Presbyterians are helping raise money for starving families in Niger, where drought and a locust plague have left the West African country in a severe state of famine. Presbyterian World Service & Development is supporting a major relief effort through Action by Churches Together. ACT members Swiss Interchurch Aid (HEKS) and Lutheran World Relief have already distributed more than 1,000 tonnes of food to about 60,000 people.
LWR will also include longer-term efforts in its Niger response, where 64 per cent of inhabitants survive on less than a dollar a day. These plans include the distribution of 10 tonnes of seed stock for future plantings, and the repair and construction of grain banks, which store seeds between harvests.
Although donations from the public are now coming in, thanks in part to a flood of recent media stories chronicling the horrors of the famine, critics say it has been too long in coming. While ACT and HEKS have been helping since April — some of the first aid agencies to do so — the international community has been otherwise slow to respond. "It's very regrettable that it takes the media to bring attention to a problem before aid starts moving," said Rev. Rick Fee, director of PWS&D.
Dubbed a "silent famine" by the United Nations, potential need was broadcast in 1997 through the famine early warning system. This system tracks climate, crop production and human influence and looks to the future to hypothesize where hunger may arise. More recently, the World Food Program predicted a food shortage in October, and issued a $3.5-million appeal in February to help curb the disaster. Another appeal for $19 million in March netted about $4.6 million. "Nothing was done. No one responded," said Fee. "People coped for the first few years and have increasingly lost what they had in reserve, in every way possible. Now they're at the bottom."
It is estimated that locusts destroyed about 15 per cent of last year's cereal crops and almost 40 per cent of grasslands for cattle. Many people are living on what grows wild and haven't had a proper meal for more than three months. In total, the government estimates a national crop deficit of 224,000 tonnes, putting nearly 25 per cent of Niger's 12 million people at risk.
Children have been greatly affected. The U.N. estimates about 800,000 children under five are suffering from hunger, including 150,000 faced with severe malnutrition. Medecins Sans Frontier has been admitting about 1,000 children a week at each of its five emergency feeding centres since June. The land-locked country already has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world: 121 of every 1,000 infants dies before its first birthday.
As one of the hottest countries on the map (four-fifths of Niger is desert), food shortages are common. Bashir Barké Doka, Niger's HEKS/ACT coordinator, said they have 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," he said.
LWR, with a 30-year history in Niger, has been purchasing food from local markets in Niger and neighbouring markets in Nigeria, and distributing it to approximately 93,000 people. These food rations will meet immediate needs and bridge the gap until the World Food Program food distribution pipelines reach these communities.
PWS&D is currently accepting donations to help with this crisis. – AM with files from PWS&D and ACT.
