Report, PCHR, 15 February 2008
""We receive 20-25 new referrals every day, and we see approximately 350 children a week here at the centre. Last year we treated more than 8,400 children here in Gaza city, plus another 8,000 children at our centre in Khan Younis. All of them were under five years old, and all of them were malnourished."......
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 10.7 percet of Gazan children aged under five are now suffering stunted growth due to chronic malnutrition. Dr al-Wahaidi describes the figure as "shocking," pointing out that neighboring Arab countries have child stunting rates of less than six percent.
"One of the major problems in the Gaza Strip," he says, "is that we do not have sufficient natural food resources. We cannot grow the variety of fruit and vegetables that we need in order to provide ourselves, and our children, a well-balanced diet. We are dependent on food imports, but the food table in the Gaza Strip is now severely deficient because of the siege and closure." Dr al-Wahaidi acknowledges that Gaza has become donor dependent. "We have tens of thousands of families who now have no options or alternatives to humanitarian assistance," he says. "But if this siege is maintained, then current child malnutrition interventions and preventions will not be sufficient. Child morbidity and mortality will both increase. We will not be able to cope.""
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