ACT News Update

Niger 03/05

Even though the crisis has faded from the headlines, there is much work to do

Geneva, September 30, 2005--The president of U.S.-based Lutheran World Relief (LWR), Kathryn Wolford, returned recently from a trip to Niger, where she saw first-hand the effects of the food crisis and visited the communities where LWR is distributing food aid. She was monitoring an LWR program that is supported by Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, a global alliance of churches and related agencies.

LWR, along with HEKS, Swiss Interchurch Aid, are two ACT members that are carrying out a response to the crisis. Wolford also recently ended her term as moderator of ACT’s executive committee.

"I am pleased to report that due to our incredible partners, our staff and our supporters, LWR was among the first aid agencies to get food distributed to severely affected communities in Niger," she commented. Wolford offered an overview of the trip. "We saw and learned a number of things on this visit, but, I'd like to focus on three things this trip confirmed:

“First, even though the food crisis has faded from the headlines, it still continues and needs our constant attention.

“Second, the people who live in villages where LWR partners have been doing long-term development work fared better than others--the children were healthier and their parents were strong enough to continue working in their fields. Where we had not done work, we witnessed visibly malnourished children, heard of people who abandoned their fields, or even their villages and had nothing to fall back on.

“Third, it's clear that we need to focus a great deal of energy and effort to address the natural and manmade forces that, left alone, will only continue the cycle of poverty and the possibility for starvation.”

Wolford, along with other LWR staff and local partner organizations, visited a number of villages and communities across Niger. In many places, they saw people suffering the beginning stages of malnutrition, while in places like Dakoro, they met mothers and babies who were clearly suffering from more severe, or third-degree, malnutrition. “It is heart-wrenching to talk to mothers who are themselves suffering from malnutrition--holding six-month-old babies who are so affected by the food crisis that they look like one-month-olds,” Wolford commented. She added, "Even as we answer today's urgent need for food distribution, we are working with the partners and communities on ways to rebuild their assets and ability to withstand future droughts and fluctuations in market prices, and the resulting hunger these generate."

‘The goats ate the literacy center’

“The goats ate the literacy center.” I have heard some strange tales on my travels for Lutheran World Relief (LWR), but this was a new one.

Indeed, after four years of failed crops in Niger, both people and animals were eating whatever they could find. In several hard-hit areas, people spoke of boiling roots and eating wild fruits to ease the hunger pangs.

In the village of Korahane, the goats had eaten the thatched walls and roof of the community literacy center.

Even that setback had not destroyed the enthusiasm of the villagers as they talked about what they had already achieved through programs supported by LWR as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

LWR helped the community construct two wells that provide water for the community and for their animals. Then the women asked for heifers to provide milk for their families and to sell for income. Mariana, the president of the women's group said, "Before I could never afford a cow; now our children have milk, and we make cheese to sell. With the profits, I pay for food, clothing and school supplies."

The women care for the cows as if they were their children, and it shows. As soon as one member of the group entered the fenced area where they tend the herd, her heifer and its calf hurried over to her.

And, yes, the literacy center has been rebuilt of “goat-resistant” mud walls. In this village where only three women of 102 were functionally literate at the start of the project, there is a hunger for learning - one that is stronger than even the hunger of goats!

- Kathryn Wolford, president of Lutheran World Relief

Wolford talked about the resiliency and pride of the people of Niger when she said, "I was particularly struck by the members of one community that had been incredibly hard hit by the current food crisis. Even though the people had virtually no food left in their homes, they told us that they would die before they would steal from one another."

In one village, Sabarou, community members spoke of the impact of four years of failed harvests and the drain on their meager assets. They told the visitors that the food they received would give them strength to work in the upcoming harvest and help to restore their sense of community. The village chief asked Wolford to share the village's deep gratitude with all who had donated money to help them in this time of crisis.

For some, the aid was still too little and too late, showing at a very human and personal scale the reality of the slow national and international response to the food crisis. Several women held small children whose appearance indicated severe malnutrition and their need for therapeutic feeding. A therapeutic feeding center in Dakoro currently serves 2,700 babies and their mothers, and sadly, the numbers being admitted are still climbing.

It was photos and stories of children like these in the international media that finally galvanized international aid, months after aid agencies and the UN sounded the first alarm bells.

In describing the food distributions she witnessed, Wolford commented, "I was incredibly impressed with our partners' ability to distribute food in ways that respected the dignity of the people." She continued, "To keep the process transparent and to make sure the distributions are fair, those distributing the food explained the measures they were using and then counted those measures out loud as they filled each family's ration."

She continued, "While it is clear that the first food distributions have helped many people avoid starvation, there is still much to do. While the October harvest should be good, farmers had to borrow money to grow their current crops. They've essentially already ‘sold’ their October crops on a futures market, and not at good prices, just to be able to buy enough food to feed their families."

LWR, building on a 30-year history in Niger, has provided supplemental food rations and will continue to address the immediate needs of the people of Niger, while also working with partners to develop and implement innovative development strategies that can stave off future food crises.

The situation in Niger is still alarming. Farming families – 82 percent of the population - are facing difficulty in sowing crops for next year. Many lack seeds, but those who have received recent food distributions have once again had enough strength to return to tending their fields. The outlook for the October harvest has improved, thanks to recent rains, but, since most people had to take seed from their cereal banks to feed their families, there is great danger of the food crisis cycle repeating itself.

Farmers had to engage in what many know as a futures market - borrowing money against their future harvest to buy the seed to plant their current crop of millet. So, the crop they harvest this October has already been sold for low prices just so farmers could have enough money to buy food for their families. By March and April of next year, the meager food supplies set aside to feed their families will be gone, and they will once again be forced to buy millet at a price higher than what they sold their harvest for, pushing them back into a cycle of poverty and possible starvation.

"Most people wouldn't think of LWR as a player in market forces, but, in situations like these, we work with our partners to control prices by infusing the market with cash - buying commodities at a higher price to replace the cereal stock and lower prices," Wolford stated.

In the part of the response being implemented by HEKS, elderly people and widows especially are being cared for. In 20 villages, a food-for-work program is planned and should reach at least 50,000 people. It comprises the construction of wells and more grain banks and emphasizes the long-term protection of resources - in order to collect the rain water, trees are planted in the region and hillsides terraced. During the dry season, starting in November, vegetable gardens are laid out.

The ACT-LWR-HEKS response in Niger is taking place under ACT appeal AFNG51 (Revision 2) - Food Assistance Following Drought and Locusts.

Information from news releases and staff from Lutheran World Relief and HEKS contributed to this update.

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