Child healthcare

  Marilize holds one of the premature babies, or ‘petit poids’ in Choscal Hospital, Cite Soleil. Photo: MSF   MSF South Africa recruit, Marilize Ackerman (33), recently returned home after working in Haiti for eight months with MSF as a Human Resources and Finance Manager. She worked on two MSF hospital projects in the island nation’s capital Port-au-Prince. Here she gives a glimpse into life in Haiti two years after the earthquake.   “Most of my mission was spent at Choscal Hospital in the heart of Cite Soleil, the biggest and poorest slum in Haiti – not to mention the Northern hemisphere. Within hours of the earthquake in 2010, MSF had partnered with the...

While Young Victims of War and Famine Are Able to Access Latest Lifesaving, Nutritious Foods, Millions More Malnourished Children Still Receive Poor Quality Food Aid   Childhood Malnutrition - What's Happening Now Download Briefing Paper Johannesburg – Despite some recent gains in the fight against childhood malnutrition, the global food aid system largely continues to provide substandard foods to millions of malnourished children every year, the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced today, in advance of World Food Day on October 16.   Malnutrition—a preventable and treatable condition...

A severely malnourished child gets IV (intravenous) line inserted in the Therapeutic Feeding Centre. Photo Svenn Torfinn In large parts of south and central Somalia, where malnutrition rates are high, ongoing conflict makes it difficult for international organisations like MSF to operate at full capacity. Where we can work, our doctors face immense pressure due to the large numbers of people who need emergency assistance. Dr Faiza Adan Abdirahman is the medical doctor in charge of the paediatric department at Istarlin hospital, where MSF has been working since January 2006. She spoke by phone on August 30. I’m in charge of the paediatric department where I deal with newborns and children up to...

The camps of Dagahaley, Hagadera, and Ifo collectively form the largest refugee camp in the world. Built two decades ago, they were designed to house up to 90,000 men, women, and children who had fled Somalia's civil wars. Today, with no end to the conflict in sight, there are more than 350,000 people crowded into the camps and the surrounding areas, and more people continue to arrive.