ACFACF- Action Against Hunger

Community-Based Care for Acute Malnutrition:

At a community level, Action Against Hunger is training volunteer village health teams to diagnose malnutrition and refer affected children for treatment, or if they have severe medical or nutritional complications, to therapeutic Stabilisation Centres for around-the-clock care.
They have trained thousands of volunteers to ensure families of acutely malnourished children know where they can seek help.
In outpatient (Deutsch: ambulant – do not sleep there, but are taken car of during the day) centres managed by the Congolese Ministry of Health nurses trained and equipped by Action Against Hunger are treating and monitoring acutely malnourished (Unterernärt) children during their weekly visits. When the crisis subsides and they can eventually depart, the local health system they have strengthened will continue to support improvements in communities’ nutritional health. Malnourished children can visit the outpatient centres once a week to get a medical check-up, be weighed and measured, and receive specially-formulated Ready-to-Use Foods (RUFs) to consume at home. In the past, all treatment for acute malnutrition required prolonged hospitalisation.
Children whose condition has deteriorated to such an extent that they require hospitalisation receive intensive care in Stabilisation Centres, which are set up in local and regional hospitals. After these children have recovered, they are admitted to the outpatient nutrition program for continued treatment until the target weight is reached. The vast majority of them return to full health within six weeks.
In both outpatient and inpatient centres, staff members discuss the children’s progress with their parents and teach them basic nutrition and hygiene practices to improve their health.
Action Against Hunger provides technical and