Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
A. Prereading
Look at the title, subtitle, and pictures. What do you think this reading will be
about?
Do you know about the organization called “Doctors without Borders”? If so, what
do you know about it?
It's cheap, easy to make, and even easier to use. What is this
miraculous cure? As CNN's Anderson Cooper reports, it's a
ready-to-eat, vitamin-enriched concoction called
"Plumpynut," an unusual name for a food that may just be
the most important advance ever to cure and prevent malnutrition.
"It's a revolution in nutritional affairs," says Dr. Milton Tectonidis, the chief
nutritionist for Doctors Without Borders.
Why are so many kids dying? Because they can't get the milk, vitamins and
minerals their young bodies need. Mothers in these villages can't produce enough
milk themselves and can't afford to buy it. Even if they could, they can't store it --
there’s no electricity, so no refrigeration. Powdered milk is useless because most
villagers don't have clean water. Plumpynut was designed to overcome all these
obstacles.
Rivers of women flowed into the site and within minutes there were
more than a thousand of them, all waiting to get packets or tubs of
Plumpynut. In a land where plastic bags are a luxury, they carry the
food home in their scarves, their hands, or simply stacked on top of
their heads.
"When you see some of these kids they don’t look sick. They don’t look
malnourished. They don’t have bloated bellies or little stick arms," Cooper remarks.
"The ones that we're used to seeing on TV, that’s the worst of the worst of the
worst. It's the tip of the iceberg. And then below that, there’s the iceberg. So,
there's a whole spectrum of malnutrition," Dr. Tectonidis says. "And when we go
and check these kids, well, they’re way off in height or in weight. They’re way off."
Niger has become Plumpynut's proving ground. A daily dose costs about $1; small
factories mix it here and in three other African countries. Tectonidis says other
companies could make similar products wherever children need them.
"There's many countries in Africa now saying, 'We want a factory. We want a
factory.' Well let's give it to them," he says. "We just have to focus on these areas.
We don’t have to feed the whole world. We have to go for the jugular. Where are
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they dying? Where are they wasted? That’s where we have to intervene. If you feed
them well until they're two or three years old it's won. They're healthy, they can get
a healthy life. If you miss that window, it's finished."
In Niger, most children need help now during what’s called the "hunger season,"
just before the new harvest. Old food supplies have run out and about all that’s left
is millet, a basic grain women pound for porridge. But millet doesn’t have enough
nutrients to keep kids alive; in America we use it as birdseed.
Normally a children's hospital 60 Minutes visited would have more patients than
beds. But now, thanks to Plumpynut, it has empty beds. Dr.
Susan Shepherd, a pediatrician from Butte, Mont., runs
Doctors Without Borders in Niger.
That's what Sahia Ibrahim has been doing. She’s already lost
four children to malnutrition. Now her six-month-old twins,
Hassana and Husseina, are malnourished and she’s worried
they might die too. So she’s been coming to the hospital for Plumpynut.
Hassana, at six months old, weighs only seven pounds. While that's what a newborn
should weigh, the little girl has put on a pound in just a week thanks to Plumpynut.
Children are weighed and measured at the distribution sites. They're also examined
to make sure they don't have any serious infections. Malnutrition destroys a child's
immune system, so they're more susceptible to diseases and less capable of
recovering from them.
"Often these kids aren't even hungry. It's the opposite. They are anorexic because
of the deficiencies they have. They lose their appetite," Tectonidis explains.
That's what happened to Mansour Miko and Maroufee Mazoo. Less than a year old,
they had stopped eating and became listless and weak -- so weak that when their
mothers brought them to get Plumpynut, the nurse put them in a van and sent
them straight to the hospital. Three days later however, they were smacking their
lips on Plumpynut, almost ready to go home.
"Have you seen kids who were on the brink of death brought back by Plumpynut?"
Cooper asks.
"Oh, yeah, for sure. Again and again and again and again," Dr.Shepherd says.
