According to the World Food Organisation (FAO) and UNICEF, millions of peolpe in West Africa, above all in Niger, are facing starvation. A drought that has been going on for months, swarms of locusts plus a poor response within the world community to previous warnings have greatly aggravated the situation. Hundreds of thousands of children are on the verge of dying of starvation.
humedica has already sent an emergency medical team that arrived in the Republic of Niger on July 26, led by humedica's co-ordinator Michael Prestele. Together with its partner organisations "Helfende Hände" (Helping Hands, Sulz am Neckar) and HIS (HOSANNA Institut du Sahel, Niamey),humedica will be organising medical supplies and therapeutic food mainly for malnourished babies in the region round the town of Ouallam. The Foreign Office has been asked for support.
Christa Heinzelmann of "Helfende Hände" urgently requested help from humedica. Although Niger has been one of the poorest countries in the world for many years and dire poverty is commonplace, the present catastrophe has led to a dramatic escalation of the situation. According to Heinzelmann, in some regions of Niger the famine is worse than was expected. Starving children cry so much that they can't sleep. Adults give them water mixed with hot red pepper to suppress the hunger pangs and thus enable them to sleep. Yacouba Seydou, agro-engineer from Niamey and head of the "HOSANNA Institut du Sahel" has been workingfor five years in Niger, organising the distribution of food as well as medical treatment and medical training. In March 2005 HIS first received mainly medical supplies from humedica which were then distributed in villages that were difficult to reach by doctors in a mobileclinic.
humedica is urgently asking for donations for the victims of the famine:
Account No. 47 47
Sparkasse Kaufbeuren
Bank code 734 500 00
Code word "Niger"
humedica e.V.
Goldstrasse 8
87600 Kaufbeuren
Germany
Tel: + 49 (8341) 966148-0
Fax: + 49 (8341) 966148-11
Cell/Mobil: + 49 (170) 8001551
Internet: www.humedica.org