Niger food crisis

CARE fed more than one million people, provided emergency food supplies to four hundred villages, and opened treatment centres for thousands of malnourished children. Our knowledge, built from working in Niger for over 30 years, also meant we were best placed to deliver 44 per cent of all food supplied by the World Food Programme.

CARE fed more than one million people, provided emergency food supplies to four hundred villages, and opened treatment centres for thousands of malnourished children. Our knowledge, built from working in Niger for over 30 years, also meant we were best placed to deliver 44 per cent of all food supplied by the World Food Programme.

But our work does not stop at emergency relief, we stay long after the cameras have left. In Niger we are continuing to help people rebuild their lives and protect themselves against future disasters.

Niger one of the world’s the poorest country in the world. In a normal year, food is scarce, but in 2004, rain did not fall in the height of the rainy season, leaving millions of people facing severe food shortages.

But it was not just a natural disaster.

 Made vulnerable to drought by a vicious cycle of extreme poverty, malnutrition, diseases like HIV and AIDS, and a lack of opportunities to earn a decent living meant people were unable to protect themselves or their families.

Farmers were forced to eat the seeds they were saving to plant for the next harvest, and cattle herders were forced to sell off their animals at a fraction of their real value, or watched as they starved to death or. Many families had to sell all of their household assets so they could buy food.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE, CARE GOES FURTHER

Slow on-set disasters like this can be avoided. Long-term development projects will not only save lives and money, as well as preserve dignity, it gives people a safety net next time disaster strikes.

In Niger, we are working to address the underlying causes of poverty, giving people opportunities to earn an income, raising awareness about HIV and AIDS and improving children’s access to education, especially among girls.

We help communities improve their long-term food supplies, replenish their crops and livestock, and work with farmers to improve farming techniques and better manage scarce natural resources.

By helping women establish credit and savings groups, which work like community-run banks where members can store their savings and take out small loans, we are giving them a chance to change their lives.In villages where CARE set up credit and savings groups before the food crisis, people were much better off than in other villages; there was less hunger, less malnutrition, and more livestock survived the famine.

CARE received £2,022,698 through the generosity of private and corporate donations, trusts, and the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).

This generosity, two years on, is continuing to help people in Niger build a better future. To help, donate now.