Niger Update: "People are so poor it's hard to tell who is suffering the most"

When Hadjo noticed her son Adamou had stopped eating the tiny portions she could feed him, she knew he was very sick.

In her village of Kongou Koirategui, in Niger, the land is barren. There are few trees, few animals and the continued food shortage means her son Adamou, is now struggling to survive.Her home, made of mud, is carpeted with sand and contains no furniture. Her eight children were all born here, but only four are still alive.

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“Four of my children died,” said Hadjo, “They did not have enough food and I had no way to feed them. This is the third year in a row we have had very little. Some days we go to bed without eating anything at all.”

Adamou was taken to hospital with severe oedema, a condition caused by malnutrition.Now he’s well enough to be looked after at home, and with the help of our partner, the Saga Emergency Feeding Centre, Hadjo can feed him enough to be healthy.

Hadjo makes the 15km journey twice a week to the centre which is in the capital city of Niamey, to get food and to check her son’s condition. It takes her all day and she travels on foot. At the centre, malnourished children are weighed and measured, and the sisters at the centre give Hadjo five days’ supply of rice or maize to feed her family – enough for each of them to have one meal a day.

The ongoing situation

For the past three years the food crisis in Niger has been a tragic part of daily life for Hadjo. Before this help she had very few options. Sometimes she would collect leaves to sell in Niamey. Her eldest son Daouda would collect and sell firewood.

800,000 young Nigeriens are at risk of acute malnutrition in the drought-stricken country, and 25% of children are not expected to live to the age of 5. But the Saga Centre is reaching some of those people and saving lives of children like Adamou; around 200 people nowvisit the centre each week.

Senior Emergency Response Officer, Philippe Mougin said: “The situation in Niger has not improved in a year. The people are so poor that it is hard to tell who is suffering the most. We cannot let this ongoing crisis be forgotten or ignored.”

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