From testing to treatment, Priyanka Chopra documents camp for malnourished kids in Kenya

As a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, global icon Priyanka Chopra has been working with the organisation to understand the grassroot-level problems being faced by the people. The actor, who is in Kenya currently, is documenting the plight of people due to the water and hunger crisis looming large in the nation. 

Other than showing the problems and atrocities faced by the people due to the drought, Priyanka also appealed to people across the world to support UNICEF's efforts against Kenya’s hunger crisis. In her latest video on Instagram, the actor shared how children were being looked after in a region that lacked any kind of health facilities.

Priyanka Chopra visits village in Kenya to show plight of children 

Wearing a UNICEF shirt and cap, the actor who is an advocate of supporting children with their basic needs, was seen moving around the camp. Priyanka was heard saying, “When the children deviate from the (growth) chart, it means they are stunted, wasting, and those words are anyway just really difficult to hear when it comes to a child. But that is how you describe malnutrition. It is literally the wasting away of a child and being stunted.”

The Quantico star gave a tour of the camp where children were taken after their body measurements were noted. Ready-to-eat treatment food was then given to them by health professionals. One could see the physicians testing the children, after which they were seen eating the treating food. Apart from their daily nutrients, the children were also provided with some ‘therapeutic sachets’ that were given for severe to moderate malnutrition. 

The 40-year-old also showed other amenities being provided by UNICEF including a ‘water distilling pill’ for the purification of river water, given along with a bucket and soap to the children for hygiene purposes. She captioned the video, "The faces of the children I saw in the Lodwar Pediatric Stabilization Center today will forever haunt me. Rows and rows of children, with no twinkle in their eyes, were too weak to cry. Just skin and bones. These kids didn’t choose to be here, and in fact, this is totally avoidable. A starving child? A child so hungry that the only way to save their life is to admit them to a hospital for urgent lifesaving treatment?"

"The extreme poverty coupled with the worst drought in 40 years is a collision course to tragedy. But there is a solution, unlike some of the other emergencies I have traveled to where that is not always the case," she concluded. 

For those unversed, the drought in Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Lands continued to worsen, with malnutrition increasing in many of the hardest-hit regions. Global acute malnutrition (GAM) rates were reported from three out of ten sub-counties surveyed (Turkana North, Turkana South, and Marsabit North Horr) in June and July, as per Reliefweb.