Before 7 October, children in Gaza got the nutrition they needed — next to no children were acutely malnourished. Now, there’s not enough food. Famine is imminent. And children are starving.
Hunger affects children’s development. They don’t grow properly. Vital organs, including their hearts, kidneys and lungs, become weak. Their cognitive development – their ability to think and reason – is harmed. And, especially for young children, the effects can last a lifetime.
In Gaza, children are missing vaccinations against deadly diseases when their immune systems are already struggling. They’re living in dangerous conditions, with no access to running water or proper sanitation. It simply can’t go on.
“In the clinics, we regularly see malnourished children, especially those under two years old. They often come to us sick, with coughs and possible pneumonia, and we find they are suffering from malnutrition.”
Getting nutrition to mothers and babies
We need to act fast to reduce sickness and prevent deadly hunger.
There are increasing restrictions on what supplies can enter Gaza and when we can provide aid. But, as one of the few humanitarian organisations supplying nutrition in the area, we’re working tirelessly to get help where it’s needed.
And our new project in Deir al Balah, central Gaza, is providing life-saving nutrition to pregnant women, mothers nursing young babies, and children under five years old.
Children take ready-to-use therapeutic food – a peanut paste packed full of nutrients – every day for 15 days. Then, they receive another ration for the next 15 days.
Before they return to their tents, mothers also get breastfeeding and childcare training to help them care for their babies.
The project will support 13,000 vulnerable mothers and children with life-saving nutrition.
“Before 7 October, we didn’t have nutrition and health programmes because it wasn’t necessary. Given the current circumstances, we knew we had to act quickly.”
How Action Against Hunger is helping
We’ve been working in Gaza since 2005, so we were able to begin our response in early October. Since then we’ve reached over 837,000 people, including over 709,000 through water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programmes. As well as the new nutrition project, our work includes:
- distributing hot meals and hygiene kits
- trucking clean water to communities
- connecting people with shelters
- solid waste management.
But food in Gaza is running out. It’s getting harder and harder to get supplies and services where they’re so desperately needed. There needs to be a permanent ceasefire. Now.
Without it, famine is imminent.
