Mogadishu, Somalia – Mogadishu’s Banadir Hospital, the country’s largest public pediatric facility, received a vital boost this week as lifesaving medical kits for treating Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) arrived through a collaboration between the European Union’s humanitarian arm (ECHO) and the World Health Organization Somalia.
The Pediatric Severe Acute Malnutrition (PED-SAM) kits are designed specifically for children suffering from the most critical form of malnutrition — cases where severe wasting is compounded by life-threatening conditions such as infections, anemia, or dehydration. Each kit contains essential medicines, therapeutic foods, antibiotics, and equipment needed to stabilize young patients during the most fragile stage of treatment.
For doctors like those working in Banadir Hospital’s pediatric ward, the delivery could not have come at a more urgent time. Staff regularly treat dozens of emaciated infants every week, many arriving in critical condition after long journeys from displacement camps or drought-stricken villages. Without specialized supplies, even routine infections can become fatal.
“We see children who are barely clinging to life. These kits give us a fighting chance. They mean the difference between hope and despair for many families,” said one clinician at the hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Somalia continues to struggle with one of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world. According to humanitarian assessments, hundreds of thousands of children face acute hunger due to recurring droughts, conflict, and rising food prices. While stabilization centers and outpatient feeding programs exist, facilities that can treat SAM with complications remain limited and chronically under-resourced.
The new deliveries — part of a wider EU and WHO intervention across multiple hospitals in the country — aim to close that gap. Health officials say the kits will enable more hospitals to provide standardized, high-quality care in line with international treatment protocols.
Parents waiting outside the hospital welcomed the support. A young mother, holding her frail toddler wrapped in a colorful shawl, whispered, “I just want him to be strong again. If God wills it, maybe this medicine will save him.”
For many Somali families, survival is a daily negotiation. With the arrival of these lifesaving kits, front-line health workers now have stronger tools in their hands. But doctors stress that sustained support — not one-off deliveries — is what will ultimately turn the tide against child malnutrition.
Until then, each kit represents something powerful: a chance for a child to recover, and for a mother to leave the hospital carrying hope instead of grief.