Voice in the Desert: Famine Relief Archives

December 23, 2007

Free Rice

'What if just knowing what a word meant could help feed hungry people around the world? Well, at Free Rice it does.' (Washington Post)

I just came across the Free Rice website (thanks, Africakid).

It's worth a look if you like words or want to help the World Food Programme

Posted by sahelsteve at 09:17 PM

October 02, 2006

September 04, 2006

Gorom Gorom under water

Gorom Gorom is not an imaginary setting for a children's book. It is a real place, which currently needs our help.

There was an article in Inspire Magazine this week about the flooding in Gorom Gorom, and the ensuing relief work.

Posted by sahelsteve at 12:43 PM

August 15, 2006

Gorom-Gorom floods

There has been disastrous flooding in Gorom-Gorom. Hundreds of mud-brick houses have collapsed, leaving thousands homeless.

Keith is helping to organise a relief effort.

Flood, drought, winds, locusts: spin the wheel, pick a calamity. When I moved to Gorom-Gorom in 2001 I soon realised what a fascinating but unliveable place it was. Unliveable in that year after year people see the things they have worked for destroyed - one year their houses, another year their harvest. Year after year it happens and year after year, in true If Spirit, the people of Gorom-Gorom stoop and build them up with worn-out tools. Flood, drought, winds, locusts - calamities come and go but the people, for the most part, stay.

When I ask my friends why they don't move away - further south perhaps, where the land and climate are less hostile - they often reply with the verb woowude, which means 'to be used to something'. Min mboowi gaa - We are used to it here.

The Wodaabe Fulani say that Suffering is like the sparks that jump out of the fire at night and burn your feet as you sit nearby. They say that Joy is like the droplets of milk that jump out of the calabash when you are milking a cow and wet your face and arms. Life is a mixture of the two - sparks and droplets.

Please read Keith's report on the flooding in Gorom and then his update on the Gorom-Gorom floods, and consider whether or not you can contribute to the relief effort.

Posted by sahelsteve at 10:21 PM

August 29, 2005

Corn harvest

Yesterday I started harvesting the corn in my back yard. All over Djibo people are doing the same - they are taking corn to each other as gifts and will eat it until the main millet harvest.

When someone gives you corn you say 'Alla hollu en wartoore' (May God show us next year). It is an expression of hope for a plentiful year to come.

At last, we are through the worst of 'hungry season'.

Posted by sahelsteve at 08:19 PM

August 21, 2005

Peace only

I pass Bukari Hassan and Mawna Belko on my way to the market, and as always I stop to greet them. They are sitting in wicker chairs on the left side of the street in the shade of Bukari Hassan's hut, as they do every morning. In a few hours the rays of the sun will reach their feet and they will call a child to move their chairs to the other side of the street, to the shade of Mawna Belko's hut. There they will sit until the mosquitoes come out at dusk.

'Jam waali?' I say (Did you pass the night in peace?).
'Jam tan' (Peace only), replies Bukari Hassan, squinting up at me. He is sitting forward on his chair and leaning some of his weight on a wooden staff.
'Did your household wake in peace?' I ask.
'Peace only.'
'How is your family?'
'There are no problems, God be praised.'

This is not entirely true. I know already from my neighbours that Bukari's granddaughter died during the night and that he and the rest of the family were up before sunrise to bury her at the cemetery. It is part of the greeting ritual to proclaim peace where there is no peace, and Bukari is playing the role as best he can.

'I heard about Amnata's child,' I say. 'Alla hoynu.' (May God make it easier)
'Amen,' he says quietly, fingering a string of prayer beads.

Mawna Belko pulls up a small wooden stool for me, and we sit in silence. Donkey carts lurch past with loads of wood and fertilizer. From the yard behind me come the low syncopated spurts of a cow being milked. People pass by on foot or bicycle and some of them call out 'Jam waali?'

'Jam tan!' calls back Mawna Belko. 'They are on the way to the Red Cross,' he tells me in a low voice, pointing at the empty rice sacks that some of the passers-by are holding.

Bukari Hassan and Mawna Belko will not be going to the grain distribution themselves. They have entrusted their identity cards to younger members of the family who will claim on their behalf. Perhaps today they will get lucky or perhaps they will wait in vain.

