Category Archives: #ShareNiger

I’ve written and re-written this blog post a number of times. I have about half an hour of power left on my laptop battery so I don’t have much time.

I want to tell you the stories of the two strong women we met yesterday. But I’m finding it very difficult.

I’ve travelled the world, from Pakistan to the West Bank, and met countless strong, dignified people who are suffering at the hand of injustice.

But what do you say to somebody who looks you in the eye and tells you that they think they might die? And when you see what little they’re existing on you know it is no exaggeration.

This is a food crisis. The humanitarian community call it slow-onset. That means it creeps along, slowly but surely getting worse until it is declared a famine.

Roukayatou Seyadou and her daughter Fatima Amadou. Picture Mike Goldwater

Roukayatou, 36, and her family are profoundly affected by the food crisis. Her husband Hama Amadou has left the village to work in the gold mines as their crop failed last year and they have no food reserves at all.

Every year he goes to work in the mine during the dry season but this year he left early as the crop failed early and he knew they would have no food.

This year not only has she not heard from him for six months he hasn’t sent back any money. She has heard he may have gone to Cote D’Ivoire to find work.

Roukayatou and her five children are currently living on four tiny bags of World Food Programme baby cereal.

That’s just four 1.5kg bags for one month for five people.

She says: ‘I have been part of the women’s gardening group here in the village for seven years and usually the vegetables provide an income and food to feed us.

‘But this year I had an accident – I fell off a donkey and cart. This meant that I could not get to my garden to water the vegetables and my Moringa trees. They all died leaving us with no food.’

A combination of circumstance and the hand of fate have left her and her family with nothing. The balance of life is so delicate here. The accident became Roukayatou’s tipping point.

Ramata Hama who, thanks to her garden, has food to see her through the crisis

On the other side of the village lives a lady called Ramata Hama and her story couldn’t be more different.

Ramata is part of a 52 strong women’s gardening club that was started by her mother, Zeinaba Abdouramane, 76, in 2005.

She has a sizable area of land on which she grows cabbages, aubergines and rice. Each member has their own plot that they tend each day watering and weeding.

The garden provides both food and income for the families allowing them to send their children to school, buy animals, and most importantly eat throughout the food crisis.

Ramata never went to school. She says: ‘I don’t understand what happens at school and I cannot read or write.

‘The garden has made a huge difference to my life. I now have food to eat and an income. I don’t have to wait for my husband to give me money, I can buy clothes when I need them, school supplies for my children and food.

World Vision built a well in the garden and provides training on growing techniques. Next month they are installing a new watering system to increase productivity.

Ramata says: ‘My mother noticed that the harvests were getting worse so she called together the women and suggested starting a gardening group. We all went to the local mayor, Amadou Kadri, and asked for some land, he agreed and we formalised the group with a certificate.

‘People were suffering because of lack of food. Some of the women were being forced to go to Niamey to find work. They have to take their children with them which means that they will no longer be in school.

‘Before we started the gardening club I had no income and no activity. I’d cook millet for my family to eat but often if we had no food I’d just sit outside my house with nothing to do or eat.

Last year the crops in Tera failed due to poor rains and grasshoppers. As a result the cereal bank is empty and as the food crisis worsens many people are going hungry.

The cereal bank in Tera is now empty, while many people are hungry as the food crisis worsens

‘I used to sometimes have just two meals a day and they would be a porridge made of millet. I remember the last two food crisis well but this one is worse. In previous years people would have a little food, but this year the crops failed much earlier leaving people with nothing. To make it worse the prices of food are too high in the market.’

Women like Ramata are the future for Niger. Through the garden she now has food to see her through the crisis, she is running her own business and as a result is able to put her children through school.

Ramata’s tipping point was a great idea from her mother.

With help from charities like World Vision that idea  becomes something life-changing.

It is brilliant projects like the gardening group that help to break the cycle and tip the balance back in their favour.

#ShareNiger has been my tipping point and like Jax, from liveotherwise, I’m going to give up my daily morning coffee and donate the £2 to help those I’ve met.

What’s your tipping point?

Fatima gave birth to her son alone on the sandy floor of her straw home. Photo Mike Goldwater

Yesterday we were at the sharp end of the food crisis. Sian and I sat in the home of Fatimata Birmay and listened as she quietly told us her story.

The wind blew away half of their straw matt shelter two days ago leaving them with little protection from the searing sun and pervasive winds.

In temperatures soaring into the mid-forties we listened as she told us how her crops failed forcing the family to move from their home to seek work at the dangerous mines in Komabangou.

We heard how sometimes she can only afford to feed her family just one small meal a day. And how when she had her son she gave birth all alone on the sandy floor of her straw home.

Fatima and her son Soumaila, who is malnourished. Photo Mike Goldwater

Her son, Soumaila, now two, has been suffering from acute malnutrition for the last two months. And although he is now being treated at a nearby health clinic built by World Vision, his future looks as bleak and harsh as their environment.

She is not alone. There are 18 million people across West Africa affected by the food crisis and in Niger alone there are 1 million children like Soumaila who are acutely malnourished.

Komabangou

To reach Komabangau we bumped our way for nearly an hour along a pot-holed, sandy track. The sandy soil is a deep rich red and stretches as far as the eye can see.

Young boys disappear into mine shafts 150ft deep, their only oxygen provided by the wind echoing through the plastic sack. Photo Mike Goldwater

If a tornado came along scooped everybody up and dumped us on the moon it would look like this.

Men and young boys dig mine shafts up to 150ft deep and disappear into the darkness for hours on end. Their only oxygen provided by the wind blowing through a black plastic sack. Often the mines collapse. It’s dangerous, physical work.

The women and children, some as young as five, spend hours sifting the silt bearing the brunt of the wind, dust and sun.

To make matters worse this is a decommissioned mine. The Government have already been here and extracted most of the gold. Everybody is mining for scraps, leftovers.

Fati Ali, 14, has been forced to work in the goldmine after the death of her family’s livestock. Photo Mike Goldwater

Fati Ali, 14, has never been to school. Forced to move here with her family she spends her days at the mine. She told me: ‘We used to have 3 cows, 6 goats and 5 sheep but they all died two years ago in the 2010 food crisis. After they died we were forced to work in the goldmine as we don’t have enough food to eat. ‘I always feel hungry, my stomach hurts and I have a headache.’

I see a glimpse of her lost childhood as she tells me: ‘After work if I’m not too tired I like to play babysitting with my friends. We’ll wrap up a flip flop and pretend it is a baby.’

What does this all mean? It’s simple really. When I met Fatimata last week she told me slowly and softly, perhaps she was reluctant to really say the truth out loud.

She said:  ‘As harsh and difficult as it is here in Komabangou it is still better than where we came from. If we return home to our village we will have no food. We will die.’

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‘There is no ‘us and them’ – there is really only us.’

Christine Mosler, www.thinlyspread.co.uk

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How can you help?

2-year-old Soumaila is being treated for malnutrition. Photo Mike Goldwater

We want you to help us spread the poignant stories of these strong, resolute women, who despite everything are doing the best they can for their families and children.

We want to spread their stories to the furthest corners of the internet – and beyond.

Help us spread the word by telling their stories in a blog post.

Tweet us to let us know you have written it on @LizScarff @Geekisnewchic @WorldVisionUK

And keep following #ShareNiger

If you would like to sponsor a child in West Africa or make a donation please do so here.