Catholic relief agencies respond to crisis in Niger

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September 2005

Catholic relief agencies respond to crisis in Niger
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Catholic relief agencies respond to crisis in Niger
August 17, 2005, Baltimore, MD - Catholic Relief Services is responding to the acute food crisis in Niger with the help of Catholic international relief and development agencies in several European nations.

CRS has been distributing more than 991 metric tons of emergency food supplies 3⁄4 millet, beans and cooking oil 3⁄4 that it purchased locally with funding provided by the Irish government and four Catholic overseas relief and development agencies:

· CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, the overseas development and relief agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

· Cordaid, a Catholic international development organization based in the Netherlands.

· SCIAF, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, the official overseas development fund of the Scottish Bishops' Conference.

· Trocaire, the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Additional funding was provided by the Fred B. Snite Foundation.

“Today as hunger and famine stalk the populations living on the edge of the Sahara desert, the compassion of Catholics around the world gives testimony to our deep concern and solidarity for our poorest, most vulnerable brothers and sisters," said Ken Hackett, CRS president.

Two-thirds of the emergency food rations, purchased locally for $640,000, were dispatched to Niger’s Tanout province and a third was sent to the province of Dogondoutchi. It was carried on trucks arranged by CRS and distributed by CRS national and international staff. The emergency distribution, which began August 11, was the first actual food relief to arrive in either of those places since the international community began responding to the crisis in Niger and the rest of the Sahel region of Africa. Some 42,500 people will be given emergency food rations in those two places.

Along with CRS, all four of these Catholic relief and development agencies are members of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social service organizations working in over 200 countries and territories. CRS continues to work closely with Caritas Niger, another Caritas Internationalas member, in responding to the emergency. CRS and Caritas Niger are planning several long-term livelihood rehabilitation activities.

CRS has been active in Niger since 1991, beginning as a small satellite office of the program in neighboring Burkina Faso. CRS now has an office in Niamey, and three field offices in Dosso, Dongondoutchi and Zinder.

For the last five years, CRS, in a coalition with Africare, CARE and Helen Keller International, has managed a $27.5 million dollar development program to provide better agriculture, health and nutrition, education and HIV-AIDS prevention to the most vulnerable people of the second-poorest country in the world.

Catholic Relief Services is the official humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. The agency provides assistance to people in 99 countries and territories based on need, regardless of race, nationality or creed.

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