Agencies’ emergency assistance to victims in
Niger (Pix: Oxfam)
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Imagine you having nothing else to eat
except dried leaves, so dry you have to boil them nine times before they become
“edible”. How about having no choice but to feed your small children with those
leaves?
In Niger, this is just what mothers have to do as drought and high food prices in the Sahel region of West Africa are pushing more than 9 million people closer and closer to the edge of survival.
A coalition of aid agencies (Action Against
Hunger, Oxfam, Save the Children and World Vision) who are aiming to provide
emergency assistance to nearly six million people across the region, last month
warned that millions of people across the Sahel will be left hungry in the
coming months unless multi-million dollar funding shortage for crisis response
is addressed.
UN agency, the World Food Programme is one
of many agencies working to address the hunger crisis, which has also been
blamed on poor farm yields during a 2010/2011 rain-starved season.
The WFP, which is working with the UN High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and other agencies, said it plan to reach
nearly four million people with food, including refugees fleeing the conflict
in Mali. Its efforts are focused on the most vulnerable to hunger.
The agency believes: “Together, we can build resilience within communities across the Sahel. We can give nursing mothers our powerful “Super Cereal”, providing them with the right nutrition to help their babies grow strong. We can give men and women food for their families in exchange for work building dams and planting seeds, in anticipation for when the rains finally do come.”
“At one project I visited, I was struck by the dignity that I saw in women’s eyes. These women are working to take back control of their lives and provide food for their families. Here, despite incredible hardship, there is hope,” says WFP Executive Director, Ertharin Cousin.
This is a complex crisis that stretches across Niger, Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Gambia.
The agency believes: “Together, we can build resilience within communities across the Sahel. We can give nursing mothers our powerful “Super Cereal”, providing them with the right nutrition to help their babies grow strong. We can give men and women food for their families in exchange for work building dams and planting seeds, in anticipation for when the rains finally do come.”
“At one project I visited, I was struck by the dignity that I saw in women’s eyes. These women are working to take back control of their lives and provide food for their families. Here, despite incredible hardship, there is hope,” says WFP Executive Director, Ertharin Cousin.
This is a complex crisis that stretches across Niger, Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Gambia.
WFP,
which has a long history of working with
communities in the region, says it is “doing everything we can now to help
people prepare for the lean season over the coming months.”
But said support is needed at this critical
time. Like other agencies, the WFP is not immune to the funding gap. As of
April 23, 2012, its parent body, the United Nations (UN), only managed to raise
less than half of the projected $724 million required to tackle the crisis.
Action Against Hunger, Oxfam, Save the
Children and World Vision have already projected that the funding gap is likely
to grow further as the situation deteriorates and more money is required.
Overall, drought and food shortages in the
Sahel are threatening lives, with over 20 million people affected, most of whom
farmers who found themselves in a catch-22 situation.
In February 2012, the UN and international
aid agencies warn of a humanitarian catastrophe at a time when “international
donors are starving Africa’s Sahel region of money” needed to avert a disaster.
Written by Modou
S. Joof
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