Niger: Taking technology to the last mile to feed those in need
By Lauren Fisher, World Vision US
The location is dusty and the sun is high. We’ve driven for miles on a bumpy dirt road just to get here. In this village outside of Maradi in Niger, simple mud houses spill over with large families and herds of goats and chickens.
When we arrive we see long lines of women, their brightly coloured scarves and skirts catching the morning sun, and men, their hands dusty from an early morning working in the field. They’re all waiting, bellies empty, hoping for help to feed their families after their crops have failed.
A cash for work distribution in Maradi, Niger, where recipients are using World Vision's Last Mile Mobile Solutions (LMMS) technology.
Photo by Lauren Fisher
©2012 World Vision International We’ve reached what we call the last mile: the frontlines in a growing food crisis affecting millions in West Africa.
It’s about as far away from home as most of us could imagine, but there is one familiar sound: a beep. The same beep you’d hear in a grocery store or when getting your ticket scanned at the airport. A mobile, high-tech solution to feeding people in need. And it’s helping women like Zeinabou Salifou.
“Nagode” is the word in Maradi’s local language of Hausa for ‘thank you’ or literally ‘I’m grateful.’
As 40-year-old Zeinabou Salifou speaks with us she repeats that word at least 20 times. Hearing the beginning of her story it’s hard to imagine how she can feel thankful at all.
Zeinabou is a widow. With no husband, and no family to help, each day is a series of back-breaking and exhausting tasks: coaxing something out the hard, cracked soil, collecting firewood, caring for her six children. An impossible situation under normal circumstances, but last planting season even the rain failed her.
“The harvest was really bad. Crops were very low when the rain stopped,” she said.
And so she was left empty-handed with no way to feed her family. We saw so many others like her in her village. On this day more than 200 people will receive cash to feed their families in exchange for working 12 days digging shallow pits to help catch water and regenerate the soil. And it’s all through that ‘beep’ that it comes together.
World Vision’s Last Mile Mobile Solutions (LMMS) program was first field tested in Kenya and Lesotho. Here recipients receive a special card with a barcode and their picture. The World Vision staff scans the card, and it registers that the villagers have received their cash. The process saves people from having to carry around papers, ensures that the cash goes to the correct people, and sends a report back to World Vision main offices within minutes.
But perhaps best of all is women like Zeinabou don’t have to wait for hours in the hot sun for money to feed their children. More than 200 people receive the cash in less than 90 minutes.
“It’s very easy and I do not have to wait a long time before I get my cash,” Zeinabou said.
Clutching the crumpled bills with a smile on her face, Zeinabou tells us she’s heading to the market to buy sorghum. She’ll be able to buy enough to feed her family three meals a day for more than a week. This was her ninth time working for cash and she says each time it is a blessing.
“If not for this work it would be difficult for me to get food for my family. I would be going to the bush just to gather leaves and things to eat. Thank you.”
The location is dusty and the sun is high. We’ve driven for miles on a bumpy dirt road just to get here. In this village outside of Maradi in Niger, simple mud houses spill over with large families and herds of goats and chickens.
When we arrive we see long lines of women, their brightly coloured scarves and skirts catching the morning sun, and men, their hands dusty from an early morning working in the field. They’re all waiting, bellies empty, hoping for help to feed their families after their crops have failed.
Photo by Lauren Fisher
©2012 World Vision International We’ve reached what we call the last mile: the frontlines in a growing food crisis affecting millions in West Africa.
It’s about as far away from home as most of us could imagine, but there is one familiar sound: a beep. The same beep you’d hear in a grocery store or when getting your ticket scanned at the airport. A mobile, high-tech solution to feeding people in need. And it’s helping women like Zeinabou Salifou.
“Nagode” is the word in Maradi’s local language of Hausa for ‘thank you’ or literally ‘I’m grateful.’
As 40-year-old Zeinabou Salifou speaks with us she repeats that word at least 20 times. Hearing the beginning of her story it’s hard to imagine how she can feel thankful at all.
Zeinabou is a widow. With no husband, and no family to help, each day is a series of back-breaking and exhausting tasks: coaxing something out the hard, cracked soil, collecting firewood, caring for her six children. An impossible situation under normal circumstances, but last planting season even the rain failed her.
“The harvest was really bad. Crops were very low when the rain stopped,” she said.
And so she was left empty-handed with no way to feed her family. We saw so many others like her in her village. On this day more than 200 people will receive cash to feed their families in exchange for working 12 days digging shallow pits to help catch water and regenerate the soil. And it’s all through that ‘beep’ that it comes together.
World Vision’s Last Mile Mobile Solutions (LMMS) program was first field tested in Kenya and Lesotho. Here recipients receive a special card with a barcode and their picture. The World Vision staff scans the card, and it registers that the villagers have received their cash. The process saves people from having to carry around papers, ensures that the cash goes to the correct people, and sends a report back to World Vision main offices within minutes.
But perhaps best of all is women like Zeinabou don’t have to wait for hours in the hot sun for money to feed their children. More than 200 people receive the cash in less than 90 minutes.
“It’s very easy and I do not have to wait a long time before I get my cash,” Zeinabou said.
Clutching the crumpled bills with a smile on her face, Zeinabou tells us she’s heading to the market to buy sorghum. She’ll be able to buy enough to feed her family three meals a day for more than a week. This was her ninth time working for cash and she says each time it is a blessing.
“If not for this work it would be difficult for me to get food for my family. I would be going to the bush just to gather leaves and things to eat. Thank you.”
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