A small boy comes out of Bukari's yard bearing three small glasses of tea on a metal tray.

'The second pouring,' says Bukari. 'Bitter and sweet - like hope.' He offers me a glass, his hand trembling.

'Bismillahi' (In the name of God), I say, taking it.
We drink. In three short sips my glass is empty. The strong China tea clears my head and makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. The old men are watching me to see if I will wince. I thank them and put the glass back on the tray.

Mawna Belko sighs. 'God be praised,' he says. 'If on the day the babbatti came last year you had told us that we would still be drinking tea in August, we would not have believed you.'

Babbatti.. The word has never been far from our lips since 27th September last year when the pink cloud came from the north. At first people thought it was an approaching dust storm, but then the cloud turned into millions of tiny dots, pink and flickering and strangely beautiful. The dots swarmed towards the fields and began to dive, and for an hour the air was thick with legs, wings and mandibles. The babbatti ate everything and left.

Now rainy season is here again, and the fields are again filled with ranks of almost-millet. Everyone knows how precious the crop is, and how precarious. One month to go, and then the millet can be harvested. A repeat of last year's locust invasion would be catastrophic.

A man on a bicycle stops to greet Bukari and pass on his condolences. The man's turban covers his forehead and chin, and his eyes are surrounded by deep crows' feet. He is holding an empty rice sack.

'Ko jemma boni fuu, weetu,' says the stranger. The Fulani have many proverbs about patience and endurance, and this is one of them. 'Even if the night is bad, morning will come.'
'A haali goonga' (You have spoken truth), says Bukari.
'Alla wan' nyallen e jam.' (God grant us to pass the day in peace)
'Amen.'

The man gets back on his bicycle and peddles away towards the Red Cross. Mawna Belko and I watch him disappear into the distance. Bukari Hassan looks down at his feet and he grips the head of his staff so hard that his knuckles go white.

Posted by sahelsteve at 09:59 PM

August 12, 2005

Hamidou and Mamadou

Sorry for the infrequent postings. I have had malaria the last few days, but am getting over that now. Thanks to those of you who have emailed and asked about the famine here. Let me try and sum up.

The food security situation is very serious at the moment, not in the whole of Burkina Faso, but in particular areas. The worst affected areas are, as always, all in the north of the country, and the hunger gets more acute the further north you go.

I have been asking some of the older people in Djibo how this year compares to the 'great' famines of 1972 and 1973, and it seems that the main difference is this: in 1972 there was money but no food, in 2005 there is food but no money. The results are similar though. The people in Djibo have sold all their assets (including animals, if they had any) to buy millet in the market. Now they have nothing, and there are still two months to go until the harvest.

It is very difficult to measure hunger. If you come to Djibo and say 'Hands up if you're hungry', the whole town (including the mayor) will put their hands up. And it is true that everyone (except the mayor) is looking thin these days. When I returned last week from ten days in Ouagadougou, I did a double-take at how emaciated some of my friends had become.

Targetting aid is tricky - everyone thinks that they and their family should be entitled to it and that so-and-so down the street should not. There is no consensus about who the 'poorest of the poor' are. But sometimes it is crystal clear...

Carl and Sharlene Pilkinton are SIM missionaries in Djibo. They are in their first term here, learning Fulfulde and ministering in a variety of different ways. Shar writes:


Hamidou and Mamadou are 6 week-old twins, barely 2 kgs each. Their mother walked 45 kilometres to Djibo from Kabaoua to see if her twins could go on our milk-powder supplement programme. Her babies need breast milk but she does not have enough milk to feed them. Because of the food shortage she herself is eating only one meal a day - one bowl of plain rice with salt. Up until now she has been able to get cow-milk from her neighbours but now they are refusing her. She has no animals of her own to milk or to sell.
	At first sight of the twins I was so horrified that I thought they should go straight to the local hospital. However, this is not possible. Their mother needs to care for her other children back at home and can not leave Hamidou and Mamadou in Djibo. If only she herself could eat better/more then she be able to give these babies all the breast-milk they need.
(Thanks, Shar, for this case-study)

I (Steve) am finding things here quite hard at the moment. In particular I feel guilty that I can eat till I am full and my next-door neighbours can not.

