European Commissioner for humanitarian aid response visits GOAL in Niger
26 January 2012
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| Kristilina Georgieva speaks with GOAL beneficiaries alongside GOAL's Ann Bourke and Adam Djibo |
Ms. Georgieva, who was on a four-day visit to the region, met with GOAL staff and spent some time at Mirriah Hospital, where GOAL is currently funding the construction of an intensive therapeutic feeding centre for malnourished children.
GOAL works closely with our local health partner, BEFEN, and the international NGO, ALIMA, funding their nutrition treatment project, while GOAL’s field staff concentrate on the prevention and mitigation of food crises in Zinder.
The Commissioner also took time to speak with a number of women from some of the rural villages in GOAL’s food security project area and heard how they were benefitting from the European Commission’s ECHO-funded GOAL programme of support. Locals explained the positive impact that the GOAL programme has had – and continues to have - in their villages, some of which had never received any form of humanitarian support prior to 2011.
Focused on the prevention of malnutrition across 40 villages in Zinder’s Mirriah district, the GOAL programme has served the local population by combining food security projects (including gardening and irrigation, and goat distributions), livelihoods (consisting of cash-for-work and cash transfer projects) and nutrition interventions (which
involves nutrition awareness, meal preparation, and identification and referral of malnourished children).
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| Ms. Georgieva meets a mother and baby at one of the GOAL-funded clinics in Zinder |
More than five million people are currently going hungry in Niger with poor harvests, drought and attacks on crops by crickets all being blamed. The EU Commissioner has warned that 1.7 million children across Niger and the Sahel are in a "vulnerable situation".
Launching an appeal for international aid, Ms Georgieva said the EU "has more than doubled its aid for the Sahel," to assist the region in its fight against an impending food crisis.
GOAL believes that the promise of early ECHO funding could help prevent millions of deaths from malnutrition in Niger. The hungry season, which usually commences in March or April, is now expected to affect many vulnerable communities as early as January.