Topic: Crisis Response

Niger is a country of contrasts. Rich in newly found uranium and oil but its people crushingly poor. Villagers wear beautiful, brightly coloured clothing against a desolate desert background, seemingly devoid of life.

Ten leading aid agencies today called for a ‘surge’ in the humanitarian effort to help 10 million people at risk of acute hunger across the Sahel region of West and Central Africa. The centre of the crisis is Niger, where seven million people, almost half the population, have not enough food.

It’s 10 am and a powerful sun is already burning the nature around Sayam "Forage", a village located 50 kms north of the town of Diffa, eastern Niger

The only thing Attahirou Roro can do with his dried-up crops is to use them as material for the walls of his little hut. Too little rain during the last planting season meant diminished crops

Many years ago in a small village an hour outside of the Malawian capital of Lilongwe, a young girl named Giliseliya was forced to leave school after her older sister had a baby. Overnight she became a caregiver instead of a student and lost her hope of finishing school. Today, at 39 years of age, Giliseliya is determined to ensure the same fate doesn’t happen to her own two children, even in the face of a food crisis.

“We are in a situation of famine. No words exist to describe the tragedy happening in the houses you see here,” says 46-year-old dad of eight Alhou Abdou.

“My two small fields produce 80 bales of millet on average each year. This year, I only harvested one bale,” said Aichatou Saidou, seated on a mat, her gaze fixed somewhere in the dusty sky of Mani Ada, a village in the commune of Bagaroua, in the region of Tahoua.

Guilley, a village deep in Niger, reflects the impact of the food crisis that 6,130 villages are living through in Niger. But Guilley also reflects the resilience and the resourcefulness of women in coping through crises in the Sahel.

CARE has launched a US $7-million appeal for the emergency response and longer-term recovery. Working closely with the government, U.N. agencies and aid groups, CARE plans to reach approximately 660,000 people in the particularly hard-hit areas of Diffa, Maradi and Tahoua.