DROUGHT AND FOOD CRISIS IN NIGER
Emergency Alert - Updated - 3/07
You can help
our local partners
provide needed assistance.
|
Background:
In extensive parts of Niger, food crops and grasslands for grazing livestock are subject to recurring droughts, which have resulted in devastating food crises. In 2005, 3.5 million people—including half of the country’s children—suffered from malnutrition due to a famine and locust swarms (ACT, AlertNet).
LWR, with its 30-year history in Niger, responded on behalf of the global aid alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, distributing over 1700 metric tons of food to more than 25,000 households in the emergency period, and working to prevent future crises by building, repairing, and stocking 36 village grain banks, constructing nine village wells and training nearly 300 women in income diversifying projects. From 2005 to 2006, the rate of acute malnutrition dropped from 15.3 percent to 10.3 percent, thanks in part to the work of LWR and other humanitarian organizations.
This year, Niger has emerged from one of its best growing seasons on record. Yet pockets of poverty and malnutrition persist, due in part to low paying jobs and poor access to markets. In some villages, food stocks are predicted to run out before May, according to Niger’s agriculture ministry. In response, LWR is continuing its work with partners in the region to avert immediate crises and make communities less vulnerable in the future.
| LWR AND PARTNERS ARE HELPING |
LWR’s continued work in the region includes:
- Supporting a revolving loan fund enabling 420 rice growers and 520 market women to increase their incomes
- Providing trainings on irrigation, marketing practices and HIV/AIDS prevention
- Restocking sheep in ten pastoralist communities through a locally-based revolving scheme known as habbanayé
- Establishing year-round access to food and feed with feed banks
- Increasing water access by digging four community wells
- Improving collective management of land and natural resources
LWR is accepting donations to help Niger’s most vulnerable people. Your support will help provide immediate relief and prevent future suffering. The best way to assist people caught in an emergency is to give cash so that our partner staff on the ground can be most effective.
Your gift will be used for the “West Africa Drought Response/Food Crisis” until needs there are met. After that, further gifts will be used to help LWR respond where the need is greatest.
You may also call 1-800-LWR-LWR-2, or mail a check or money order to:
Lutheran World Relief -
West Africa Drought Response/Food Crisis
P.O. Box 17061
Baltimore, MD 21298-9832
Please also consider making an unrestricted donation which will enable LWR to respond quickly to the next emergency.
Thank You for your help.
MEDIA CONTACT: Emily Sollie, 410-230-2802, esollie@lwr.org
Lutheran World Relief is a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), individuals and parish groups in international relief, development, advocacy and social responsibility. LWR is a member of Action by Churches Together.
