By Niandou Ibrahim, May 17, 2013
“My daughter returns from far away… A true miracle,” repeats Adama Issaka without ceasing, caressing Firdaoussou, carrying and holding her very tightly. The mother and her daughter look each other in the eyes for a long time, in a moment of silence, then they both break out in laughter.
Firdaoussou is two years old and has really returned from far away. From very far away, actually. She is 24 months old, half of which she spent fighting death. She won this fight and celebrates it now every minute, every day with her mother in this touching complicity, imbued with smiles, winks, small gestures and tenderness.
Firdaoussou was born in May 2011 in the village of Bongoukoirey, in the region of Tillabéry. The little girl grew normally during the first 10 months of her life, breastfed by her mother. Her father spends most of his time in exodus, somewhere in Côte d’Ivoire. It was in March 2012 when Firdaoussou started suffering from malnutrition.
“A big number of children fell ill, wasted away, died. I was desperate for a moment. Towards the month of August I thought Firdaoussou was going to die… she had lost so much weight,” remembers Adama with sadness. A joint press release issued by the government, OCHA and some international aid agencies in March 2012rang the alarm bell: “The situation of the people, especially of the women and children, is quickly getting worse. The combination of a totality of factors, among them the agricultural and pasture deficits of the previous season, the price explosion of staple food, the depreciation of cattle and the rising levels of indebtedness of the households have considerably weakened the revenues and the access to nutrition of many families. For these people, the lean season has already begun: They don’t have any food storage left until the next harvest, which is scheduled for October.”
In the village of Bongoukoirey, it was observed that almost all of the women whose children suffered from malnutrition weren’t members of the women’s network Mata Masu Dubara (MMD). This group, composed of 99 women, organised several years ago to strengthen their resilience towards climate risks, among others, has developed a number of strategies with the support of CARE. Thus, besides their savings and loan associations, which enable them to develop activities generating individual revenues, they set up a granary to prevent the shortages of the stocks which usually occur between March and September every year.
They collectively planted vegetable gardens in order to enrich their children’s nutrition and they benefit from different trainings offered by CARE.
“Emergency response costs between 70 and 80 percent more than prevention,” says Johannes Schoors, CARE Niger Country Director.
Considering the scope of malnutrition in the village of Bongoukoirey and its surroundings, CARE trained some 20 local women from Mata Masu Dubara at the Foyer d’Apprentissage et de Réhabilitation Nutritionnelle (FARN). FARN is the product of a long process of experimentation that has been conducted in Niger since 2001 through CARE and that facilitates prevention and non-medical care of malnutrition in a collective setting. Consequently, the 20 Mata Masu Dubara-trained women provided more culinary demonstrations of how to produce nutritious food for children, inviting women to participate – whether they were part of MMD or not.
“I’ve never missed a FARN session. And you can tell,” explains Adama, while she looks intensely at Firdaoussou.
A story of solidarity. A story of a collective, community-led response which is an efficient, effective way to fight the recurring problem of malnutrition. A proof of resilience, strengthened by the MMD groups. And all this has contributed to save lives and give back the smiles to Adama and Firdaoussou.