World Vision Prepares for Food Distribution

Mississauga, ON—The Government of Niger appealed for food aid this weekend to help feed 3.6 million Nigeriens who are in critical need, including 800,000 children under five. This declaration comes on the heels of a United Nations report stating that more than $16 million is needed in emergency aid between now and the end of September to stop a major famine affecting almost a third of the country’s population.

“Children here are already suffering and they are becoming weaker by the day,” says Karen Homer, a Canadian working with World Vision in Niger. “We have distributed food to communities where we are working, but so much more is needed. In some villages, there’s nothing in the market to buy even if people had the means.”

Recent nutrition surveys conducted in two districts by a Canadian World Vision nutritionist and members of other agencies show that 13.4 per cent of children in Niger are acutely malnourished and 2.5 per cent severely malnourished—rates normally associated with war-torn countries. An estimated 223,487 metric tons of food are needed in Niger after drought and locust swarms destroyed most of last year’s harvest and almost 40 per cent of livestock fodder.

Last week, World Vision signed a contract with the World Food Programme for food that will be used to treat malnourished children as well as food-for-work agriculture programs. World Vision works in the country’s southern area.

“Unlike Asia’s tsunami disaster, Canadians haven’t heard much about Niger. But we’re hoping they’ll respond with characteristic compassion to help Nigerien children—the main victims of this quiet catastrophe,” says Dave Toycen, president of World Vision Canada.

In Niger most families depend on subsistence farming and earn less than a dollar day. The current food crisis is forcing them even further into poverty. People are abandoning their villages as their crops and pastures wither and their animals die.

World Vision is an international Christian humanitarian relief and development organization, working in more than 90 countries helping approximately 85 million people each year.