Many of the children in the IDP communities in Cameroon are suffering from either Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) or Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) during this period of political unrest.  It is very hard for families to get food.  Their livelihoods and farms are gone – they have no income to buy food at the markets and many of the Food Aid lorries have been hi-jacked.

Our partner, SHUMAS, has been funded by the World Food Programme to undertake widespread testing for malnutrition.  They use the MUAC test (Middle Upper Arm Circumference) where Green is good, Yellow is MAM and Red is SAM.  They are able to administer blanket supplementary feeding, which includes giving vitamins and super cereals, for the MAMs cases but the SAMs cases have to be referred to specialised institutions which, unfortunately, are far away from these isolated communities.