Niger: rain and recovery
Thursday 26 August 2010 by Amy Reed
In the UK, it rains heavily and it’s annoying. In Niger it rains heavily and – if you’re poor, and you probably are – it’s economic breakdown.
Amy Reed
I’ve been working with Save the Children for three years, first in London and now as part of the emergency response team as an Information and Communications Officer. It’s my job to get information to the people who need it, at the right time and in a format that works for them, such as briefings to donors, photos to fundraisers, meetings with the media or conversations with children – and this blog for you!
Niger: Abuda’s story
Wednesday 25 August 2010 by Amy Reed
Women like Abuda live all over Niger. With almost no education, support, or resources they’re still coming up with intelligent ways to support themselves and their families. They’re enterprising and they’re finding their own ways out of poverty, but they live in one of the hardest places in the world.
Niger: Pastoralists facing major hardships
Monday 16 August 2010 by Amy Reed
Unless the rain becomes more regular soon, another year’s crops may fail. If that happens, this food crisis is going to escalate even further leaving pastoral and agricultural families across Niger even more desperate.
Happy birthday Niger!
Tuesday 3 August 2010 by Amy Reed
Today is the 50th anniversary of Niger’s independence from France and there’s a party mood in the capital, Niamey. The office is closed, Ramadan begins in about a week, and people are taking the chance to have fun.
Niger: We must have community workers to find those in need
Monday 2 August 2010 by Amy Reed
We need community workers, cars and fuel to physically go out, find these children, bring them back and save their lives.
And we need to help families in the longer term. They need food now, but they also needs to be protected from having to sell seeds and tools for just a few days of food.
Niger: crisis making the world news
Friday 23 July 2010 by Amy Reed
We’ve been worried that this would be a silent emergency where few people knew or cared about children in Niger, but this week alone people have been in touch from Austalia, Korea, Italy, Spain, Canada and the UK – it’s great that this crisis is making it onto the world’s media agenda.
Niger: 7.7 million people are going hungry
Monday 19 July 2010 by Amy Reed
7.7 million people are going hungry. 127,000 children under five years old have been admitted to hospital for malnutrition-related problems since the start of the year. That’s like having a city the size of Oxford full of no one but starving babies and toddlers. It’s terrifying.
Emergency expertise to match the situation
Tuesday 22 June 2010 by Amy Reed
I’m leaving Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in two days. I’ll head first to Kinshasa and then back to London. After that I’m off to Niger. I’m going from rainforest at the equator to desert near the tropic of cancer, from a balmy 20 degrees to a 40 degree oven, from years of conflict and risks to children’s protection to a massive food crisis and appalling levels of malnutrition.
Congo: keeping children safe in an emergency
Tuesday 15 June 2010 by Amy Reed
In 2009, as part of our ongoing work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Save the Children trained men and women to identify vulnerable children, record their details, and keep them safe while their parents were traced, or foster families could be found. Three weeks ago a wall of earth four metres high and 150 metres wide engulfed the same community and turned at least 39 children into orphans.
Congo: This week we’re ghostbusters
Friday 11 June 2010 by Amy Reed
We’ve learnt from the UN education co-ordination meeting that we’ve accidently given out evil spirits in our education kits. The programme manager is confused— she didn’t order any evil spirits — and the logistician can’t find a record of them passing through the warehouse. But there they are, in the school kits, and a child has been hurt by one. Families are taking their school kits to be blessed by the priest and we’re going to each school to apologise.
