With thousands of people on the brink of starvation the crisis in Niger remains one of the most severe in the world today.
UK based aid agency Islamic Relief has been working tirelessly in the country to counter the current food shortage which is the worst Niger has seen in 20 years.
No Food
A deadly combination of poor rains and locust invasions devastated last year's crops leaving around 3.5 million people with little or no food.
Before the onset of the present crisis, 40% of the children in Niger, which ranks as the second poorest country in the world, were already suffering from shortage of food.
The total number of people affected by the crisis exceeds 5 million as there are over 1.5 million people suffering in neighbouring Mali.
IR Response
Among the current projects Islamic Relief is undertaking in the region are:
- Provision of free medical aid in some of the worst affected areas
- A Mobile Nutritional Monitoring Team which visits 30 villages regularly and health centres in Tillabéri. The team works closely with the Ministry of Health. So far, they have screened over 12,794 children under 5 years old.
- Over 700 severely malnourished children have been referred to the Therapeutic feeding centre in the hospital of Tillabéri to be treated. In addition over 2,500 children who were found to be moderately malnourished were given supplementary feeding.
- Two shelters have been prepared and each equipped with 15 beds to receive pregnant women from villages.
- The distribution of thousands of mosquito nets in villages.
- Two hospital facilities in Fillingue and Tera have been refurbished to help treat malnourished children.
- Medical equipment and cooking utensils have been provided to the therapeutic centre of Filingué and Téra hospitals. These centres are expected to treat around 1000 severe malnourished children every month.
For more information contact:
Jamsheed Din: +44 121 622 0663