Although there are years when malnourished children can be taken care of, health authorities show that there are disabilities or diseases that children can be born with and live in poverty forever
A child under the age of five is usually malnourished but has no other disease If he is cared for and fed well, he recovers so that he grows well without any other problems as long as he continues to be cared for properly
It is common knowledge that a child’s constipation, resulting from the lack of proper care by the parents, should be fed properly and therefore the constipation is also classified according to the color, where the person who has shown all the symptoms is classified as red and needs more attention compared to the one who is in the yellow color and shows signs of malnutrition but has not yet passed
The good thing is that all of them can be taken care of, recover and regain a healthy life and in this context, the Government of Rwanda has set itself the goal of eradicating the problem so that by the end of 2024, at least 19% of children with tuberculosis under the age of five will have reached the rate of 33% throughout the country, although statistics show that so far it is 33%; they have reached 38% in 2015
Although various measures have been put in place to deal with the problem of children with tuberculosis, on the other hand, there are others who have not been sick or disabled at birth, making them live stunted all the time
Health authorities say that there are many different diseases that a child can be born with which can lead to lifelong malnutrition but the most common ones in Rwanda are children who have a brain problem and can be born with it or have it before birth
Dr. Emmanuel Nsengiyumva, an orthopedic surgeon who mainly takes care of children at Rilima Hospital, says that a child who has these problems has a disability that can make him live full-time
He continued saying that It makes the things that reach his stomach very fragmented at that time and you find that the intestines are not working well because its parts are protected by the brain due to what the part of the brain that is sick is All of them may have problems with constipation, not because they lack food but because of their previous illness
Confirming that the child has these problems, it is necessary that he first be adequately evaluated and that these problems be confirmed
One of the children who have these problems is in the Mahama camp located in Kirehe District, which accommodates Burundian and Congolese refugees, according to its director, André Vuganeza
He said In this whole camp, there are 80 children in red who were born with disabilities that make them live in red for the rest of their lives. You find that he has no throat and cries in red so that the person who feeds him will go to the level of living like others, which is a big problem
Apart from the camp, there are many children with these problems all over the centers that take care of children with disabilities
Some parents of children with these problems say that they are not comfortable taking care of them because, apart from being unable to eat what they are required to eat is not everything they can find so it requires resources
Health authorities say that these problems can arise from diseases that a mother can infect a child with and there are others who may have problems at birth, especially when birth is difficult so that the child is born tired and the brain is damaged due to lack of air.
If the child is in his early days, he may suffer from diseases that mainly cause fever or yellowing of the child, which can also damage his brain, which can affect him, including those who are stunted because it is not possible for him to eat well
Parents are advised to go for a check-up every time they are pregnant, do it every time they are asked by doctors and give birth to a doctor because it protects children from many problems they may have at birth and before
NESTA