Samaritan's Purse is responding to the famine in Niger
July 2005

Samaritan's Purse is responding to the state of emergency declared by the government of Niger due to general shortage of food in the country with our partners SIM

The crisis in the south of the country has been caused by a drought and a plague of locusts which destroyed much of last year ' s harvest. Niger is a vast desert country and one of the poorest on earth. Millions of people, a third of the population, face food shortages.

Samaritan's Purse is working with Serving in Mission (SIM) who already work in the Galmi region of Niger , where they have a mission hospital. The area covers Galmi , Madaoua , Konni , Malbaza , and Tahoua .

We aim to to provide relief to families that are most in need, especially among the villages most severely affected in the region.

We want to address the immediate shortage of food due to the poor harvest in the country during the last farming year, as well as the need of families whose food reserves have either run out or are about to run out.

• The evaluation of individual family needs and distribution of the food from this project will be carried out entirely by Nigeriens .
• The first level of involvement will be the Nigerien members of the hospital administration at Galmi Hospital .
• The hospital staff will oversee the regional distribution of food through church leaders to each locality.
• At the local village level the pastor, with the elders of the church, will form a committee, which will supervise the distribution of their specific church or village allocation.

If you would like to make a donation to relieve the suffering of people in this area of Niger , you can give online.  Please designate your gift for ' Niger Famine Relief '

See Hilary Andersson's report on BBC News about the famine in Niger .

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