International Rescue Committee (IRC)
News, Photos & Videos › Blog › Video: Aden’s story revisited

VOICES FROM THE FIELDTHE IRC BLOG

Video: Aden’s story revisited


September 15, 2011
By The IRC

UNICEF Television reports on the progress of 3-year-old Aden, whose family trekked for 25 days from their drought-ravaged home in Somalia to find help in a refugee camp in Kenya. Fifteen days into their journey, Aden's mother died. 

“She was hungry,” Aden's father, Abdallah, said. “She was giving her food to the children.”

In spite of his mother's sacrifice, little Aden arrived at the camp severly malnourished. He was rushed to the International Rescue Committee's nutrition stabilization center, where he was admitted with only a 50 percent chance of survival.
 
“He was very wasted,” recalled IRC nutrition nurse Timothy Wachira. “He was very dehydrated and had complaints of vomiting, diarrhoea and a cough.”
 
For four weeks the IRC center's medical staff and nutritionists administered antibiotics, therapeutic milk and food, much of which came from supplies provided by UNICEF.  
 
When UNICEF staff visited the family on the outskirts of the camp two weeks after Aden was released from the center, he was practically unrecognizable — a smiling little boy running around his father's feet.
 

Follow Aden's Story

Blog Post: Meeting Aden and his family
Photos: Aden, a week after starting treatment 
Video: Aden's progress, 10 days on  
 

Get Involved

Donate Now: Help support our emergency response efforts as well as other programs worldwide that are helping refugees.

Posted in , , , | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

No comments yet.

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Type the characters you see in this picture. (verify using audio)
Type the characters you see in the picture above; if you can't read them, submit the form and a new image will be generated. Not case sensitive.

ABOUT THIS BLOG        COMMENT GUIDELINES        DONATE        ARCHIVE