Save the Children

Save the Children

care for serious hunger on the doorstep.

  • Goal 1

  • Somaliland

  • 2022-2025

  • Save the Children

What if treatment for severe acute malnutrition could move closer to home?

In partnership with

Save the Children logo

Save the Children logo

When you’re feeling poorly—really poorly—the last thing you want to do is get yourself down to the doctor’s office. For young people with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in Somaliland, travelling to a treatment facility used to be the only option; for many of them, the trip could be long—even dangerous. It won’t be surprising, then, to hear findings from a 2019 report on the topic: only 18.7% of children with SAM in Somaliland were enrolled in treatment despite 79% of facilities offering SAM treatment.

We’re working with Save the Children to fund a study which will help bring treatment for severe acute malnutrition closer to home. The study will work with community female health workers (FHWs) to pilot adding treatment for acute malnutrition into integrated community case management (iCCM+). This means communities who struggle to access health centres and facilities can get the treatment they need, much closer to where they live. Once this effectiveness trial is over, we’ll know if this method has the coverage, the outcomes and the cost effectiveness to scale up at a national level. We’re excited to see the results.

Save the Children is a UK-based non-profit working globally to promote child-welfare including through famine-relief. This project, ‘Shifting the Dial in Acute Malnutrition: part of Save the Children’s Global Malnutrition Initiative,’ focuses on severe acute malnutrition (SAM) treatment in Somaliland.

Read about our other projects here.