quickly because the cold is more severe day bay day.

Of course it will be too late for many of those who have already died or are dying.

BUT YOU CAN PREVENT OTHER CHILDREN FROM DYING!

A minimum of $ 4000 would be needed for this heating equipment. An additionnel $ 2000 would allow the purchase of food rations while awaiting the promised humanitarian aid.

A quick note on severe acute malnutrition :

Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is the most dangerous form of malnutrition. If left untreated, SAM can result in death. It can manifest in two ways:

- Severe wasting: this is characterized by a massive loss of body fat and muscle tissue. Children Who are severely wasted look almost elderly and their bodies are extremely thin ans skeletal.

- Oedema: in this form of severe acute malnutrition, oedema is present on the lower limbs, the oedema may eventually spread to the legs and face, and the child appears puffy, and is usually irritable, weak, and lethargic.

Others signs of oedema include skin lesions, an enlarged liver and thinning hair. Underneath the oedema, the muscles have been severely weakened and the child experiences excruciating cramping and muscle pain.

A severely malnourished child with oedema is at high risk of death and requires immediate treatment.

Both types of severe acute malnutrition compromise the body's vital processes. Even if a malnourished child is treated and his/her nutritional status is restored, his/her physical and mental development and general health status may be adversely affecte in the long term.

https://actionagainsthunger.ca/what-is-acute-malnu...