Dateline ACT

Niger 0105

ACT emergency assistance reaches over 60,000 people in need

By André Ruch, HEKS/ACT International

Tahoua, Niger, August 15, 2005—Rain has arrived in Niger. But, although the trees are green and grass now sprout in the desert soil, people continue to suffer the consequences of a devastating locust invasion of a year ago and a lingering drought.

Crops are growing, yet, there will not be any harvest until at least the end of August. Any food storage was depleted months ago and people have sold their last belongings—furniture, jewellery and livestock—to buy food. Now, they live on what grows wild.

"We are eating the same our cows are eating", says Fatima Sala, a 50-year-old mother of five from the village of Tassak in the province Tahoua, explaining that people are collecting leaves and stewing them into frugal meals. "Without the pools of water the rain has left, we would not be able to survive."

This meagre diet causes weakness and disease. Mothers do not have milk for their babies. People are struck down with diarrhoea. "No one in this valley has eaten properly for three months," Fatima Sala said. The numbers of people who have died as a result of the famine can only be estimated, but reports from the villagers give a sense that many people, and especially children, have succumbed to the diseases brought on by malnutrition, especially children.

Help is not enough

For much of the last year, the international community neglected the crisis in Niger. The last month however, has seen aid arrive.

As we drove into the small village of Akoradji, more than a thousand people had assembled between in the village square. They had come from villages 15 kilometres away, having heard that there would be free food. Some people had arrived the morning before.

"Up to now we have given out food to over 600 people [for today]", said Aikassoum Bayara, president of the local aid network AFAAC who leads operations in Akoradji. Seven tons of millet had been sent by Swiss Interchurch Aid (HEKS), a member of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, and one of the two ACT members who will be implementing a revised appeal in the country. The other ACT member is Lutheran World Relief (LWR).

And although this assistance will help many people for a few days, it is not enough by far. "Unfortunately over half of the people here will have to go home empty-handed today," said Aikassoum Bayara with regret.

Fatima Sala was amongst the unfortunate ones: "I don’t want to go home without any food," she said. "There is nothing back there." She would have to wait for the next day, when Aikassoum Bayara would mobilise another three tons of millet for those who had not received anything yet.

ACT reaches over 60,000 people

The valley of Akoradji was fortunate to receive at least some assistance. Of the 10,000 villages in Niger an estimated 3,800 have been effected by famine--hundreds of them are too far away to be reached by emergency assistance; they will only hear about the international relief efforts by radio.

But, in the villages, which were receiving assistance, people were grateful. "We are happy because tonight everyone will eat well," said one villager during a distribution by HEKS/ACT, one of the first agencies to respond to the crisis months ago. Together with its four local partners (AFAAC, ADN, TANAKRA and AREN) HEKS/ACT has been providing emergency assistance since April. By serving over 80 villages, the goal of helping 50,000 people, or ten percent of the 820 villages threatened by hunger in the province of Tahoua, the total has been surpassed. "We have reached more than 60,000 by now," local HEKS/ACT-coordinator Bachir Barké Doka said. Six hundred tons of millet, five tons of powdered milk, 475 tons of animal fodder and 4,250 salt stones have been distributed so far.

Long-term improvements needed

Along with the emergency assistance it is equally important to care for next year explained Barké Doka. "It is more than obvious that this year’s harvest will be very poor again." Since people were forced to eat the seeds designated for sowing, many could not plant in time, he said, adding "there was no food since last autumn, so most men have left the villages to find work in the towns and abroad." The women left behind were too few and too weak to work the fields. This predicament could prolong the food crisis for another year. "We put a lot of effort into our long-term projects now," said Bachir Barké Doka. HEKS/ACT has been running agricultural development projects in 30 villages for more than five years. Together with their local partners they engage in irrigation, fertilising soils and cultivating vegetable gardens. "Our goal is to get people to produce more and have more money to survive years of bad harvests."

People in Niger's famine stricken region now hope that the rains will continue and that the locusts will not return, so that they can at least harvest the little they have planted. "At the moment people live on hope only," said Bachir Barké Doka.

It is with the future in mind that ACT member LWR, with a 30-year history in Niger too has scaled up its response to the food crisis.

"By working on behalf of our partners in ACT, we will be able to nearly double the reach that we would have on our own," said LWR president Kathryn Wolford. LWR will expand its existing programs in Maradi, Tillaberi and Tahoua, which are among the areas worst affected by the food crisis, providing supplemental food rations, purchased from local markets in Niger and neighboring markets in Nigeria, to approximately 93,000 people. These food rations will meet the immediate needs and bridge the gap until the World Food Program food distribution pipelines reach these communities.

With an agency-wide commitment to addressing the root causes of poverty, not just the symptoms, LWR will also include longer-term efforts in its Niger response. These plans include the distribution of 10 tons of seed stock for future plantings, repair of five existing grain banks, and construction of 30 new ones. Grain banks will be used to store seeds between harvests, and after the harvest, each household that received seeds will repay 1/3 of the amount received, provided the harvest is sufficient.

(Additional information on LWR's response adapted from LWR news release )