Fighting an unprecedented malnutrition crisis

DRC | 2024 | CBPF

DRC, Mambasa region. Stephanie knew her daughter Kavira wasn’t well. She had used all her savings for medicine and traditional remedies, but Kavira, at two and a half years old, was getting no better. She was listless and didn’t want to play or even walk.

Despite its vast agricultural potential, a staggering 25.4 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), or one in every four Congolese, are severely food insecure.

The crisis is especially evident among children. Some 8.4 million people, predominantly children under five, face malnutrition risks: a number that has surged by two million in just a year.

Many families here face severe hardship because of the conflict. With funding from the DRC Humanitarian Fund, COOPI is responding to urgent nutrition and protection needs in Mambasa and other vulnerable regions of the country.

“I heard about COOPI’s free health services on the radio. I took Kavira to the health center, and she was then referred for specialized treatment,” explains Stephanie.

At the hospital in Biakato, Kavira underwent eight days of intense treatment with special medication, milk, and Plumpy’Nut. COOPI supported the clinic and also Stephanie’s transportation and basic needs like food while she was with her daughter.

Now Kavira is doing better, walking and playing like any child her age. Stephanie wishes her own life could return to normal as well.

“We used to depend on agriculture”, says Stephanie. “But because of the fighting, it is no longer a realistic way of earning a living.”  

Adapted from original stories from COOPI.

For more information: visit the DRC Humanitarian Fund web site, and for real-time contribution and allocation data go to the Pooled Funds Data Hub.