please visit
the Hunger site and donate food every day for free. This is a great
site, but
it doesn't provide emergency relief, but it does help provide long term
help, especially
if one buys products through their store.
"http://www.thehungersite.com/"
peace and many blessings.
If anyone has any money left after financing the war
and destruction in Iraq, please help, urgent help needed now
to help save and feed a few kids instead of bombing them
or shooting at them for a change! Every little bit helps.
Oxfam: 3.6 million face starvation in Niger if the world does not
respond
More than three million people, including almost a million children,
will face starvation if the world continues to ignore the worsening
food crisis in Niger, said international aid agency Oxfam today.
"The situation is desperate. Even the limited food that is available
has soared in price rendering it unaffordable for most families and
there is no hope of any harvest for at least three months. Families are
feeding their children grass and leaves from the trees to keep them
alive," said Natasha Kafoworola Quist, Oxfam Great Britain’s Regional
Director for West Africa, currently in Niger.
UN appeals remain dangerously under-funded with only one third of the
money needed from international donors pledged. In many cases, even the
pledges that have been made have not translated into money arriving.
The failure to fund these appeals is putting lives at risk.
Oxfam experts in Niger are setting up a $2 million food support
program. Vouchers will be distributed to 130,000 people which can be
traded for food with local traders. Plans are also in place to help
28,000 nomadic herders to buy new animals for a fair price.
"Oxfam's program is saving lives but in the face of the level of need,
this is just a drop in the ocean. Almost four million people need food
aid now. The UN appeals need immediate funding to ensure that all those
in need receive help," said Quist.
The World Food Program (WFP) increased its appeal on July 12th asking
for a further $12 million to help the people in Niger to make it
through the next three months. The UN emergency appeal for $18.3
million, launched in May, remains less than a quarter funded. Between
them, the appeals are two thirds under-funded, with a total funding
shortfall of $26.5m.
"The UN needs money now. Every day that the world’s richest countries
look the other way, more people face starvation. They have to put their
hands in their pockets before it’s too late," added Quist.
Last year's locust invasion and rain failure during the agricultural
season have plunged nomadic herder and farming families into crisis.
Emaciated livestock, worth nothing, cannot be sold. The price of
cereals has more than doubled and no staple foods are available in the
markets.
Notes to Editors
The UN emergency flash appeal for Niger for $18.3 million was launched
in May 2005. It remains less than a quarter funded, with a shortfall of
$14.7m
"CRISIS COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED"
WFP, which is responsible for emergency food aid, initially asked for
$4.2 million to feed 465,000 people, aiming to help the poorest
households through the worst hunger period.
It said the tardy donor response, exacerbated by problems buying food
in the region, allowed the situation to worsen, forcing WFP to announce
last week it was tripling its operation to feed 1.2 million people and
ask for an extra $12 million.
Cirri said donors have so far funded 37 percent of the total appeal for
about $16 million from WFP, but other U.N. agencies like the children's
fund UNICEF have also had to increase the size of their appeals to deal
with the scale of the disaster.
"We missed the first train because of late funding and huge procurement
problems. We have no other solution than to ask for a huge amount of
money just to save those lives, otherwise we will have a tragedy,"
Cirri told Reuters by telephone.
OCHA appealed in New York on Tuesday for $500,000 in grants to set up a
fund to send relief as soon as warning signs emerge.
Niger's government, which is aiming to feed roughly 1.3 million people,
says it has had a paltry response to a June appeal for about 35 million
euros to replenish its mechanism to deal with the country's chronic
food shortages.
The former colonial power France announced it was donating 2 million
euros on Tuesday to add to an existing 3 million euro pledge for
Niger's food crisis this year.
Until France made its pledge the government said it had received a
total of about 240,000 euros from China and South Korea for the June
appeal, the vast majority donated by Beijing. (Additional reporting by
Abdoulaye Massalatchi in Niamey) (Editing by Rex Merrifield;
dakar.newsroom@reuters.com; tel: +221 864 5076)
How to help:
Please visit this site and give what you can, even 50 cents, a dollar,
whatever, every bit helps.
"http://www.wfp.org/"
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