Africa's worst brain drain: Malnutrition in young children

Nancy Maidong' feeding her 3 year old son Aaron who have just recovered from moderate acute malnutrition at their home in Toitum village in Baringo. [Marion Kithi, Standard]

When you hear the word "malnutrition," you may picture an emaciated child in a rural village. But the truth is, malnutrition wears many faces. It is the baby in Nairobi whose mother can only afford diluted porridge. It is the schoolgirl in Turkana whose family survives on one meal a day. It is the toddler in Kisumu who looks healthy but whose diet lacks the vitamins needed for her brain to grow.

In Africa, and especially here in Kenya, malnutrition is both a silent emergency and a daily heartbreak. It means that a child does not get enough of the right nutrients at the right time. Sometimes this shows up as wasting, where a child becomes dangerously thin for their height. Other times it manifests as stunting, where children are too short for their age because their bodies and brains have been starved of nutrients.