援助组织在罗兴亚难民营对抗儿童营养不良

Aid Groups Fight Child Malnutrition¹ In Rohingya Refugee Camps

“Take a bite,” Sufiya Begum tells her 18-month-old daughter, Romina Khatun. Romina is eating special food because she has not eaten enough healthy food. The condition is called malnutrition.

Begum brings her daughter to a Save the Children nutrition center in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, once a week for an examination. There, the workers check Romina’s weight and height. They measure around her upper arm. About 11 percent of children younger than 5 in the Rohingya refugee camps have some form of malnutrition.

The rate is better than it was in 2017, when the figure was almost 20 percent. But it is still not acceptable. The United Nations’ children’s agency, UNICEF, says children with severe acute malnutrition are at 10 times greater risk of dying than those with normal food intake². Plus, even moderate malnutrition can block normal growth.

Joseph Senesie is a UNICEF nutrition expert. He explains why a good diet is important.

“From pregnancy³ until the child is two years of age, that's 1,000 days, if the child is not fed well, and the child’s brain will not develop well.”

Brain development affects the child’s educational progress and, later, job possibilities.

More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have escaped to southern Bangladesh from neighboring Myanmar since August 2017. They fled a Burmese military campaign against them that U.N. investigators⁴ described as “genocidal” in aim.

Myanmar denies the accusations⁵. It says its operation was to answer attacks by Rohingya militants⁶.

The 1 million Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar make up the largest refugee camp in the world. The refugees depend on humanitarian⁷ aid for basic needs.

At 85 nutrition centers across the camps, workers examine children and, in case of severe malnutrition, give them special food full of protein, vitamins and minerals. The food “gives a lot of energy and other minerals that make corrections” for the lack, says Mohammad Ruhul Amin of Save the Children.

Their families are given more of the food to take home for the children to eat between their weekly visits to the center.

Zainab Bibi is the mother of an 11-month-old boy. She says, “Now we’re getting help with nutrition and my son is healthier and he seems happier too.” There was major improvement within three weeks. Bibi says that is because he is getting the special food and she is getting lessons on nutrition and cleanliness. The lessons are for mothers and expecting-mothers.

Amin says, “We hope these lessons can prevent more children from ever becoming malnourished.”

There are fruit and vegetable stands in the camps, but many families cannot buy food because they have no money. For many refugees, that means just rice and lentils.

“Rice and lentils are not a balanced diet,” Amin says. “He says it is important to eat a mix of foods.

For many refugees, that is not possible yet. Now, about one-third of the refugees are in families that get electronic cards with a monthly credit from UNICEF. They use the cards at food markets that sell fresh fruits and vegetables. The U.N.’s World Food Program expects all of the families to have the cards by the end of the year.

I’m Jill Robbins.

Words in This Story

acute – adj. very serious or dangerous: requiring serious attention or action

diet – n. the food that a person or animal usually eats?

malnutrition - n. the unhealthy condition that results from not eating enough food or not eating enough healthy food; poor nutrition

lentil – n. a type of flat, round seed

1 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

2 intake   

n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口

参考例句：

• Reduce your salt intake.减少盐的摄入量。
• There was a horrified intake of breath from every child.所有的孩子都害怕地倒抽了一口凉气。

3 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

4 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

6 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

7 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。