TAHOUA,
Niger, July 30 (British Red Cross) - There is no phase of a
large-scale humanitarian operation that could be said to be
easy. One of the most demanding, however, is the meticulous
planning required to ensure that the distribution of food does
not do more harm than good.
“It can be frustrating," says Peter Pearce, team
leader of the British Red Cross Emergency Response Unit, which
has been deployed in the hunger-stricken West African country
of Niger for a week now.
"The food is there in the warehouse, people are starving,
you want to move ahead, but you can't rush into a distribution
just like that," he says.
Since last Sunday, Peter and his team of five have fanned out
across three of Niger's most seriously affected provinces -
Tahoua, Maradi and Agadez - where they have been working almost
round the clock to set up the essential logistical infrastructure
in readiness for food distributions.
They join colleagues from the French Red Cross, who are also
working in Zinder province, the Spanish Red Cross and specialists
from the Red Cross Federation in Geneva. They have all come
together in response to the country's alarming food crisis,
along with the colossal mobilization of the world's other leading
humanitarian agencies.
Critical timing
"Much as you might like to, you just can't drive into a
village and start chucking food out of the back of a lorry,"
explains Peter. "People could get killed."
Aside from the danger that a hungry crowd could turn violent
in its desperation, members of the ERU have spent the last week
probing the most vulnerable areas, hiring and training local
volunteers and locating adequate warehousing.
The wait is almost over. Distributions of food supplied by the
World Food Programme (WFP) in the four provinces where the Red
Cross is working will begin on August 5. All will be aimed at
vulnerable children under five years old and their families.
In the village of Tigar, some 15km west of Tahoua town, the
level of need becomes all too apparent.
"There's no meat, there's no milk, there's no grain, and
our animals have died," says Zeinabou, a 40-year-old widow
and mother of 10. "For one year it's been like this,"
she says, pointing to the bowl of dried grass that, along with
small quantities of vegetable oil, has become the staple diet
here.
Zeinabou and the rest of her village have assembled for a small
distribution of millet and dates by the Niger Red Cross. The
distribution is minuscule in comparison to the needs nationwide.
But the dedicated national Society is doing what it can to join
the aid effort.
"I volunteered to help my country, my people are suffering,"
says Ousseini Razikou, 29, one of the Red Cross workers helping
distribute the food.
Lessons learned
For Eric Rossi, a French Red Cross logistician attached to the
British ERU, the Tagar distribution vividly demonstrates the
dangers that could arise in a larger scale distribution. At
one point, the villagers surge forward, swamping the Red Cross
volunteers. Order is quickly restored, but it is not hard to
see how quickly the situation could collapse.
"There's always a risk that a crowd could start out calm
and then turn angry," he says. "We have to be incredibly
careful."
Back in Tahoua town, a training session is under way run by
nutritionist Mija Ververs from Red Cross Secretariat in Geneva.
With the aid of scales and a wooden height-measuring device,
she's teaching a group of 10 local nurses and volunteers how
to identify the children who are most in need of supplementary
nutrition.
Her trainees will be staffing the one of the three main feeding
centres in Tahoua region opening next week. From each of those
centres, the Red Cross will supply a further seven to 12 satellite
centres. It is a model that will be largely replicated around
all four regions in which the organization is now operating.
"In some ways, every day is a lost day. We know that they
need this food now. But we have to prepare, we have to train
the people, otherwise this operation just can't happen,"
Mija says.
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A
Niger Red Cross truck carrying food aid crosses a river
on its way to Tigar, where the vital supplies will be
distributed. Photo: Mark Snelling/British Red Cross (p13041)
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Villagers
in drought-hit Tigar, Niger, gather for a Red Cross food
distribution. A combination of drought and a locust invasion
has left many parts of the Sahel region desperately short
of food. Photo: Mark Snelling/British Red Cross
(p13045)
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Children
wait in line at a Red Cross food distribution in Tigar.
The International Federation’s operations seeks
to assist 23,000 moderately malnourished children in four
provinces of Niger with supplementary food distributions.
Photo: Mark Snelling/British Red Cross (p13046)
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