Resilience and determination to survive

Monday, January 23, 2012

World Vision UK’s Chief Executive continues to blog from Niger in West Africa, where a food crisis threatens to affect millions.

Day Two, Niamey

My first taste of the reality of life for many in Niger today as we travelled out to Isame – which literally means ‘riverside’ along the banks of the Niger river, a rare place of fertility amidst the harsh arid environment here.  Everywhere we went we heard signs of the growing food crisis.

The majestically turbaned and bou-bou clad village leaders told us “even the old people say they have never seen it like this”.  Another said “people planted their grain in the soil but nothing happened”.

Just three months after this failed harvest it’s too early to know how bad this will get in 2012, and we saw clear signs today of people’s resilience and determination to survive;  from vegetable gardens along the river, to catching migrating locusts, to eating wild leaves from trees and bushes.

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Fears for children

Most men have left to try and find work in other West African countries.  Halimatou, a very forthright mother of eight children said “there’ll be no more babies here this year” with a mixture of sadness and relief.  Halimatou fears for her nine-month-old son Anas wrapped on her back in the colourful local cloth – “how will he grow up healthy if I can’t feed him”.

While malnutrition hasn’t reached crisis point yet, the nurse at the local health centre said it was increasing and she expected 2012 to bring many more than the 438 malnourished children she’d seen in 2011.  Only four of those had died and we heard too, from local midwife Maka Moussa, how the World Vision supported training of health volunteers in each village had saved many lives.

She said: “Now, whenever there’s a malnourished or sick child or a pregnant woman, they come to the health centre for help”.   A third of women now come to the health centre to give birth, it was one in ten just a couple of years ago.

Guinea worm, a horrific disease common here in the past also hasn’t been seen in two years.  I pondered where many of the 366 sponsored children in this village alone would be without such committed local women and the support of World Vision and our many friends back home in the UK who make this possible by sponsoring a child.

ImageCrop lifeline

In the next village we met Kadi and Zalika, two of the 60 women who have set up vegetable gardens along the river bank and are producing cabbages, lettuce, peppers, aubergine, potato and sweet potato.  In the past these have brought added income and a healthier diet for their children but with this year’s cereal crop failure they told us is literally a lifeline.

The difference a little water can make is so manifestly clear here. Excellent news today from Esperance, our Niger Director, that World Vision is helping establish 1,000 water points across the country – a major contribution to the 15,000 that the government is planning.  As we wandered amidst the green with children helping their mum’s with the watering cans a cloud of locusts fluttered out of the trees and over our heads.   Having seen the damage these can do twenty years ago in nearby Mauritania I asked if they feared for their cabbages. “No, they are just passing through – in fact we will eat some of them tonight!”, was the reply.  Of more concern are the 30 hippopotamuses in this stretch of one of Africa’s longest rivers which can cause havoc to their crops when they come wandering at night!

Getting back to Niamey it was fantastic to share photos and interact with supporters, colleagues, friends and family on Facebook and Twitter – I do hope that this blog goes some way to answering your questions and bringing Niger a little closer to home.  As I go to bed, Halimatou’s voice remains in my mind: “It feels like a heavy weight has fallen down on us … it takes all our energy to find enough to eat each day. We can’t take care of our children”.

Tomorrow in Tera we’ll be meeting many more children and hearing their own experiences of life and childhood here.