By Tim Costello, Ex chief executive World Vision Australia
Niger is in the grip of a crippling drought, and hunger and loss is everywhere. It is one of the most unlikely places on the planet to find hope.
And yet after spending several days in the country, the epicentre of the West African food crisis, that is exactly what I found.
I headed to Niger to see for myself the impact of massive food shortages across eight countries, coming only two seasons after the last drought left people hungry.
The things I have seen have been a testament to the human spirit and the determination of people to keep their families alive. I have seen men risking their lives to provide for their wives and children by migrating from farms to disused goldmines and then – with nothing but a headtorch, a bit of rope and a bucket – trying to work unstable 100 metre deep mineshafts.
And that is just one example of the lengths people are going to for survival in Niger, the country hardest hit by the region’s food crisis. But in Niger the government acted early and asked for aid in a move widely praised by the international community. Non-government organisations such as World Vision are doing what they can to avert the magnitude of disaster that hit the Horn of Africa last year. This response is in part due to the generosity of Australians who have given to our disaster appeal. The Australian Government has also committed $30m in aid.
To see exactly what is happening in West Africa I left winter here, where, like so many other Australians, I’ve been lucky enough to eat warm meals in my cosy house, and travelled to a no-man’s-land called Mangaize where people from Niger and Mali huddle under tiny humpies trying to shelter from the scorching sun.
Mangaize is a refugee camp barely 50 kilometres from the Mali-Niger border, a dusty sanctuary for the Malians who have fled fighting in their own country. Some 4000 people – and the number is still growing – have already poured into the camp, eager to be with people of the same tribal grouping even if they are in another country. When the village’s hospitality – readily given - was overwhelmed, the camp sprung up.
It’s hot out here, probably in the high 30s or low 40s Celsius, so the bore well sunk by World Vision and its six taps are life-saving for the families here, some with seven or eight children. The water is collected in 25-litre jerry cans and carried away on the heads of slight women in their beautifully coloured robes. To my embarrassment I can barely lift the cans off the ground.
So I do what I can do: hand out soap, treated mosquito nets, and bed mats. Yet the scale of the tragedy in West Africa now is enormous and as each day passes we have to be aware of the bitter reality that we could be doing more to relieve such human suffering.
Niger has opened its border to those fleeing internal fighting in Mali, where there are reports of landmines being used in the country’s west, children being abducted as soldiers and young girls being sexually assaulted.
But despite Niger’s generosity it is suffering massive food shortages of its own, and for Malians making it over the border there is no guarantee of complete safety. Nonetheless, both Nigeriens and Malians carry a sense of hope that the world will help them, that the rains will bring new crops, that they will not suffer the number of deaths seen in East Africa.
The problem is there are more than 18 million people affected by the food crisis across several countries, all of them trying to battle the consequences of unrelenting drought, exacerbated by regional instability and subsequent migration and displacement; long-term underdevelopment; locust attacks; and significant regional mean temperature variations.
World Vision is trying to help 1.1 million of them. We are making inroads.
At a health clinic near Koulikoara trained volunteers go out into the community on bikes so malnourished children can be treated even if their parents can’t get them to doctors. Across 16 villages in a region of 31,000 people only two children have died in the last few months from malnutrition. Instead, countless lives have been saved by determined mothers getting their children weighed and, if necessary, treated with a form of super-nutritious peanut butter called Plumpy’nut.
Long-term development projects established through the child sponsorship program have helped some communities build resilience to disaster and they are in a better position than others, but despite the hope the suffering is acute.
More needs to be done. In Mangaize alone World Vision wants to set up a new water storage tank and mechanise the water system using solar energy. We want to set up child friendly spaces so some 600 children are able to play safely, and we also want to distribute educational materials for the children who will go back to school in October.
The arrival of the rain heralds some hope for future crops, but they are still some time off and little comfort for those facing an immediate need. Meanwhile the fighting continues in Mali, preventing aid efforts from reaching people where they live.
The United Nations says it will cost about $1.6b to deal with the crisis in West Africa, but so far only 49 per cent of that has been raised. World Vision Australia has raised more than $400,000, but so much more is needed. And nothing makes that clearer than being able to see the need for myself.
To donate to the West Africa Food Crisis Appeal call 13 32 40 or go to www.worldvision.com.au