CRS Efforts
CRS along with its local partner, Caritas Niger
began responding to the food shortage in late 2004 when the impact of the
locusts and the drought was apparent to Nigeriens and aid workers. CRS is
distributing food to 235,000 people in Niger. CRS is also working with Helen
Keller International to establish and manage feeding centers for severely
malnourished children. UNICEF has continued to emphasize the need for other
resources to ward off diseases because malnourished children generally lack
strong immune systems to fight off infections.
In Niger, CRS is focusing on agricultural
rehabilitation, providing tools, teaching irrigation and farming techniques
and helping to replenish livestock lost during the drought. This is part of
the long term strategy to build capacity for the community to respond to its
own needs. CRS is also organizing seed fairs for the end of the rainy
season. Seed fairs provide an inexpensive and practical way to increase the
distribution of seeds to rural, poor communities. Farmers receive vouchers
to obtain local seeds from local traders and are able to build up resources
to survive an emergency. Farmers who have planted stock obtained from CRS
seed fairs have been less affected by this crisis.
CRS is also responding to this food crisis in
other countries. In Burkina Faso, CRS served 8,500 farm households through
seed and tool fairs, and is working to make food more easily available.
Feeding centers for children have been set up in Mauritania.
Both CRS' Africa Campaign and the Catholic
Campaign Against Global Poverty seek to build awareness about the impact of
extreme poverty and to highlight the need for increased foreign assistance
and debt relief to combat poverty and improve access to health care and
education throughout the continent of Africa.
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Food Crisis In Niger
Food Crisis In Niger
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