Menu ENN Search

Infant Feeding in Emergencies: Experiences from Rwanda

Frances O'Keefe field worker Gisenyi - Concern Worldwide

Between October and December last year escalating civil conflict led to hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees returning from refugee camps in eastern Zaire to Rwanda. Due to the scale and speed of the return many children became separated from their mothers. SCF, who were engaged in tracing activities at the time, estimated that 1,800 unaccompanied children were present out of a total exodus of 450,000 persons. Of these about 50 were below 2 years of age. It was the younger children who caused the greatest difficulties with regard to feeding, as they required exclusive breastfeeding if they were to have a good chance of survival.

Concern Worldwide operated a transit centre for unaccompanied children in Gisenyi in north-western Rwanda. If children were healthy they were referred to an MSF centre where efforts were made to trace families or find appropriate carers. Some infants were admitted who were accompanied by older siblings (the maximum age 14 years). The infants who were admitted were usually referred by agencies such as SCF-UK and ICRC. Approximately 4-6 infants per week were taken care of in the Concern centre.

Unaccompanied babies seen by Concern lost their mothers to the violence in eastern Zaire. There were some reports of instances where young babies had been found alive and abandoned at massacre sites. Other mothers were sick and malnourished (the region has a high HIV prevalence) prior to the journey back to Rwanda and died during their journey home or soon after their return. Children frequently suffered exhaustion, dehydration and starvation during the journey home.

A number of issues pertinent to infant feeding practices in emergencies arose during this programme:

A higher success rate in terms of mortality was generally achieved with the youngest infants (1 to 6 months) in comparison to older infants (7 to 12 months). It was not apparent why this was the case but it was felt that this may have been due to rapid referral and the fact that the infants were quickly started on suitable formula. A higher mortality rate was reported for older infants. A possible reason for this was that older infants survived longer under the harsh conditions when hiding in the forests, where inappropriate foods (poisonous bark, diluted milks) were eaten, possibly causing infections and clinical complications. The young infants who endured these situations may not have survived at all. In fact the young babies admitted to the Concern centre may have spent less time separated from their mothers, giving them a better chance of survival.

If and when relatives were found, the problem of inappropriate foods available at household level remained. Formula feeds were either unavailable or unaffordable in rural areas.

More like this

FEX: Caring for Unaccompanied Children under Difficult Circumstances

by Jean Long, Ros O'Loughlin, Annalies Borrel Jean Long and Ros O'Loughlin worked for Concern in Kisingani (DRC) in the fall of 1997, establishing the programme described...

FEX: Practical experiences and lessons learned in using supplemental suckling technique

Breastfeeding in Sierra Leone Following on from the article on infant feeding in emergencies, which appeared in the March 2000 issue of Field Exchange, we wish to add our...

FEX: Letter asking for guidance on BMS for orphans in Rwanda, by Ros O'Loughlin (and response by ENN)

Dear Field Exchange, I read with great interest the articles on infant feeding in the first issue of Field Exchange. I was at the time working in a centre for unaccompanied...

FEX: Caring for premature babies in a conflict zone

Summary of published experiences1 This paper describes aspects of the authors work as a midwife with Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in a north-western regional hospital in Côte...

FEX: Save the Children’s IYCF-E Rapid Response in Croatia

By Isabelle Modigell, Christine Fernandes and Megan Gayford Isabelle Modigell is the IYCF-E Adviser for the Technical Rapid Response Team (Tech RRT) at Save the Children. She...

FEX: Artificial feeding in emergencies: experiences from the ongoing Syrian crisis

By Suzanne Mboya Suzanne Mboya is a consultant nutritionist. In 2014 she completed a sixth month mission supporting the Syrian crisis IYCF-E response through a partnership...

FEX: Contributing to the Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies (IYCF-E) response in the Philippines: a local NGO perspective

By Romelei Camiling-Alfonso, Donna Isabel S. Capili, Katherine Ann V. Reyes, A.M. Francesca Tatad and Maria Asuncion Silvestre Romelei Camiling-Alfonso has worked for the...

en-net: Infant feeding and Ebola Outbreak

Posted on behalf of Fabienne Rousseau, ACF I have a question related to infant feeding in the context of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Our teams are engaged in...

FEX: Diluted F100 v infant formula in treatment of severely malnourished infants < 6 months

By Caroline Wilkinson and Sheila Isanaka Caroline Wilkinson was Nutrition Advisor with Action Contre la Faim - France (ACF-F), until November 2008. She spent most of 2007 in...

FEX: Putting IFE guidance into practice: operational challenges in Myanmar

By Victoria Sibson Victoria Sibson has been the emergency nutrition adviser for Save the Children UK since April 2007, with a focus on treatment of acute malnutrition and...

FEX: Wet nursing for refugee orphans in Bangladesh

By Yara Sfeir, UNHCR Bangladesh Yara Sfeir is an International United Nations Volunteer posted as a Nutrition Coordinator for the two Rohingya refugee camps of Nayapara and...

FEX: Infant Feeding Alternatives for HIV Positive Mothers in Kenya

By Tom Oguta, Abiud Omwega and Jaswant Sehmi Tom Oguta is currently a PhD student of Nutrition at the University of Nairobi. He has worked as a Research Officer at KIRDI...

FEX: Evaluation of Relactation by the Supplemental Suckling Technique

A mother feeding her baby using the SST By Odile Oberlin and Caroline Wilkinson, Action Contre la Faim (ACF) Odile Oberlin is a paediatrician working in a Paris hospital and...

FEX: Managing infant and young child feeding in refugee camps in Jordan

By Sura Alsamman Sura Alsamman is nutrition supervisor at Save the Children Jordan, responsible for the overall all coordination of the IYCF technical functions and activities...

FEX: Letters

Dear ENN, If there is one thing that we have learnt from the current Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak it is that regardless of infection status, Ebola comes bringing bad...

FEX: Infant Feeding in Emergencies: Experiences from Indonesia and Lebanon

By Ali Maclaine and Mary Corbett Ali Maclaine has a MSc in Human Nutrition from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has been involved in infant feeding and...

FEX: Infant and young child feeding support in Lebanon: strengthening the national system

By Pressila Darjani and Linda Shaker Berbari Pressila Derjany is the Infant and Young Child Coordinator at IOCC. She has a B.Sc. in Nutrition and Dietetics. She joined IOCC...

en-net: Feeding children older than 6 months with severe cleft palat

In one of the refugee camps I am supporting the health agency nurse has 2 cases of children with severe cleft palat's enrolled in SFP that can not take solid food. They are...

FEX: Evaluation of regional IFE workshop

A mother and her baby in a temporary shelter following Cyclone Nargis Summary of evaluation report1 An evaluation was undertaken by the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) to...

FEX: Infant Formula Distribution in Northern Iraq

Mother breastfeeding, Northern Iraq, 2003 Summary of assessment1 Between 19th June and 12th July, 2003, a nutrition and mother and child health assessment was carried out in...

Close

Reference this page

Frances O'Keefe (). Infant Feeding in Emergencies: Experiences from Rwanda. Field Exchange 1, May 1997. p3. www.ennonline.net/fex/1/rwanda

(ENN_3217)

Close

Download to a citation manager

The below files can be imported into your preferred reference management tool, most tools will allow you to manually import the RIS file. Endnote may required a specific filter file to be used.