What is the current food situation in West Africa?
Right now West Africa faces a looming hunger crisis. Drought has
destroyed crops in the region's dry Sahel belt, south of the Sahara
desert. The bone-dry earth also means that livestock don't have
anything to graze on. Some farmers have lost up to 90 per cent of
their livestock. To make matters worse, the price of rice and wheat
have risen by 30 per cent and 24 per cent respectively over the
past year; an increase the poor can't afford. Urgent action is
needed now if we are to prevent a severe hunger crisis in West
Africa on the same scale as the one affecting East Africa.
Today the harvest in Niger is only a tenth of what families need
to survive the year ahead. In a worst case scenario, nearly half
the population of Niger - some 6 million people - could soon be in
desperate need of food. Next door in Mali, and further west in
Mauritania, the situation threatens to head in the same direction.
Thousands of children are already malnourished with no hope of any
food for their families in the long months to the next harvest.
Health clinics are teeming with mothers desperate to save their
malnourished and frail children.
Issues faced: Drought, crop failures, food
shortages, rising food prices, chronic hunger and
malnutrition.
Focus countries: Mali, Niger,
Mauritania.
How is World Vision responding to the looming crisis?
Experience has shown that the best way to prevent a full-scale
hunger crisis is an early response. World Vision is currently on
the ground working with children in Niger, Mali and Mauritania to
identify and treat malnutrition at early stages before it becomes
severe. We have feeding centres established within health units
providing food and support for children most in need.
In Niger, cash-for-work and food-for-work programmes are under
way with the World Food Programme, benefiting nearly 65,000 people.
In Mali, World Vision is developing income-generating activities
for women, including starting small shops and small animal breeding
operations, while in Mauritania we are providing nutritional
programmes for children and support for farmers.
Importantly, World Vision New Zealand has Child Sponsorship
programmes in place in Niger and Mali to help communities build up
their resilience to drought both now and in the future. Part of
these programmes in Niger and Mali are helping farmers to access
water for irrigating crops, high grade seeds from cereal banks,
fertiliser, modern farming techniques and agricultural supplies so
they can protect themselves and their families from recurring
disasters.
Growing their way out of poverty
World Vision's long-term agriculture projects, which are made
possible through Child Sponsorship, have made a huge difference in
parts of East Africa. In Morulem in northeast Kenya, the region's
residents used to face severe hunger. Now with the help of World
Vision's irrigation scheme, the community produces 750 different
types of crops and gives extra produce as food aid to communities
less fortunate. Eleven-year-old Loice (pictured, right) from
Morulem is one of the many children to benefit from the now
flourishing crops.
How can you get involved?
To help prevent a full-scale hunger crisis in West Africa, World
Vision needs the help of New Zealanders like you. Please donate to
the West Africa appeal today or sponsor a
child in West Africa and help make a child's whole community
more resilient to future droughts.