{"id":20964,"date":"2025-12-12T08:41:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T06:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/us-aid-cuts-disrupt-life-saving-treatment-for-starving-children-in-kenya\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:32:08","slug":"us-aid-cuts-disrupt-life-saving-treatment-for-starving-children-in-kenya","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/us-aid-cuts-disrupt-life-saving-treatment-for-starving-children-in-kenya\/","title":{"rendered":"US aid cuts disrupt life saving treatment for starving children in Kenya"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Hellen Etiman, a Kenyan pastoralist, believed her severely malnourished son would soon recover after starting a course of life-saving specialised food.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Instead, four year old Peter Lokoyen\u00a0relapsed in July when the health facility treating him ran out of supplies, leaving the family to rely on wild fruit foraged in the barren plains of Turkana county, in the country&#8217;s northwest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to dismantle the United States (US) Agency for International Development and slash global aid programmes severed a lifeline for children like Peter, five current and former aid officials told\u00a0<i>Reuters.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The US agency was funding the purchase and distribution of roughly half the world\u2019s supply of ready to use therapeutic food (RUTF), a nutrient-dense, peanut-based paste used to treat children with the most lethal form of undernourishment, known as severe acute malnutrition or wasting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">United Nations Children&#8217;s Fund (UNICEF), the world&#8217;s largest buyer and distributor of RUTF, said drought was increasing demand for the nutritious paste in parts of Kenya, while funding cuts for community outreach to screen for malnutrition meant children were reaching health facilities in more critical condition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Most of its funding for RUTF supplies was restored in March, UNICEF told\u00a0<i>Reuters<\/i>, saying shortages at some facilities were related to &#8220;short-term operational issues&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20965,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-20964","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"Kenyan pastoralist, believed her severely malnourished son would soon recover","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/20964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/20964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24808,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/20964\/revisions\/24808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=20964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}