As Minhaj Gedi Farah lay silently on a hospital bed three months ago, even his mother had given up hope that the skeletal Somali baby would live.

But weeks of intensive feeding, though, have transformed him into a chubby-cheeked boy who crawls.

He is one of several stories highlighted in an annual New York fundraising event held by the aid group International Rescue Committee, which helped nurse Minhaj back to health.

At seven-months-old Minhaj was admitted to the International Rescue Committee’s hospital in the Dadaab refugee complex in July

Minhaj’s emaciated little body was shown in media throughout the world and came to signify the plight of thousands of refugee children fleeing famine-devastated Somalia.

He weighed just 3.1 kilograms (6.83 pounds) and was not only suffering from malnourishment but was severely anemic.

It was touch and go as to whether the baby would survive — his family had given up hope.

After three life-saving blood transfusions and intensive feeding with Plumpy’nut, a vitamin-enriched peanut paste, Minhaj reached 4.1kgs (9.03 pounds) and was released from the hospital and treated for tuberculosis in an IRC outpatient program.

Today, three months after he was released, Minhaj is unrecognizable.

‘His mother never thought he would recover. Every member of his family is happy,’ said Sirat Amin, a nurse-nutritionist with the International Rescue Committee who has been monitoring Minhaj’s progress.

‘He can sit without being supported, he can have Plumpynut on his own. He’s crawling.’

His mother, Assiyah Dagane Osman, recently brought the plump-cheeked baby back to the hospital’s malnutrition unit to visit the IRC doctors and nurses who had saved his life.

Minhaj’s own mother had given up hope that he would survive as he was so underweight

She was overjoyed and extremely grateful, ‘I am very happy with the treatment he received. He is doing very well.’

As Dr. Humphrey Musyoka and head nurse-nutritionist Sirat Amin examined him, Minhaj giggled and laughed, clearly enjoying all the attention he was receiving.

At nearly 8 kilograms (17.64 pounds), Minhaj’s weight was almost normal for a little boy his age.

‘We can’t express how we felt when we saw him again,” Sirat said. “We saw a completely different child.’

Famine has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Somali children this year, but the U.N. said despite restrictions by Islamist insurgents, heavy rains and fighting, aid agencies are expanding their reach.

Food aid is now getting to 2.2 million of the 4 million Somalis who need it, the U.N. said.

The U.N. Children’s Fund said around 168,0000 acutely malnourished children under the age of 5 could die within weeks.

They are concerned about infectious diseases like measles, cholera and malaria, particularly in the dirty and overcrowded camps in the capital of Mogadishu.

‘The famine is not over … Children are dying on a daily basis,’ said Hannan Sulieman, UNICEF’s deputy representative for the Somalia mission. ‘Malnutrition has been way above emergency levels for over 10 years.’

She said that her organization was planning to maintain current levels of aid until August or September next year, when Somalia would have had a long and a short rain harvest.

The famine is the worst emergency to hit Somalia for a generation. The U.N. has appealed for $1 billion and has got $779 million so far.

But aid still doesn’t reach many of the starving. Islamist militias battling the weak U.N.-backed government have forbidden many aid agencies to operate in their territory, exacerbating the effects of a severe drought.

So even after their parents have struggled through the mud, have made it past the militias and have staggered into the hospital, it is still too late for many, said Amin.

‘I’m coping with it but sometimes it’s heartbreaking. People are suffering. Sometimes they die in front of you.’

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Daily Mail

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