REUTERS VIDEO REPORT.
Recent media reports from Niger indicate a severe drought caused food crisis is looming. When we were in Niger last August they seemed to be having a good rainy season. Millet fields were green and abundant like Mary and I had never seen before. Niger is a country where they are always one rainless rainy season away form famine. In the 10 months since our last trip the rains have been much less than normal and livestock are starting to die due to lack of water and food.
The following is from the INDEPENDENT.IE, WORLD NEWS
PRESS ASSOCIATION, Friday July 02 2010
A United Nations food agency has declared its work in Niger an “emergency operation” after a survey found a sharp rise in malnutrition rates among young children.
World Food Programme (WFP) spokeswoman Emilia Casella said 16.7% of children under five years old suffer from acute malnutrition in the African country, and that children under three are particularly affected.
She said the country’s malnutrition rate in 2009 was 12.3%. The UN’s threshold for declaring an emergency is 15%.
Ms Casella told reporters in Geneva on Friday that the WFP plans to boost its child feeding program from 500,000 to 640,000.
It also intends to double food aid in Niger to reach 4.7 million people this year.
Food shortages in the country have been exacerbated by bad harvests during the past 12 months.
allAfrica.com has a similar report.
When Mary and I, along with our friends and partners in the Niger Water project, Wilber, Kate and Howard, first met while immunizing children against Polio in Niger in 2005 the country had just started to come out of a major drought caused food crisis.
The children were so thin and many had bloated stomachs typical to those suffering from prolonged starvation. Many young children work from sun up to sum down just to find water.
I am investigating opportunities to assist with these problems in a small way. If anyone is interested in making a donation Mary and I will make sure the money reaches the needy when the water well team arrives in August.
[…] CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ON THE FOOD CRISIS IN NIGER. […]