'Thanks to you, our bellies are full'

On a hot September day, I witnessed a sea of men and women, dressed in vibrant jewel tones, amassed in the center of Sabarou, a dusty, brown village in Niger. The mood was hopeful: They ' d come to receive emergency food rations distributed by Lutheran World Relief and local partners. That day 170 appreciative families received bags of millet, Niger's staple food.

A few weeks earlier, Sabarou had been all but deserted.

"All but two families left the village in January because there was no food," said Halima, a young mother whose easygoing smile belies her hard life. "I walked for 48 hours to Dakoro, spending the night on the road with my three young children." She worked odd jobs there until she could afford a ride to Maradi, the nearest large city three hours away. She cleaned houses there to earn money to feed her family.

Halima and other villagers returned home when they heard LWR was distributing food in Sabarou on behalf of Action by Churches Together, an international aid alliance, and partially financed by a $100,000 gift from the ELCA.

Distributing emergency provisions saves lives in a crisis such as Niger's food shortage, which was caused by poor rains, locust swarms and rising prices. But emergency food is a stopgap measure, not a permanent solution. Insufficient food is a chronic problem in Niger-where 82 percent of people rely on subsistence agriculture-and one that must be addressed at its roots.

For the last 30 years, LWR has worked with villages, constructing wells and grain banks, providing loans so women can start small businesses, and training farmers in improved agricultural techniques and crop diversification. Communities provide input for the projects to address the causes of the food shortage.

Visiting in September, I was struck by the contrast between villages where LWR has begun long-term development work and those where it hasn't. LWR-supported villages have a lifesaving buffer in these lean times. Children are healthier, and parents are strong enough to work in the fields. In other communities, I saw severely malnourished children whose parents are too weak to work in their fields and have nothing to fall back on. In some instances, mere miles separate such villages. Yet it seemed as if I was in two different countries.

Overseas, poor communities become less vulnerable as LWR works to strengthen them before disasters strike, training them in preparedness and improving such infrastructure as retention walls and drainage systems. In areas like Niger, it's not only less expensive to prevent a food crisis-some experts contrast $ 1 spent on preventive measures to $80 for emergency food distributions-it exacts a less severe human cost. Villages and individual families suffer lost dignity when proud people resort to depending on outside assistance for survival. LWR also stays for the long haul, providing aid in ways that uplift dignity and restore communities.

In a village where LWR has taught improved agricultural techniques and funded small business start-ups ,a leader told us: "Last year we had not one grain of harvest. Thanks to you, this year our bellies are full."

Wolford is president of Lutheran World Relief, Baltimore. For more information or to help, visit www.lwr.org or call (800) 597-5972.

Copyright Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Nov 2005
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