In 2025 in Chad, about 1.8 million children under five years of age suffer from acute malnutrition, including 700,000 from severe acute malnutrition.

Malnutrition is not a one-time emergency, it is a decades long struggle, and the result of deep structural vulnerabilities such as poverty, lack of livelihoods and not enough food, exacerbated by conflict, displacement, poor harvests due to droughts and delayed rains, and economic deterioration.

For many families, hunger and children dying of malnutrition, have sadly become a normal part of ordinary life. The most vulnerable families struggle to feed themselves properly, even those who depend on their own crops. Many women skip meals to feed their children.

Women bear the burden of family survival, often solely responsibility for feeding and caring for their children, while men leave to look for work elsewhere. They have to travel long distances to access healthcare, manage household chores and compensate for food insecurity with loans or often insufficient survival strategies. Their mental and physical burden is immense, and their role is central to the survival of families.
In Massakory district, MSF, the Ministry of Health and the community, have started a community-based care program. This allows children aged 6–59 months and pregnant and breastfeeding women to receive care through 21 community health centre sites throughout the district. These sites are run by community health workers trained by MSF and the Ministry of Health and recruited from the community.
This community-based approach guarantees access to primary healthcare (malaria, malnutrition, respiratory infections, vaccination) at numerous treatment points and ensures the sustainability of the response through community ownership of healthcare. These sites will therefore be able to continue operating even if MSF leaves the intervention area; provided supplies are guaranteed: