Mid-day meals for malnourished children

People in Niger (Nigerien) farmers hit by the double whammy of not enough rain and then a locust invasion are unable to feed their children. Most expected crops were either destroyed or never even grew. In some areas cereal production was less than 20% of a typical year’s yield. The resulting "hungry season" is even more severe than usual. 

As most Nigeriens eat what they grow, hunger and starvation now affect over 3 million of them. The most vulnerable of the sponsored children in the zareas in which Plan works are in the newly opened Tillabery region. Working with the government, development agencies and community members, Plan:

• Ensured a potable water source for villages where the drought’s impact was most intense
• Analyzed the impact of the drought and locust invasion in sponsored children’s areas.  As of March 2005, more than two in five toddlers were malnourished
• Enabled villagers to prepare a hot midday meal for all children.  Once villagers organized themselves by neighborhood and worked out who would prepare and distribute the sponsored childrens’ midday meal, Plan Niger provided each neighbourhood with food supplies – grain, oil, sardines, salt and dried legumes
• Rehabilitated malnourished children by enrolling them in an even more comprehensive and intensive feeding program
  Distributed medicine and other care to victims of cholera in Tillabery, a side effect of not having clean drinking water. The epidemic which peaked in 2004 has since subsided