If you would like to know more about SIM's milk-powder supplement project in Djibo, contact me, and I will pass on your message to the right person.

If you would like to give to the relief effort in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania, contact DEC.

Posted by sahelsteve at 08:12 AM

July 02, 2005

Djibo and Edinburgh

The work of the Red Cross in Djibo goes on day in, day out. In times of crisis they do emergency seed or food distributions; otherwise they concentrate on their literacy and health-teaching programmes. Boureima Petechudi attended one of their seminars on health and was very amused to be told he should exercise every day – I’ve never seen a man run, he said to me, unless he was running away from a beating or running towards a millet distribution.

The Red Cross does good work though, and one of their strengths is local knowledge. Workers here know Djibo well, they know who is most in need (see the photo-story) and they act to try and help them. Local knowledge and local action are essential for the success of aid and development.

Local knowledge and local action are important for Christian mission too, which is why missionaries spend years learning local languages and customs. Kosuke Koyama describes mission as ‘agape-nizing’ space.

But local knowledge and local action in themselves are not enough. Every single village and town in Africa is in the grip of powerful socio-economic forces which are outside of their control. Unjust trade rules keep Africa in poverty while the West gets ever richer. However many proverbs I learn in Fulfulde, I can’t get rid of those crushing agricultural subsidies. They are the domain of the G8 and the European Union and the US Senate and the WTO.

That is why I email Tony Blair from the telecentre in Djibo.

And why my colleague Keith has gone to Edinburgh today.

Posted by sahelsteve at 09:14 AM

June 28, 2005

Seed Distribution in Djibo

Now is the time for planting, but millet seed in the market is expensive. The solution: buy up seed and give it away to those who need it most.

Here are a few photos of yesterday's work. As always, click on an image to enlarge it:


This is the Red Cross committee charged with organising the distribution of seed in Djibo - a challenging task in a town of 15,000 needy people
	With representatives from each of Djibo's nine sectors, they sat down and worked out who were the poorest of the poor - giving preference to the old, the disabled, widows and carers for orphans
The people chosen were then given a day to come and be registered - they brought their identity cards with them, which show their name and how many children they are responsible for. One farmer was official carer for 51 children.
	Although people had already been selected, many more turned up on the offchance of being registered. They surrounded the table, waving their identity cards and clamouring 'Winndu kam' (write me down) or 'Yurma kam' (have pity on me).
Today was distribution day. People came with their Red Cross card and an empty sack and queued up outside the seed store.
	Some people from far outside Djibo had heard about the distribution and come to town - including this seventy year-old man from Mali. His name was not on the list so he had to wait till the bitter end to see if there was any left over.
At the entrance to the seed store people presented their cards showing how many tins of seed they were entitled to. Each person received between 6 and 12 kg, depending on the size of their family.
	All of the seed given out today was bought by you - the visitors to 'Voice in the Desert'. Thank you once again for your generosity.
The Red Cross 'volunteers' are mostly students from the lycee (picked for their writing skills). This is Oumarou, who measured out the tins of seed.
	Millet seed can be eaten. There will be a temptation for those who received seed to eat it tonight rather than plant it tomorrow. Idrissa stood on the door, reminding those on their way out, 'This is seed, not food'.
All in all, 1800 people received seed. We had a good rain last night, so the ground is soft and ready for planting. There will be a lot of people going out to their fields tomorrow morning.
	Those who received seed today will hang on to their Red Cross cards, because there is a food distribution coming up soon - millet, oil and Danish lentils, provided by the World Food Programme. That too will be much appreciated as people start to cultivate.

If you would like to contribute to similar relief work in Gorom-Gorom, Keith is busy organising something over at Under the Acacias.

Posted by sahelsteve at 03:06 PM

May 19, 2005

Food aid update

Met with the WFP in Ouaga today to go over the figures for the schools feeding project. The money you gave was sufficient to cover the cost of all the grain for the primary schools in Soum and Oudalan, the two poorest provinces in Burkina. It amounted to 56 tonnes of millet. Thank you.

