On a hot Wednesday afternoon, Atoumata Nimaga smilingly welcomes women — babies tied securely on their backs — arriving at a local health centre in the central Malian village of Dotembougou.
Not so long ago, the 24-year-old mother of three battled hunger so severe that it put her then-unborn child at risk. Then came food assistance provided by the World Food Programme (WFP), allowing her to eat nutritious foods during her pregnancy.
“Seeing my daughter looking healthier brings me peace,” Atoumata says of her infant whom she continues to breastfeed. “I want others to know this same feeling.”
Atoumata is now a local volunteer leader, teaching other village women about healthy dietary practices, as part of a joint programme WFP is implementing with our United Nations partners, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), to help families offset the adverse effects of climate shocks and humanitarian disasters.
Soaring child malnutrition
Like other parts of Mali, Segou has been roiled by inter-communal violence that has left a trail of burnt fields and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their villages.
Climate change has also undermined local farming and herding communities, with droughts more frequent and rains more intense. Largely because of these two hunger drivers, half of Malian families do not have access to nutritious food.
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Source: WFP.org
