News Release

27th May 2010

SAVING BABY ALLEN

Just £2.50 was enough to save the life of baby Allen who lives in the Kiandutu slum, north of Nairobi. Allen was discovered on a visit by Feed The Children (UK)’s, CEO, Brian Main to Kenya, who immediately got aid to him. Without Brian’s intervention Allen would not have lasted two weeks. Instead within two weeks Allen was a healthy, bouncy baby, with a lovely smile and sparkly eyes.

Says Brian, “Seeing Allen in his near death state and then happy and healthy within weeks, really brought home to me just how important our work in Africa is.  Feed The Children really gets aid to where it is needed and it was a joy to be rewarded with such an improvement in a baby who would have died without help from our supporters.”

Continues Brian, “When I first met Allen he only had days to live.  He was badly malnourished with severe anaemia and iron deficiency.  He weighed just 3.5 kilos or about 7 pounds and at a year old he should weigh around 8 kilos.  His hair was curly and thin and his eyes large and dark in his face. His cheekbones were pronounced and he was listless and limp.

“After medical examination we were told that had we not helped he would have died.  Allen lives with his grandmother Sabina in the Kiandutu slum where at least one child dies every day.  The most common causes are pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and malnutrition. Children need nutritious food, clothing, health care and mosquito nets.

“Sabina had a tired, worn face – well who wouldn’t with five small grand children and her 15-year-old son to care for. She is a widow and caring as best she can for her daughter’s children. Allen’s mother, an alcoholic, disappeared and left her mother with five young children to care for and no one knows who Allen’s father is."

“Sabina has absolutely no way to take care of Allen who has been sick for a while. He has been in hospital suffering from rickets, severe pneumonia and severe dehydration. After his hospital stay, his weight started dropping rapidly. What child wouldn’t be malnourished when all he has to eat is water with a little rice? The grandmother told us that the day before we arrived, she had porridge, but she had given it to the other children, not Allen. There wasn’t enough for all of them.”

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