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Church World Service, Lutheran World Relief Scale up Assistance in Niger
A coalition food distribution in the village of Akoradji. Working in partnership, CWS is assisting with food security, health and nutrition, and livestock maintenance with some of the hardest hit families.
Photo: Daniel Auf Der Mauer/ACT-HEKS
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by André Ruch, HEKS/ACT International
Tahoua, Niger -- Rain has arrived in Niger. But, though the trees are green and grass now sprouts in the desert soil, people continue to suffer the consequences of a devastating locust invasion of a year ago and a lingering drought.
Though crops are growing, there will not be a harvest until at least the end of August. Any food storage was depleted months ago and people have sold their last belongings--furniture, jewelry 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 Tahoua province, 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 meager diet causes weakness and disease. Mothers do not have milk for their babies. People are struck down with diarrhea. "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.
The international community, including Action by Churches Together (ACT) and its member partners Church World Service (CWS), Lutheran World Relief (LWR), and Swiss Interchurch Aid (HEKS), has begun to see that aid arrives.
In the small village of Akoradji, more than a thousand people assembled in the village square. They had come from villages 15 kilometers 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 and the leader of operations in Akoradji, refering to a multi-day distribution in which seven tons of millet had been distributed by the coalition.
And although this assistance will help many people, 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, since on hand supplies had been depleted.
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 be able to mobilize another three tons of millet for those who had not received anything yet.
Coalition effort reaches more than 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 affected 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 receiving assistance, people were grateful. "We are happy because tonight everyone will eat well," said one villager during a distribution. Six hundred tons of millet, five tons of powdered milk, 475 tons of animal fodder and 4,250 salt stones have been distributed in the coalition effort since April.
Along with the emergency assistance, equally important is planning 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. The coalition has been running agricultural development projects in 30 villages for more than five years. Together with their local partners they engage in irrigation, fertilizing soils, and cultivating vegetable gardens. "Our goal is to get people to produce more and have more money to survive years of bad harvests."
It is with the future in mind that CWS partner LWR, with a 30-year history in Niger, has scaled up its response to the food crisis.
"By working on behalf of CWS and other 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 a commitment to addressing the root causes of poverty, not just the symptoms, CWS, LWR, and HEKS will also include longer-term efforts in their 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 one-third of the amount received, provided the harvest is sufficient.
Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;
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