Feeding a family in Niger

10 February 2006

We are sitting watching the sun set, Moutari and I, under a gigantic neem tree north of the city of Maradi. It is here that he has chosen to tell me the story of his life.

The echoes of the city reach us clearly – the sounds of horns, murmurs, voices, and humming. Friday is the weekly market day in Maradi and people from surrounding villages are on their way to buy clothes and food.

As the heat grills us at a temperature of 45° C, a gentle wind makes the highest branches of our neem tree dance, lightening the sweltering atmosphere for a bit.

During our three-hour conversation, Moutari expresses a range of feelings, from sadness to joy, anger, doubt, pain, hope, frustration, disillusionment, and, finally, happiness.

Moutari Abdou was born 27 years ago in Guidan Tounaou, a village situated in the heart of the department of Dakoro, an antechamber to the desert. There, once upon a time, agriculture could sustain the economy. Things have changed radically now.

A hot north wind has swept across the country, covering the fields – the main assets of this village – with a bed of sterile sand. Rains have been scarce. The vegetation has shriveled: an ecological disaster. Food production has decreased to the point that it can cover, at best, a quarter of each household’s needs. The entire system of life, from beginning to end, has been affected. You can see the poverty in people’s eyes.

But Moutari has a different story to tell. After joining CARE International’s Youth Development Project in Maradi three years ago, his life has been turned around. He has become a leader. He manages an adult literacy center and raises awareness about important issues facing young people in the most important cultural youth group in Maradi. He is also a puppeteer and storyteller. He is an active member of an association fighting against youth unemployment. And he is married with one child. He is able to help his family in Garin Tounaou to get food now when they need it more than ever.

Things were not always this good.

In the village of Garin Tounaou, there has never been electricity, no source of drinking water, no health center. The only modern building visible in the midst of the straw huts is the school – the school where Moutari enrolled in 1986, the year his father died. While he was going to school, Moutari had to work to help keep his family of five alive.

For ten years, Moutari harvested and sold grasses and dried wood in between his classes to support his mother and three younger brothers. Sometimes, he sold grain door-to-door in surrounding villages. Time passed monotonously and with difficulty. Certain customs disappeared, such as the annual wrestling contests organized by the youth. People’s health became more fragile. Conflicts became more frequent. Life became sadder.

When Moutari was 16 and in high school, in 1997, there was a severe food crisis. He had to choose between his studies and dedicating himself to the survival of his family. He abandoned his books and began the life of a migratory worker. This was the beginning of a long journey in search of hope, of a better life, with many other village boys of the same age. First, he went to cities relatively close by, such as Dakoro and Mayahi. Later, Moutari travelled further afield.

He saw Maradi, Tahoua, and Dosso, three of the eight most important cities in Niger, before beginning a life in Niamey, where he stayed from 1999-2002. Moutari worked as a sugar cane vendor from a store and a warehouse labourer, a construction worker, a barber, a driver’s assistant, a seller of water. He was insulted and slapped. He slept under the stars and never ate a meal during the day. He met trustworthy people, but also dishonest people who misled him and sometimes caused him to break the law. Moutari still regrets his most serious indiscretion – stealing petrol from his boss when he was a driver’s assistant.

Not satisfied, Moutari made the decision to travel yet farther in December 2002. The United States presented too many difficulties, as did Europe, so he went to Nigeria, to the city of Zanfara, where everyone spoke Hausa, the same language as in Garin Tounaou, the village where Moutari was born. He began learning the Koran because under the Islamic law of the country, a student of Islam receives shelter and moral protection. At the same time, he also worked part-time at a second-hand business. Moutari found that he was able to save a little more money and was able to send home more money for food.

In October 2003, Moutari went home to visit his family and had to transfer cars in the city of Maradi. By chance he heard a radio advertisement by CARE International, which was starting a project for uneducated and unemployed young people. They were invited to submit a simple application to join the programme, so Moutari decided to stay in Maradi and take a chance. His application arrived at the headquarters of the project on the 10th of October and, he was selected along with 65 other young men and women of his age and status.

The goal of the Maradi Youth Development Project is to develop a network of young people in the city of Maradi who have appropriate skills to create a viable civil society organisation. The idea is that young men and women who participate in the project emerge with a strong sense of their own dignity and helps them to develop specific or vocational skills as a necessary step in developing self-confidence.

Moutari received 18 months of vocational education and training in knowing his own rights and responsibilities. He also had the opportunity to share his life experiences in numerous public debates with other young people, where they had the chance to discuss subjects such as peace and security, democracy, human rights, the responsibility of citizens, AIDS, and others.

“If CARE did not exist, I ask myself what I would have become today, despite all my good resolutions,” concluded Moutari as the sun quickly disappeared in the west. Noises of the city silenced, as if by magic, to leave this place to the voices calling people to their evening prayers.