We have 4.5 million CFA (over £4,000) left over, and have decided to use this on a project to help families in Soum who can not afford to buy seeds for when the rains start next month. The plan is to distribute some 24 tonnes of millet seed in and around Djibo. Am meeting with WFP and Red Cross directors on Monday to work out details of this.

We are not out of the woods yet. During rainy season there is still a need for food aid in the north of Burkina Faso. I am starting to hear the first reports now of people dying as a direct result of malnutrition. If you would like to give food to some of those in greatest danger see this appeal from Keith at 'Under the Acacias'.

Posted by sahelsteve at 05:51 PM

February 22, 2005

Grain Aid photos

Here are some photos of the grain aid project in Oudalan. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.

The WFP (World Food Programme) headquarters in Dori, and one of several stylish WFP lorries:

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This is a school in Barbare, made entirely out of sticks and plastic bags. And the headmaster Mikaelu with some of the pupils. He invited me to say a few words to the kids so I gabbled something about how useful education is, and beat a hasty retreat.

This is a new school in Daybeere, near Gorom-Gorom - not a single stick or plastic bag in sight. Nice classroom, nice teachers, nice grain store, nice canteen (when I visited, the canteen roof was just being put on). By the way, the chap in the glasses is Victor.

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Those children who live near enough to school usually take their lunch home with them at midday. Here are Iisaa and Amadou tucking into their rice and beans, assisted by their baby brother Yunusa:

Posted by sahelsteve at 07:15 PM

February 17, 2005

A day out with Victor

The latest round of WFP grain aid has started to arrive in Oudalan, the province worst affected by this year's drought and locust plague. I spent the day yesterday with Victor Ouedraogo (head of education in Oudalan), visiting schools in the bush which are benefitting from this aid. Overall it was an encouraging experience; I saw hundreds of children who are now being fed one meal a day in the WFP canteen project - and for some of them this is the only meal they get. The aid is not sufficient but it is significant. Photos etc to follow, when I get back to Djibo. Thanks again to all who contributed.

One of the schools we visited (Barbare) had not yet received any food and there was some confusion over why this was so. The lorry was supposed to pass by there yesterday on the way up to the border with Mali. Victor was surprised but assured me it was only a glitch - the drivers had probably changed their itinerary. We will stay in touch over this until the aid arrives there. The headmaster there is someone I know from Boukouma - his class had prepared a song with which to greet me - an army marching song in French which went as follows:

Ca ne va pas
Ca ne va pas
Pourquoi ca ne va pas?
Parce ce que je suis fatiguee
Je suis venu pour creuser
Je suis venu pour gruiller
Je suis venu pour travailler
Et je suis fatiguee
Ca ne va pas du tout.

All in all a fairly depressing song, and in the circumstances an appropriate one too. I will let you know when the kids at Barbare get their food aid.

Posted by sahelsteve at 05:43 PM

February 04, 2005

Provisioning

News from WFP at last - it looks like we are still on for the grain distribution in schools in Djibo and Gorom.

"The provisioning of cantines in the Sahel should start late next week or early the following week. We are finalising the contract with the transporters.
"We will draft the letter to the government regarding your contribution to the school feeding. You can contact Ali to meet him and to finalise a day/s to visit the schools. He knows the schools already and will be in contact with the transporters (SPAP) so can organise the timing of your visit."

Fine.

Posted by sahelsteve at 08:29 AM

February 03, 2005

Cow for 30 quid

The prices at the cattle market in Djibo, Adama told me today, are at a twenty-year low. People have no money to buy with, and are desperate to sell their animals to buy millet. You can pick up a two-year old cow for 30,000 CFA. Ridiculous.

Still no news from the WFP about when they are sending the grain up to Djibo; the end of Jan has come and gone with no word from them - I will post here as soon as I know.

Posted by sahelsteve at 03:00 PM

January 29, 2005

Locusts - an eyewitness account

Andy has just posted an eyewitness account of the locust swarm in Djibo - worth reading.

