Dakar — Alassane and Diarra, two two-year-old twins share the same ordeal, having access to a rich and balanced diet.
Coming from a poor family in Khar Yalla, a cosmopolitan neighbourhood of Grand-Yoff, they are still struggling with the scars of poor diet that had struck them from birth.
We met them on Monday, May 23, 2022, playing timidly in the courtyard of Keur Gou Mak, a house that stands out because of its population density .
This particular house symbolizes poverty in the commune of Grand-Yoff and the precarious state of health of these two pieces of God's wood.
The visitor is greeted by sewage dripping from a poorly secured septic tank.
Not far away, four children aged two to six were frolicking around an imposing mango tree planted in the heart of a large courtyard surrounded by six buildings with filthy walls.
Despite its popularity, the house was almost empty around 12 noon. Most of its occupants were either away at school or in search of food.
Only Aïssatou Diallo, the mother of the twins, one of her roommates and the children were found on the the premises.
Loincloth carefully tied around the waist, the good lady combined housework and watching over her children, including little Alassane who looked a little sad.
With his tight-fitting T-shirt, the little boy barely hid his bloated stomach which is a sign of poor nutrition.
Ms. Marie Louise Sène, the Badiénou Gokh or 'neighborhood godmother' who served as a guide for the allAfrica team, says that this child have suffered from acute malnutrition since birth.
According to him, his mother, who was a millet porridge seller, finally fell back on begging since the birth of her twins in the hope of finding something to feed them.
Five malnourished children Found per day in Khar Yalla
According to our guide of the day, in addition to the twins, the ten children who live in this house are faced with an unhealthy environment with a lack of drinking water, a and poor sanitation.
according to Mrs. Sène so many factors threatens good nutrition in Khar Yalla which comprises 14 disadvantaged neighborhoods with a population of 68 thousand inhabitants.
The host, Major Aliou Guissé, head of the health post, confirms that there are nutritional problems this neighbor-hood.
According to him, research carried out by his teams shows that nutritional problems are real and endemic in the district.
"We encounter cases of severe and moderate to acute malnutrition. The most common is severe acute malnutrition with undetected complications, often in children of foreign origin".
In these cases, says Mr. Guissé, the health team either manage them or refer them to specialized structures.
"Currently, we are treating about fifteen children suffering from moderate malnutrition and five to six others from severe acute malnutrition".
In addition to nutritional advice, the Khar Yalla health post has local processed products for good care of children with nutritional problems.
It has trained staff and improved flour with local cereals distributed free to children.
The Khar Yalla is also supported by the community which gives cooking demonstrations to help women master the best practices for good nutrition.
Ms. Awa Ndiaye, nurse's aid and head of the Expanded Vaccination Program (EPI) of this health structure agrees.
According to her, our team can see three to five cases of malnutrition in children a day.
She says that this is not only due to the fact that the affected families lack the means but also by the ignorance of most mothers.
"We never tire of raising awareness about the need to provide a balanced diet to children from birth". she said.
Badiènou Gokh thinks that the bad behavior of certain women during pregnancy is sometimes at the origin of nutritional problems of the children.
On the same issue, a specialist based in Dakar, confirms the relationship between the nutrition of a pregnant women and the weight of the newborn.
According to him, peri-conceptional period is the appropriate time to optimize maternal health and take action.
He emphasized that a well-nourished mother guarantees sustainable growth for her child before, during and after pregnancy.
It is not only good for the development of the child but also to allow the mother to avoid health problems.
"Anaemia, for example, is a condition that affects many pregnant women in West Africa. These are food security issues to which we must be very careful, "she warns.
The nutrition-pregnancy binomial seems plausible insofar as "the initiative for a good start to improve the nutrition of women and girls in Senegal" seeks to reduce anemia, complications during pregnancy and childbirth.
This project in Senegal also addresses neural tube defects in newborns through iron and folic acid supplementation and food fortification.
In the same vein, said unit says that in Senegal 54% of women suffer from anemia, 61% of pregnant women suffer from this same deficiency.
According to her, the population has very high rates of anemia, especially among adolescent girls and that 55.4% of this age group are enrolled in school, but few of them attend class regularly. This makes reaching out-of-school adolescent girls a challenge.
Restore Nutrition Recovery Centers
For Mr. Guissé, authorities should think about restoring the nutritional recovery centers that were installed in the neighborhoods.
Which, according to him, had produced good results thanks to nutritional advisers, flour distribution sessions, regular weighing followed by vaccination for children...
The disappearance of these centers forced health structures to deal with the nutritional problems on their own.
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Added to this is the need to refine the monitoring mechanism not to mention the fact that mothers often come to health centers only in case of emergencies.
At the community level, the Health Center thus benefits from the support of a very dynamic grassroots community organization (OCB) which works with cases of malnutrition and tuberculosis.
According to him, child malnutrition does not only affect poor women.
Those who work and do not have time to take care of their children increasingly expose their offspring to nutritional problems because they are poorly supervised.
It also encourages mothers to follow the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) which discourages early weaning and exclusive breastfeeding so that malnutrition does not occur beyond 12 months.
In the same vain, Armand Moïse A.T.Y. Diouf, Co-founder, Strategic & Human Resources Manager of Agrosine thinks that to solve the problem related to nutrition, Senegal must invest a lot in organic farming and move towards training young people in agriculture.
For him, a vast awareness campaign must be carried out to help people change their eating habits by focusing on the nutrients the human body needs.
Mr. Diouf also believes that the State should should provide a conducive environment for this job-providing sector making it more attractive to ensure lasting food security for a population in search of growth and resilience.
Report by Allafrica's Bacary Dabo translated by Allafrica's Michael Tantoh.
