We just received an urgent update from our team in Ethiopia and wanted to share it with you. 

In the villages of northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region, families are facing widespread reductions in funding for humanitarian aid that have left 80% of the population in desperate need of emergency support.  

But even in the hardest, most forgotten places, hope persists. On January 17th, Medical Teams International launched nutrition programming in Hitsats IDP camp under a grant from the World Food Programme. This program specifically targets moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) in women and children to prevent them from reaching severe acute malnutrition (SAM), which has a higher mortality rate.  

Among pregnant and lactating women, malnutrition is reaching concerning levels. Among children, nutritional screenings conducted by our teams show acute malnutrition rates have increased beyond emergency levels, with a global acute malnutrition rate of 23% (which falls within a Phase 4, or Critical level). This means children are facing an elevated and increasing risk of serious illness, and even death, while food is getting more difficult find.  As the situation continues to deteriorate, there is currently no functional stabilization center to provide inpatient care to malnourished children with medical complications.  

The humanitarian situation has reached catastrophic levels. Funding cuts to global aid programs have forced organizations to scale back or suspend activities entirely, leaving the most vulnerable with reduced access to medical care, water, and sanitation services. Local health workers go unpaid and hungry themselves while trying to serve communities devastated by years of conflict and now compounded by food insecurity. 

This new grant will allow Medical Teams to increase screening and treatment for 2 vulnerable groups: children under 5 years old and pregnant or breastfeeding women. Treatment for MAM is energy-dense, fortified foods, like Ready to Use Supplementary Food (Plumpy’Sup) for children or Super Cereal Plus powder for women. This intervention arrives at a critical moment when many feared there would be no one left to help. 

This is what we do. Medical Teams International goes where others cannot or will not. We break barriers to life-saving healthcare in the world’s most desperate corners, bringing care to communities that have been overlooked and abandoned. While the crisis in Tigray deepens and global attention turns elsewhere, we will continue to deliver essential nutrition services to mothers and children who have endured unimaginable hardship. 

Your support makes this possible. You enable us to respond when the need is greatest and the resources are scarcest. Together, we’re ensuring that families in places like Hitsats aren’t forgotten.