An Assessment of the Emergency Nutritional Status and Household Food Security of Somali Refugees and Its Determinants: The Case of Melkadida Refugees Camp in Somali Region

Tsegaye, Abiy (2011) An Assessment of the Emergency Nutritional Status and Household Food Security of Somali Refugees and Its Determinants: The Case of Melkadida Refugees Camp in Somali Region. Masters thesis, Addis Ababa University.

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Abstract

This study covers a review of household food security of refugee households and nutritional situation of children less than five years of age in Melkadida refugee camp. A cross-sectional quantitative study in which the results were triangulate with Key Informant Interview and Focus Group Discussions results was applied to accomplish the stated objectives of the study. A systematic random sampling method to select the sampling units was used to obtain the required number of subjects. 403 households were randomly selected from the whole households who were getting food and non food support from the camp. Regarding to food security of the refugees in the refugee camp, the majority of the households depend on the ration distributed to them monthly based on the number of the members of the households. The ration distributed to the refugees has deficiency both in quantity and quality. As to the food security indicators used in the survey, the household food insecurity access scale show that, majority 357 (92.49%) of the household were severely food insecure by showing that they were experiencing the three most severe conditions in indicating food insecurity. In addition to this 356 (92.2%) of the households have had below the acceptable food consumption scores. As to the result of this study, of all the sample children in the refugee camp, prevalence of sever and moderate acute malnutrition were 6.7 % (CI=4.9 - 9.0) and 17.6 % (CI=14.7 - 20.9). This shows that the situation is critical in the camp. Mothers or caretakers reported that 33.5%of children 6-59 months of age had been sick in the previous 2 weeks preceding the survey. Diarrhea disease was the most frequently reported illness 94(16.5%), followed by fever 85(14.9%), acute respiratory infection 55(9.4%), and malaria 11(1.9%). The result of the crude mortality rate during this period was 0.91(CI=0.58 - 1.41). The under-five mortality rate was also 0.77 (CI= 0.30 -1.97). The result of the bivariate analysis shows that there were 12 variables found to have statistically significant relation ship with malnutrition in the refugee camp. Using the logistic regression of multivariate analysis variables of disease (i.e. diarrhea and fever), age of the children and place of previous residence of the households were found with statistically significant effect on malnutrition compare to the other variables. This shows that food insecurity and diseases have high impact on Malnutrition of the children. The effect of previous and present livelihood differences of the refugee households based on the households’ previous place of residence was also affect to the resilience and adaptation capability of the refugees for the different problems in the camp. Recommendations target the improvement of the food allocation in the camp both in its variety and amount, the improvement and expansion of the therapeutic and supplementary feeding programs, and treating malnutrition related diseases have to emphasize in the camp. Further more water, sanitation and hygiene programs have to expand to improve the ease of access and utilization of these services by the refugees.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General)
Divisions:	Africana
Depositing User:	Tim Khabala
Date Deposited:	10 Sep 2018 08:58
Last Modified:	10 Sep 2018 08:58
URI:	http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/5056

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