Combatting Malnutrition in Afar, Ethiopia

Fatuma Adagere Mohamed is a trained health extension worker in Guhom, in southern Afar region.

When I see improvements, I feel happy – especially in the children.”

Fatuma

Fatuma Humad pulls out her measuring tape and wraps it around the upper arm of a 2- year-old girl named Aradi, mid-way between her shoulder and elbow. She’s looking at the girl’s mid-upper arm circumference, an indicator of nutritional status. Humad is pleased with the result: Until recent weeks, this young girl’s measurements indicated she was suffering from malnutrition.

A woman wearing a yellow and red head scarf looks past the camera into the distance. Next to her in the background are three other women. They are all sitting against a wall.

These health extension workers are playing an essential role in helping people survive difficult times.

In the middle of 2024, parts of the Afar Region were facing a crisis due to multiple factors, including ongoing drought due to climate change, and fighting between Afar clans and those of the nearby Somali Region. This was leading to a severe outbreak of cholera as people displaced by conflict and suffering from drought turn to unsafe sources of water.

People have a right to basic nutrition”

Mohamed Ahmed, deputy director of Oxfam partner APDA

Nearly half the 2.2 million people in this overlooked northeast corner of Ethiopia live in poverty, according to Mohamed Ahmed, deputy director of Oxfam partner APDA. Providing them with crucial humanitarian assistance is a major challenge for the government and groups like APDA. “People have a right to basic nutrition,” Ahmed says. “We know Afar is the most malnourished region in Ethiopia. For many years we have been distributing food aid, but it has been reduced due to inflation.”

A measuring tape shows the circumference of a child's upper arm.

The mid-upper arm circumference is an indicator of nutritional status.

Fatuma Humad is one of eight health extension workers trained by the Afar Pastoralist Development Association (APDA) in Guhom, working with support from Oxfam. These volunteers, all women, learned how to help people suffering from acute malnutrition, particularly children and young mothers struggling to breastfeed newborn babies. They are among 40 health workers trained by APDA across Afar.