Trying to break the cycle

Binta Amadou, a 35-year-old mother of three, cradles her youngest, one-year-old daughter Hayizu, an infant showing signs of severe malnutrition with her red-tinged hair, vacant look and listlessness.

"I am not producing enough milk for her," said Amadou. For her and the thousands of others in this drought and locust-ravaged region of Kawa Fako, Niger, there is now hope and happiness as Catholic Relief Services (CRS) began distributing more than 991 metric tons of emergency food supplies.

The food millet, beans, and cooking oil was purchased under the supervision of CRS in Niamey, the capital of Niger, at a cost of $640,000, and further distributions will be carried out when World Food Program supplies arrive.

Welcoming party

The distribution, which began on August 11, was the first actual food relief to arrive since the international community began responding to the crisis in the Sahel region.

Two-thirds of the locally purchased food was dispatched to Niger's Tanout province and one-third sent to the province of Dogondoutchi, where the highest officials of the area came to Kawa Fako to welcome CRS.

"We are very grateful for this help, which comes at a time of great need. God bless you," said Lawali Moutari, governor of the Dosso district, which includes Kawa Fako.

As people lined up to collect their ration, women of the village said that, for the last six months, they had been subsisting on leaves and weeds in the area. Though this is the rainy season, it has not rained in Kawa Fako for two weeks, and they feared for their fourth planting of the season.

Asked what she would do with her rations, Amadou said that the first night, "we will eat and eat until we have no more room. Then we will ration the supply carefully so that it lasts."

Emergency response plan

In addition to the food deliveries, CRS is receiving an air shipment of 40 metric tons of Atmit, a nutritionally enhanced mix for use in the therapeutic and supplemental feeding of malnourished children, along with ten metric tons of vegetable oil.

In addition, CRS has developed an emergency response program calculated at $4.8 million for short and long-term aid interventions. The plan envisions an eight-month program comprising a two-month emergency food aid response (plus therapeutic feeding for severely malnourished children), and a six-month rehabilitation and recovery plan.

"With the expected harvest, the short-term crisis will be diminished for many, but more rains are needed to ensure a good harvest," says William Rastetter, CRS regional director for West Africa.

"Under the best of circumstances," he added, "hunger will return to Niger and other countries of the Sahel by April, in a cycle that can only be broken by increasing production and continued international support."

CRS has been working in Niger since 1991. In the last five years the agency was part of a consortium administering a USAID $27.5 million development program with partners Africare, CARE, and the Helen Keller International.

Unfortunately, funds to continue those programs have been severely reduced. Along with Caritas Niger, its local partner, CRS began responding to signs of a food shortage in 2004 with initiatives such as seed fairs, which have proven enormously successful.

The farmers who planted stock from seeds obtained through the fairs have been less affected by the crisis than many others now confronting starvation.