Setting Up A Children’s Feeding Programme…
When my husband, Doug was called up to return to Africa as an Emergency Aid Consultant with a well-known Overseas Aid and Development Charity, I decided I would blog about it. Some of you might be interested to learn about the ins and outs of how someone enters an unknown country to set up something such as this. I hope to elucidate some of the pit-falls, successes and touching stories experienced when engaging in the plight of children and their families facing daily starvation, displacement, and abject poverty.
I begin this journey by offering a brief background to the feeding programme that Doug is setting up in Niger…
The city of Niamey, capital of Niger, seems peaceful now, safe and ready to move forward with ‘Democracy’ (after a short civil war). Primarily, Niger is sahel, which means it is within a belt that spans Africa all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. The Sahel forms a transition between the Sahara desert in the north and the Sudanian Savannas in the south. The Arabic word, sāḥil ساحل literally means ‘shore, coast’ and is derived from the appearance of the vegetation that grows there and which, delineanates sand from savanna.
The people are pastoral and eke their existence from growing a few crops. As with all sahellian peoples and regions in east and west Africa, they are affected by Climate Change, which means that droughts are more frequent. Recurring drought undermines natural, traditional coping mechanisms. Locals no longer have sufficient animal herds to trade for food during their ‘poorer’ years, as having had fewer ‘good’ years, they have been unable to rebuild herds. This has been the situation in Niger for at least a decade. This means, the situation an already poor country is facing
is now serious. Niger is home to 25% of all African children who are acutely malnourished.
Africa
Central Africa
Western Africa
Eastern Africa
Southern Africa
Northern Africa
Sub‑Saharan Africa
Black Africa
Horn of Africa
Maghreb
Greater Maghreb
Sahel
The Congos
Sudan (region)
Gulf of Guinea
Great Lakes
Mediterranean Africa
Red Sea Africa
Sahellian countries: Burkina Faso,Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia,Sudan.
More soon!
About Dr Niamh
19 comments on “Setting Up A Children’s Feeding Programme…”
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Dr. Niamh Children’s Books
Niamh Clune 
This is really a worthwhile post. Thanks Niamh for taking the time to share this amazing task, I’m looking forward to “More soon!” 😉
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Thank You Tonia and Janet!
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You and your husband are both remarkable people. Thank you for sharing this information. I’m one of the readers who wants to know more about programs like this. Like JLB, I look forward to “more soon.”
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We will be watching, Niamh. Please let Doug know that there are many who appreciate his contributions. Those who do are very valuable. We who care but can only watch are humbled by people like you and Doug.
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Doug will be heartened by our words of support and will carry our good wishes with him to infuse the work in the field.
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Niamh, I am very excited about your posting his journey. He is doing such important work. It reminded me of a NF book I reviewed, The Mangrove Tree, about how Dr Sato figures out a way to help the peope Eritrea in a Village called Hargigo, along the Red Sea. He plants Mangrove trees along the sea and virtually which began to produce leaves fo livestock, shade, with the ulimate goal of feeding families. The entire village helped and has become self-sufficient. Now Dr Sato is finding ways to use his ideas to held other desert communities. You may be familiar with this story, but I’ll include the link to my post: http://childrensbooksheal.com/2012/01/27/the-mangrove-tree/. Doug will certainly be in my thoughts and prayers.
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Yes I am familiar with it. I would Love to work more closely with you Patricia, as we are of like mind. I will try to do the story justice. At present, I have little communication with Doug as the Internet server is not good. And he is so busy that he hasn’t had a moment’s break. It is hard being separated like this. I used to work with him. We were always flying in and out of various airports and saying hello on the tarmac. I hope he will get a chance to think! That is the nature of Emergency.
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Yes, I have realized that too. I ordered your Orange Blossom book and plan to read it when I leave for a wedding/vacation in Florida next few weeks. Have scheduled posts to release. I need the break, so won’t be responding much. But, you will be on my mind as I read your story. It must be hard being separated like this.
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I will miss you, but we will definitely be linked through my story. And you need the break so much. TY for your kind soul and gentle spirit.
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Sorry for the typos. Typed too fast! 🙂
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Thank you for sharing this with us. It’s a rare opportunity to understand what truly occurs in these situations and gives everyone a chance to see how they might help.
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Thank You, Patricia. I am hoping it will be an ‘insider’ view.
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What a very humane thing for Doug to do. I know you’ve both worked side by side on various overseas causes in the past, Niamh. Blessing on both your works.
Hugs – Betty
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What amazing work Doug is doing, Niamh. Phenomenal stuff! There are some truly wonderful people out there, doing some incredible things and you and Doug are among them. Look forward to the future insight.
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Thank you, Tom. As I said to The secret keeper who has also posted a comment: when a child dies of starvation, it is to our collective shame. It is so unnecessary and so preventable.
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your post gives me more of a perspective of your life. you are truly a generous person. giving your husband Doug the support and strength he needs to carry on in such an impoverished place. helping the children and their families. I’ve always worried about the malnutrition in the many places that haven’t the climate to grow an adequate food supply and clean water to drink. for both of you to help in your own ways is incredible. damn the internet. it would be nice if that would cooperate. i will visit more often and follow this as it develops. as you have been so generous with your caring. good luck to Doug and his endeavors. my thoughts are with you both. jennifer
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Thank You, Jennifer. It really means a lot to me and to Doug that we have people concerned and involved in what is going on outside of their lives. World disasters will always happen. But as long as there is breath in our bodies, the mark of our humanity is to do what little we can to intervene. When a child dies of starvation, it is shame on us all. It is so preventable.
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i agree with you that a child should never die of starvation. there is plenty of food in this world to feed everyone. it is those who prevent the resources from getting to those who need it. the governments. the petty battles that keep those who want to help out. it’s the lack of generosity of those who have and could care less if someone doesn’t have enough to eat or drink. those people who look away should feel ashamed. if they can’t or don’t want to see it then it doesn’t exist. but then there are those who struggle to spread the word and get in their like you did and your husband is doing to help those in need. there is so much harm all over the world done to children and so many that don’t care. how can you not care? the probem that is going on in Niger sounds so difficult to resolve when the soil will not cooperate. the world needs to help. a chain of help needs to be created to help support those who are helping. this chain should reach around the world. to lose one child is far too many. i resound your words: “It Is Preventable.”
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These days, there are many ways to encourage the soil to cooperate. But when the men migrate n search of work elsewhere, the soil cannot be tended. These people are amazingly resilient. But when the pot runs dry, there is simply nothing more they can do without resources and help. Nothing, except watch their children die or grow deformed through starvation, and fail as adults because of being to0 hungry to attend school; thereby, losing their future and repeating the endless chain of poverty which is passed on, in turn, to their children.
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