Hope in the red zone

Life was already uncertain for Ma Thet[1] and her family when a major earthquake struck central Myanmar on 28 March 2025. Displaced by earlier hardship and living in a roadside tent, they were doing their best to get by, until the ground shook, and everything shifted again. The 7.7 magnitude quake killed at least 3,700 people and injured over 5,100, deepening the crisis for families like theirs. Now, with monsoon rains seeping through their thin shelter, each day brings new challenges.

“We had already lost everything once,” Ma Thet said quietly. “We were just starting to get by in the tent and then the earthquake happened. After that, even finding clean water or food became harder.”

For Ma Thet, a mother of seven, every day is a battle to keep her children safe and healthy. Her youngest, Kaung Kaung, just one and a half years old, was diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition (SAM), his tiny arm measuring in the red zone on a mid-upper arm circumference tape used to identify malnutrition. 

“During my pregnancy, I knew I should eat well, but we simply couldn’t afford it,” Ma Thet recalled. “The nurse told me about nutritious food, but we ate what we could find. Meat or fish was rare. I took the supplements the nurse gave, but nothing more.” Despite her best efforts, poverty meant she could not provide the balanced diet she knew her baby needed.

Kaung Kaung’s diet consisted mostly of rice and snacks. “I didn’t know about special foods for children, and we couldn’t afford them anyway,” Ma Thet said. The family’s income, earned from collecting cans and doing odd jobs, is never enough for their large household. With the recent floods contaminating water sources and soaking the tented settlements, Kaung Kaung soon developed diarrhoea, a dangerous illness for a severely malnourished child.

When the UNICEF team arrived in their community in Mandalay, they found Kaung Kaung weak and dehydrated. He was immediately screened and identified with severe acute malnutrition.

That same day, he received Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), a life-saving, peanut-based paste for children like him. Ma Thet was shown how to feed it to her son and reassured that health workers will regularly check on his progress.

“I felt so worried when they told me my son was severely malnourished,” she said. “But now, with this special food and the advice I got, I have hope again. I’ll do everything I can to help him recover.”

During the visit, Htet Bo Win, UNICEF Social Behaviour Change Officer, led a health and nutrition awareness session for families in the area. “We explained how to keep children healthy, what foods to give, and how to prevent illness, especially now, with the rains increasing the risk of disease,” he said. “Mothers like Ma Thet are determined to care for their children. They just need the right knowledge and support.”

Dr Nay Tun Kyaw, UNICEF Nutrition Officer, added, “Every child we reach with RUTF is a life potentially saved. But the monsoon and the aftermath of the earthquake have made conditions even more dire, especially for poor and struggling households that are unable to meet their children’s basic dietary and nutritional needs. Our integrated approach, combining emergency nutrition with health education and WASH support, is critical to prevent disease and save lives.”

Four months after the devastating earthquake struck Myanmar, families like Ma Thet’s remain at the heart of UNICEF’s emergency response. While the road to recovery is long, and challenges like displacement, flooding, and rising malnutrition persist, each day brings small but meaningful signs of progress. With continued support, even in the face of disaster and storm, hope is being rebuilt, one child at a time.

“Kaung Kaung is eating better now and has more energy,” Ma Thet said, with a hopeful smile. “There’s still a long way to go, but seeing him get stronger gives me strength too. I just want my children to grow up healthy and go to school. That’s my only dream — a simple, safe life for them.”

[1] Names in this story have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved. 

*This story was originally published on the UNICEF Myanmar website.