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Traditions in Chad harm, kill underfed children

By Rukmini Callimachi
Published December 23, 2012 9:55pm ET
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Traditions in Chad harm, kill underfed children
ADVANCE FOR SATURDAY DEC 22, 2012 In this Nov. 5, 2012 photo, mothers try to engage their malnourished children in playtime as part of the treatment program at a nutritional health clinic run by Action Against Hunger with the support of UNICEF, in Moussoro, Chad. In this Sahel nation, childhood malnutrition and related mortality persist at alarming rates, despite the fact that many affected families live within a day's journey of internationally-funded nutrition clinics. One reason is that families, bound by local custom, choose instead to seek traditional treatments, treatments which can lead to the very infections that kill their undernourished children.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) | Rebecca Blackwell

MOUSSORO, Chad (AP) — On the day of their son’s surgery, the family woke before dawn. They saddled their horses and set out across the 12-mile-long carpet of sand to the nearest town, where they hoped the reputed doctor would cure their frail, feverish baby.

The neighboring town, almost as poor and isolated as their own, hosts a foreign-run emergency clinic for malnourished children. But that’s not where the family headed.

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