The Power Of Hunger: Baby Sola’s Story
Death by starvation is one of the most imaginable way for anyone to die
– Folakemi Jolaoso
When it comes to the issue of hunger, many people don’t believe that it is really a big deal. We fail to see that hunger is capable of killing and so we don’t pay adequate attention to nutrition. In Nigeria, at least 1,000 children die of malnutrition every day, making up roughly 55 percent of under-five deaths in the country, according to official data from the country’s statistics bureau.
At 3 months old, Baby Sola developed Severe Acute Malnutrition. She is a young girl who lives with her family members in Abeokuta. She developed SAM because her mom is not available to take care of her. And as we all know, the first 1,000 days of life – the time spanning roughly between conception and one’s second birthday – is a unique period when the foundations of optimum health, growth, and neurodevelopment across the lifespan are established. The first 1,000 days are characterized by rapid rates of neuronal proliferation (cell numbers), growth and differentiation (complexity), myelination, and synaptogenesis (connectivity). Thus, this time period harbors the greatest opportunity to provide optimal nutrition to ensure normal development and also the time of greatest brain vulnerability to any nutrient deficit. However, in baby Sola’s case because of her mom’s unavailability to take proper care of her she developed SAM. Severe Acute Malnutrition(SAM) severe acute malnutrition is defined by a very low weight for height (below -3z scores of the median WHO growth standards), by the presence of nutritional oedema.
Baby Sola was discovered by primary health care nurse during one of their outreaches at the grassroot communities they work with, she got in contact with one of our board members Folakemi identified that the baby had SAM, and referred her to a dietician at the state hospital to receive therapeutic diets along with medical care where another member of the board, Adejoke was doing her internship. The reason was because severe acute malnutrition is a life threatening condition requiring urgent treatment and not administration of food to the baby because the system is shutting down gradually which can lead to death. As an organization we don’t have the capacity to treat SAM but we are able to identify and refer to appropriate services which was what we did in the case of this baby.
Baby Sola started showing signs of improvement. Smiles came back to the faces of everyone and her family members. We were able to donate some things to the family to help provide for the baby after she was discharged from the hospital. This is because there can be a relapse if proper care is not taken. And that was what happened in the case of baby Sola. the family didn’t have the financial capacity to maintain her and so she died.
Her death was very painful to the organization. We did intervene but lack of resources didn’t ensure the sustainability of it. We didn’t have the fund capacity to ensure a long-term care for the child. From this, we have been able to learn to work more on advocacy.
Hunger is an issue of life and death. Hunger and malnutrition are the greatest threats to public health, killing more people than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combine together. People can die because of starvation.