Posted by sahelsteve at 07:38 AM

January 11, 2005

Visit to the World Food Programme in Ouagadougou

Conversation with a young man in the street in Ouagadougou this morning

Me: Excusez-moi, ou se trouve PAM? (Excuse me, where is Pam?)
Him: Pam qui (Pam who?)
Me: Pas Pam, PAM - Programme Alimentaire Mondial (not Pam, PAM - World Food Programme)
Him: Mille Francs pour te montrer (for 1000 francs I will direct you there)
Me: Non, ca va - merci. (thanks but no thanks)

I found it eventually, and a very impressive place it is too. The offices are nice without being over the top - the corridor walls all covered in poster-sized photos of cute children holding bowls of rice - you know the sort of thing.

Anyway, I spoke with a nice American lady called Kerren Hedlund who is deputy director of the World Food Programme in Burkina, and the upshot is that we can go ahead as planned. They will assist me in buying grain in the south and transporting it up north, where it will be distributed to school canteens.

Kerren assured me that in this project there is no problem with the grain getting into the hands of those it is intended for - it is all accounted for, we can be confident of that.

At the end of this month (Jan 2005) there will be an approvisonnement (provision-ment) in Djibo, which is a grand way of saying that the WFP trucks will be coming. I will be there to meet them, and will post some photos etc on this page.

Thanks again to all of you who have given so generously. Watch this page for further updates.

You can also visit www.wfp.org for further information about the World Food Programme.

Posted by sahelsteve at 03:28 PM

December 21, 2004

Food for malnourished children in Burkina Faso

Back in March I posted the story Two Beakers about my friend Iisaa, a boy who came to Djibo to study. His story is not unique; there are many pupils in the north of Burkina Faso who regularly have to face school on an empty stomach.

One of the stated aims of the World Food Programme in Burkina Faso is to 'improve the health and nutritional status of vulnerable groups' - in 2005 they will set up a canteen in every primary school in the ten poorest provinces of Burkina (including Djibo and Gorom-Gorom), giving free meals to all pupils. If the WFP get the funds they need for this, over 28,000 children will benefit from the scheme.

I am in contact with the WFP reps in Burkina, and will be working closely with them when I return. For updates on this project, see Grain Aid Updates, which is a page you can bookmark and check regularly.

Let's confine the 'Two Beakers' story to the past.

Posted by sahelsteve at 09:54 AM

December 20, 2004

Good news re locust situation

I just noticed on Keith Smith's blog that the World Bank has approved $60m to fight against future locust invasions in the Sahel. This provides real hope for the area.

Meanwhile, our fundraising continues for the current famine in the north of Burkina Faso. To all those who have already given, a massive THANK YOU.

As you know, I will return to Burkina Faso on 7 January. Every two weeks I will post updates on the famine relief effort, including photos and stories, so that those who are contributing can see how their money is being spent. Just bookmark the above link and check back occasionally.

Posted by sahelsteve at 04:14 PM

December 19, 2004

Cracker FM

Many thanks to Mike and Katie down at Cracker FM. I was on their show this morning and had the chance to talk about the famine going on in the north of Burkina Faso at the moment.

If you listened to the show, you can find out here how to contribute to the famine relief effort.

Posted by sahelsteve at 08:54 AM

December 01, 2004

An appeal in the wake of the locust swarms in Africa

'Listen, you elders;
hear me, all you who live in the land:
has the like of this happened in all your days
or in your fathers' days?
Tell it to your sons and they may tell theirs;
let them pass it on from generation to generation.
What the locust has left, the swarm eats,
what the swarm has left, the hopper eats,
and what the hopper has left, the grub eats.'
(Joel 1:2-4)

How do you feel about locusts? Chances are, you aren't keen. Even one locust on its own can be a terror, as Sophie Anderton found out in one of her 'I'm a Celebrity' bushtucker trials. But imagine two million of them descending on you. That is what happened yesterday in Lanzarote - you probably saw the pictures - millions of locusts hopping all over the beaches, whilst British sun-worshippers ran and cowered in their hotel rooms.

Radio 1 reported at the time that locals were attacking the insects with flamethrowers. This technique had some success because the locusts were by that time getting a bit long in the tooth - they must also have been a bit tired in the tooth, having systematically chomped their way through vast swaths of Africa. As you know, the real locust victims last year were not Sophie Anderton and company, nor the Lanzarote holiday-makers, but farmers in North and West Africa.

