Emergency Food Distribution in Madagascar

Over the past year, SEED has worked alongside the Ministry of Health (MoH), community health centres (CSBs), and community health workers (ACs) to support children with acute malnutrition and their families. By building and maintaining strong relationships with local authorities and the regional Medical Inspector, SEED has fostered collaboration and enhanced responsiveness to community needs through sustained engagement.

 To strengthen the capacity of 272 ACs, SEED facilitated training to equip ACs with the tools to detect, screen, and refer children with moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and severe acute malnutrition (SAM) to the CSB and deliver critical health and nutrition sensitisation.

Three rounds of active screening were conducted by SEED staff and ACs every four months, resulting in more than 60,000 children being screened for acute malnutrition across 136 villages, over the past year. In total, 3,147 children with MAM were enrolled on treatment to receive a 60-day supply of ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF). Additionally, SEED identified and referred 148 children with SAM to the nearest CSB for appropriate treatment, where children were provided with Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) from the government. Throughout the 60-day distribution cycle of each round, children’s nutritional status was monitored every 15 days. In total, 1,029 children with MAM recovered, achieving a total recovery rate of 92.5% across all project sites.

 In addition, SEED supported families of children with MAM and SAM through the distribution of food supplies. Families received unprepared food parcels containing rice, beans, and oil. In total, 37,980 kg of rice, 25,320 cups of beans, and 5,064 litres of oil were distributed. By offering these unprepared food supplies, SEED aimed to extend support to household members to meet their nutritional needs, thereby reducing the likelihood that RUSF and RUTF, intended for children with MAM and SAM, were shared amongst family members.

 This has been possible through generous donors like you, and SEED is immensely grateful.