(Eqtsad)- The problem of lack of milk powder in Rastan city, biggest city in besieged Homs, came back again to warn of a human disaster threatening around 1883 children with health problems caused by malnutrition.
Manager of Motherhood and Childhood office in Rastan Maha Ayoub told Eqtsad that problem started two months ago after intensified bombings on the city with warplanes and increased blockade on the city by regime forces.
The children dry milk was secured before by “blood traders” by paying them double prices to enter the milk despite the siege. The price of can of milk reached between 3000 to 4000 SP at a time when most population do not have money to buy bread.
This became a burden for the families and the office alike, according to the manager.
She pointed out the office was securing money and support to buy milk for the besieged children through individuals and relief organizations abroad.
The number of documented infants is between 1883 to 2000 below age of year and the number is increasing on average of 123 birth a month. That means the office needs approximately 25000$ to secure free milk for them and the office is not able to secure a Syrian pound now.
Maha indicated the office launched several SOS calls through social media but “we only heard the echoes of our voices” according to her.
The office manager said, “there was an international agreement with Assad on starving children of Rastan and the best witness is that UN convoys which entered Rastan did not include milk.”
She added, “when we asked the employees accompanying the convoy about the reason, they claimed that UN has an alternative policy to breastfeeding although they know best of mothers’ fear from warplanes and bombing dried milk in their breasts and hence, there is no meaning for this justification.”
Regarding what women do to make it work for their children amid absence of dry milk, Maha clarified, “there is severe suffering facing those women in securing alternatives to dry milk. They depend sometimes on cow milk and if found, it is very expensive and financially exhausting for families. The mothers mix it with water to make it fit for the infant and even with that, there has been health problems as a result.”
The infants in the city need more than milk in light of the families lacking basic means of life due to the blockade, as Maha confirmed, indicating that, “there is a need to secure diapers and nutrition necessary for growth like Cerelac, almond butter, clothes, medications, and toys. ”
In his turn, doctor specialized in children Ahmad al-Bayruti said that women turning to primitive ways to feed their children let to common cases of malnutrition, diarrhea, and IBD for the children due to absence of healthy ways to secure milk for children. The mothers also suffer of drought of milk because of fear and panic and malnutrition.
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