NAIROBI, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- The malnutrition crisis among children in drought-affected northern Kenyan counties has reached alarming levels hence the need for a speedy response, said the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Priyanka Chopra Jonas Thursday.
Chopra Jonas who had earlier visited the northern Kenyan county of Turkana, reeling from acute drought, said that climate change and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic had escalated childhood malnutrition across the greater Horn of Africa region.
"Children whose immune systems are already weakened by malnutrition can't fight off disease, meaning they are just as likely to die of illness as of hunger. It's devastating and it's preventable. Unless we act now, millions more children will be pushed to the brink of death," she said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
According to Chopra Jonas, nearly 900,000 children under the age of five in 23 drought-affected counties in Kenya required urgent treatment for life-threatening severe malnutrition.
She said nearly 1.4 million children in Kenya have grappled with limited access to nutritious food, safe drinking water, health services, education, and protection from abuse thanks to worsening drought linked to four consecutive failed rainy seasons.
Chopra Jonas noted that a predicted October-December depressed rainy season could push more children to the brink of starvation, adding that UNICEF is scaling up interventions like the provision of milk and ready-to-use therapeutic food to children affected by malnutrition in remote Kenya's northern frontier districts.
During her two-day visit to northern Kenya, Chopra Jonas, an Indian actress, model, and singer, met children at local health centers receiving treatment for acute malnutrition.
She said that children suffering from acute malnutrition had compromised immunity and were unable to fight killer diseases like malaria, pneumonia, and oedema.
Chopra Jonas noted that strategic interventions like the construction of a solar-powered borehole have ensured that children have access to safe drinking water, can attend school, and are shielded from diarrhea diseases.
UNICEF Kenya Acting Representative Jean Lokenga said there was an urgency to provide life-saving commodities like powdered milk and ready-to-use therapeutic food to malnourished children in the country and avert fatalities.
According to Lokenga, UNICEF is providing emergency water, sanitation, and health kits, upgrading boreholes, and distributing cash to households affected by drought in Kenya and the entire Horn of Africa region. ■