It was back in March 2003, shortly before I came home from Burkina Faso, that the first locusts arrived in Djibo. They settled on the barkeehi tree by the clinic and stripped it bare with ruthless efficiency. At that time there were not enough of them to make us seriously worried. People joked about the locusts and little children ran to catch them and make 'helicopters' with them (cruel but creative - remember that there is no 'Toys R Us' in Djibo). Mossi women netted some of the insects to add to their soup, much to the disgust of their Fulani neighbours.

I left Burkina Faso in March and returned to Chesterfield. In my absence life went on as normal. Men went ahead and planted their millet at the start of the rainy season in June, and worked their fields through July and August. By the end of September the millet fields around Djibo were almost ready - just two or three weeks and then the harvest. But on Sunday September 26, the locusts arrived again - this time in a huge swarm, the biggest for 15 years. As the prophet Joel observed, a locust swarm is like an army, 'Like a countless host in battle array, / Before them nations tremble, / every face turns pale, / Like warriors they charge…' (Joel 2:5-7)

Some of my closest Fulani friends would have been in church when the locust swarm arrived in Djibo, but even if they had been in their fields there was nothing they could have done. Those who were out in their fields that day could only stand and bat locusts away from their faces as they watched the devastation unfold. The locusts ate their fill and left, then returned the next day for breakfast.

90% of the harvest was destroyed. The price of a 100kg sack of millet in Djibo market shot up overnight from 8,000 CFA (£8) to 18,000 CFA (£18), more expensive than I have ever known it. At this price, people simply cannot afford to buy food. When I return to Djibo in January, I am returning to a famine.

I have contacted the World Food Programme in Burkina Faso and (thank God) they are planning to do relief work in Djibo - and in Dori and Gorom-Gorom which have also been declared a famine zone. Their priority is malnourished children, so they are going to be distributing grain primarily to schools and health clinics, and then in various cereal banks around the north of Burkina. They have said that I am welcome to collaborate with them in this, and I am fundraising for that purpose.

As you know, my focus in Africa is not usually humanitarian relief. But in the face of a situation this desperate, all organisations in the area must co-operate to help alleviate hunger. Bearing in mind that whatever we do for our brothers and sisters in Burkina, we are doing for Jesus.

If you would like to donate to this grain project, 100% of your gift will be used to buy grain for distribution in the north of Burkina Faso. I will buy grain in the south of the country and World Food Programme lorries will transport it up north. In my monthly newsletters I will keep you in touch with exactly what is happening.

Please make cheques payable to World Horizons. Write GRAIN AID on the back of the cheque (so that Margaret in the finance office knows what the cheque is intended for).

If you are a UK tax-payer, you are eligible for gift aid - this increases the value of your gift by 28%. Simply enclose a note with your cheque stating that you are a UK tax-payer and that you would like your donation to be gift-aided.

Send to:

Centre for the Nations
North Dock
Llanelli
Wales
United Kingdom
SA15 2LF

Thanks for taking the time to read this appeal.

Posted by sahelsteve at 09:13 PM

October 27, 2004

Locust plague

They came to Djibo a couple weeks ago. Here is an extract from an email I received today from a friend there. The situation is already fairly desperate and it will get worse as the year goes on. Please pray. I will post something soon about other practical things you can do if you want to help out.

...there seem to be pockets where the locust didn't touch, but generally they've wiped out probably in the region of 90% (and that's being optimistic) of peoples crops, and many people got nothing. However, even if the locust didn't come the crops would have been pretty poor any way. In the Sebba and Piela regions the locust didn't even reach there and still the church is calling it a famine situation. In Djibo during the space of three weeks the grain has gone up from 11,000 per sack to nearly 18000. Boureima did get some grain, probably enough for two meals. I think Du'aawjo may have got a little bit more, but he hasn't come in this year. Only his boys have. We are at present looking into various options for helping with grain.

Update: Read my appeal in the wake of the locust swarms.

Posted by sahelsteve at 10:20 PM

August 12, 2004

haiku #10

launching off bare stalks
the locusts are leaving town;
harvest came early