Presecal, letter of a volunteer
The PROXEL project set up by VSF Belgium has been working for more than 2 years on development aid for stock-farming and for farmers in the district of Dakoro in the region of Maradi, in Niger. Before the very crucial results of the last cereal harvest from the drought period, a project to Improve the Food Security (PRESECAL) was set up with the support of the Belgian government.
The objective of the project is to support the most vulnerable households of the district and to help them bridge the gap between the end of the harvest time and the beginning of the rainy season. (These three months are the most difficult for agro herders to plan their food supplies). This support takes place by the sale of grains at low prices to the most vulnerable households.
In this context, I have been given the authority as a VSF-Belgium volunteer to help and support the project and I assist the supervisor of the operation. My work consists of identifying the most vulnerable households in the region and updating the dispatch procedures, the distribution and the supervision of the operation on the ground.
Our operation is going to put close to 1 000 tons of grain at the disposition of the population thanks to PRESECAL. I am very happy to participate in this project which is going to enable help to almost 30 000 people during this difficult period and to save the inhabitants from the famine which is waiting to happen. have, for the moment, carried out numerous missions on the ground, which aim to evaluate the nutritional conditions of the people and the means by which to help them. In this way, I went to the area of the pastoral zone and there was a little time to meet with these people.
In the most northern part of this region, at the edge of the big Ténéré desert, the conditions are very hard. It has not rained in most of this area since about a year ago and it is a very difficult environment and relatively hostile to both human and animal life. There is no more pasture, the heat of the sun is overwhelming, and it is almost impossible to find a piece of shade. Nonetheless the communities are settled in this area and are actually trying to survive here.
Lets take for example the village of Kouloua. It is situated in a pastoral area more than 60km to the north of the first town of any importance, Gadabeji. This town is already situated about 2 hours away by car from Dakoro. But here the people only have carts..... The Fula community there comprises of about 450 people. You can meet there some men, but mostly women and young children, because the most able bodied have left the village through rural depopulation. They hope in this way that they can help their families who remain in the village. But whilst waiting for the rainy season which the people hope for very strongly, the populations suffer from hunger and unhealthy conditions.
The water is not drinkable and there is not nearly enough millet. Therefore they have to travel very long distances by carts pulled by exhausted animals in order to obtain a small amount of millet and a can of water. To help them hold on and bridge the gap on until the end of this most difficult period, the PRESECAL project tries to supply the means of subsistence by bringing them the millet needed for the survival of the most vulnerable in each community.
It is very positive for me to feel useful in this way to these people who lack everything but who offer the little that they have. They share their tea, they enjoy their boule (a local preparation based on millet), and despite the language barrier, we laugh together. But the situation is so precarious in this place that they go so far as to tell me that, although they are animal herders and the cattle is their only resource "Today, it is necessary to save the people, the animals will come afterwards".
The mission of the PRESECAL project takes its meaning from this and I truly feel the real consequences of my action and those of VSF-Belgium in this way. The international solidarity which inspires us must continue because the people hope and wait for our aid. The PROXEL project which was set up here more than 2 years ago cannot be allowed to stop because of the lack of rain and the purpose of PRESECAL was to permit the continuity of the longer-term (PROXEL) project.
Benoît
VSF-Belgium Volunteer
Project PRESECAL