Aminou Chaibou, 29, is participating in CARE and the World Food Programme's cash-for-work programme in his home village in Niger. © CARE Haoua Lankoandé, CARE Niger's Advocacy Manager, explains how experience tells him now is the time to act on the Niger food crisis.
Those of us in the city, in my case Niamey, Niger’s capital, are seeing the first signs of food crisis spreading across our country. We have seen it before. It has already started, and it is coming fast.
The first phase is when young men and women start leaving the villages, coming to the big towns, looking for work. ‘Knock, knock’: they come to your door and say ‘do you have any work?’ You ask them, what can you do? And they reply: ‘Anything. I can do anything.’
In the second phase, they come to the door, ‘knock, knock’: ‘Do you have any food? I haven’t eaten in three days.’
In the third phase, they don’t ask anymore. You wake up and go out side in the morning, and there is a family sleeping on your doorstep. They don’t ask for anything, they just look up at you, hoping. If you give them something, they say thank you. If you don’t give them anything, they are quiet. They just put their heads down, slowly get up and move to the next house.
It takes just a couple of months to go from phase one to phase three. We are already in phase one. It’s amazing how quickly it happens.
We need to act now: provide cash-for work so people can buy food. Provide school feeding programs so children stay in school. Support resiliance efforts like community gardens and cereal banks. Because once they start showing up in the cities, it means they are already coming to the end of their resources. They have sold their assets. They have no food. This is happening now.
CARE did an assessment in one of the villages, and already we are seeing that there aren’t many young men and women left. They are leaving for the cities and towns, hoping to find work. And here in Niamey, people are already starting to show up at our doors. ‘Knock, knock’.
Donate to our West Africa Crisis appeal
Read more stories from the West Africa Food Crisis:
Niger: "food is the most basic need"
Mali: More than 235,000 people displaced by conflict
Staff blog: West Africa food crisis - the women of Maijanjaré - 30 March 2012
Staff blog: Mali and Niger - the worst time for refugees - 15 March 2012
Mother in Niger: I don't want to lose another child - 10 February 2012
Staff blog: Hunger comes calling in the cities of Niger - 24 January 2012
Millions face food crisis in Chad and Niger - 19 December 2011
Niger food crisis: hope and worries in Moujia - 26 October 2011
