Staff at a clinic in the coastal slum of Kroo Bay, in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, are keeping a diary of their working lives for the BBC News website.
Here, Adama Gondor, who runs the clinic, talks about the challenges of its malnutrition programme and Six-party talks on N.Korea's nuclear programme resume ...
Police arrest scores of anti US beef demonstrators ...
Witness ruling halts murder trial ...
Slum diary ...
Price rises hit Indonesia parents ... renovation works on the clinic building.
" Every Friday we distribute a corn-soya blend with oil and sugar mixed in for making porridge.
Every Wednesday we distribute plumpy nut - a peanut-based paste with all the nutrients a malnourished child needs, which comes from the World Food Programme.
We started more than three months ago and have now started to discharge our first patients.
First we had 60 in the programme, now we have 102. When we discharge we admit new ones.
We're often low on food. I think we didn't expect to find so many malnourished children.
It is because everything is expensive now. People cannot afford to buy food and the nutritional status of people has dropped.
If a mother who is breast-feeding is not eating properly, how can she have a healthy baby?
The plumpy nut is for severely malnourished children and at the moment we have 17 children who fall into that category.
Every day now, food prices is all people talk about.
It is poverty and rising food prices that are making people suffer here in Kroo Bay.
We are seeing many more cases of malnutrition - even though the children we treat are gaining weight from the food we give them.
We only discharge them when they are 85% of their ideal weight for three consecutive weeks.
It is difficult to discharge the children because the parents often get upset, they want the food which is a real supplement to what they can afford, they have come to rely on it.
They beg me not to discharge their children, they need the food for survival.
I try and explain that their children are no longer dangerously malnourished and other children need the food, and they leave sad and sluggishly.
It is so hard to discharge them, children here are vulnerable, they need good food.
Rebuilding
About a month ago, reconstruction work in the clinic started. It is very exciting.
We are really happy knowing that in four or five months we will have a new, extended clinic.
Now we are getting three wards and an under-fives area. In the wards we'll be able to admit patients for up to 72 hours.
The construction workers have just completed the foundations. On top of the new wards they'll put an extra floor which will be my staff quarters, meaning I can always be on call for serious cases.
So far all the work is in the hall and although it is loud and dusty, it is not bothering us because we really want the clinic to change and be clean and hygienic.
The work is being done by Save the Children in collaboration with Concern, and I want to say thank you to all the people who have donated.
We really appreciate them sharing their earnings. We sincerely hope they'll continue helping us - once the clinic is finished we'll need drugs and equipment.
Save the Children is running an interactive website where Kroo Bay residents answer questions about their lives. Visitors will be able to access 360-degree images of the site, and catch up with the latest news from the slum through regular "webisodes".
(BBC)
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