But not always. Sometimes parents wait too long before bringing their child to
doctors. 60 Minutes found Rashida Mahmadou in intensive care, barely clinging to
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life.
Rashida's condition was very serious. Her skin was literally peeling away -- one side
effect of malnutrition, as skin becomes thin, pliable, cracks easily, and bacteria
invade.
Just two hours later, Rashida's little heart stopped beating. She was just 19 months
old.
"She died of severe, acute malnutrition," says Shepherd, who says she sees this
happening every day.
Asked how she deals with so many kids dying, Shepherd tells Cooper, "It breaks
your heart. It can break your spirit. It can ruin your confidence in your ability to be a
good doctor. And it is sad. And I carry memories of many, many children with me
and I'll carry them with me for my entire life. But you certainly cannot indulge
yourself in that kind of sadness. We need to do something about this."
If Plumpynut is the answer, how come kids are still dying?
"The answer is getting to kids earlier," Shepherd says. "Once children are as sick as
she is, Plumpynut is not gonna save her."
Two years ago this region had the highest malnutrition rate in
Niger. But now, after widespread use of the Plumpynut, it has
the lowest. Dr. Shepherd told Cooper they’ll be able to treat
more than 120,000 kids this year, up from just 10,000 children
three years ago.
"We just don't see it," Shepherd says. "In developing countries
food allergy is not nearly the problem that it is in industrialized
countries.
In the countryside, where 85 percent of people live, girls start marrying as young as
11 years old. By the age of 15 most are wed, and by 16 most have already become
mothers. The average woman here will give birth at least eight times in her lifetime.
But largely because of malnutrition, one in five of their children will die before they
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reach the age of five. Of those who survive, half will have stunted growth and never
reach full adult height.
But now, with Plumpynut, more children are surviving and thriving.
"And kids are doing better. Moms say their child's skin is brighter. Their appetites
are better. And they’re less sick. You know, what more could you ask for," Shepherd
remarks.
Doctors Without Borders is asking for more of this type of food. Their success in
Niger proves, they say, that fortified ready-to-eat products, like Plumpynut, save
children's lives. Dr. Tectonidis says if the United States and the European Union
were willing to spend part of their food aid on this, more companies will start
making it.
"Even by taking a miniscule proportion of the global food aid budget, they will have
a huge impact, huge impact!" Tectonidis says. "We're not even asking for billions. It
will solve so much of the underlying useless death. So we gotta do that now."
"Wasted life. Just totally wasted life for nothing. Because they don't have this
product, little a bit of peanut butter with vitamins," Tectonidis says. "What a waste."
C. Vocabulary
Directions: Find each of the bold words in the reading. Read the sentence it is in,
and guess the meaning. Then use a dictionary to find the definition and the part of
speech (noun, adjective, verb, adverb). Write your guesses and the definitions
below.
1. concoction
Guess:
Definition:
Part of Speech:
2. revolution
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Definition:
Part of Speech:
3. widespread
Guess:
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Definition:
Part of Speech:
4. overcome
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Definition:
Part of Speech:
5. remote
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Definition:
Part of Speech:
6. emerging
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Definition:
Part of Speech:
7. intervene
Guess:
Definition:
Part of Speech:
8. deficiencies
Guess:
Definition:
Part of Speech:
9. cling
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Definition:
Part of Speech:
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10. pliable
Guess:
Definition:
Part of Speech:
11. thriving
Guess:
Definition:
Part of Speech:
12. underlying
Guess:
Definition:
Part of Speech:
D. Comprehension Questions
3. Why does Dr. Tectonidis say, “We just have to focus on these areas. We don’t
have to feed the whole world. We have to go for the jugular. Where are they dying?
Where are they wasted”? Why does he mean by “jugular”?
6. What does “the brink of death” mean when Cooper asks, “"Have you seen kids
who were on the brink of death brought back by Plumpynut?"