She is working for the United Nations children's agency, Unicef, in Nyala, southern Darfur and is writing a diary for BBC News Online about her experiences.

Today I visit Kass. This IDP (internally displaced people) camp is about 85km (53 miles) from Nyala and hosts about 40,000 IDPs.

We leave with a small convoy of two vehicles. On this road we have to make sure that we do our regular radio checks because of the prevailing security problems. The area reminds me a bit of the Oshana in Namibia: It is dry and desert-like.

The big difference though is the herds of camels that I see along the road. Although many of the villages are deserted I notice that there are many people ploughing the land.

Some of the people I speak to are from Kailek. When I hear this I get goose bumps. It was only this week that I learnt about Kailek town, located some 64km (40 miles) south-west of Kass - it has a terrible history.

About 23 villages around Kailek were attacked in the first quarter of this year and the people fled to the town where they were under siege for more than two months. About 1,700 IDPs were concentrated within a small area in the centre of town, living under appalling conditions, under the trees or in grass shelters.

Children at risk

Try to imagine how life would be with limited access to food, wood and water. At the time the town was under siege, no health facility was functioning and the only person with any kind of medical background was only trained in first aid and had no access to even basic drugs.

Osman's arm is painfully thin, especially for a 16-year-old

It is estimated there were about 300 children under the age of five and about 80% of them had some type of malnutrition.

During the second month, there were about seven to nine deaths each day. The main causes of death were complications arising from malnutrition, dehydration, malaria and acute respiratory infections.

One of the first women I talk to in Kass IDP camp is Asha. She clearly has goitre as she looks like she swallowed a rugby ball that got stuck in her throat. I know that this is a very common problem when the diet lacks iodine, but I feel ashamed to take a photo of her. I was happy that she and two of her friends actually asked me to take a picture of them.

Later on I find out she comes from Kailek and she has a 16-year-old son, Osman, who is in really bad condition. Andi, the Unicef nutritionist measures the child's arm. This is serious. The boy's arm circumference is 13.4cm - a child aged one to five is considered nutritionally at risk with this measurement, let alone an adolescent of 16 years.

Osman probably wonders why this strange "white women" is wrapping a piece of colourful plastic around his skinny arm. We advise the mother to send Osman to the clinic, which is not even 20m away from here.

Mothers still need to learn when they should take their children to the clinic... Tomorrow could be too late

Even though Osman is not in the "normal" age group of children to receive therapeutic or supplementary feeding, this boy needs assistance and as soon as possible. It is likely that he has TB and, in combination with his severe under-nourished situation, it will take a long time for him to recover.

The clinic is provided with drugs from Unicef. At least there they will be able to give him the drugs he needs.

Because he has not been treated for his illness sooner, Osman now also needs to go to the therapeutic feeding centre. I ask the mother why she never bothered to bring her son to the clinic. She cannot answer this.

It makes me sad. In this case it would have been so easy to prevent this young boy becoming so ill. At his age he should be playing with his friends and chasing after his first girlfriend, not sitting quietly in front of their newly-constructed shelter.

I hope Asha will take him to the clinic. Unicef provides drugs, infrastructure, training and technical advice to the ministry of health in many clinics in Darfur.

But it seems that this is only the tip of the iceberg - mothers still need to learn when they should take their children to the clinic. Tomorrow could be too late.