Starving children in Niger

[Submariner]

Last night Nightline postponed a previously planned program to focus on the present danger the people of Niger are facing with starvation and thirst. Those poor souls have nothing and are even eating the rotten carcasses of putrefied decomposing cattle. It is disgusting and extremely sad. It was said that U.S. aid is two weeks away! They need food and water NOW!

I thought when watching Nightline, that Bush, Condi et al would hear about it and dispatch some C-130s from Germany, or where-ever, and at least emergency drop some food and water NOW given acceleration of the death rate in the past few days. Of the billions we waste on killing Arabs and Muslims, one would think the U.S. could spend a little bit of that and really save some lives. The video of starving toddlers and infants was especially gruesome.

I have heard nothing on the news all day today from Bush, Laura, or Condi, who are the first 3 I would think to state something about a rescue plan. Has anyone heard anything on the news about the U.S. helping out in Niger NOW? It would be incredibly disgraceful for us if the Chimp does not take action on this NOW.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. ** doesn't care about brown people

[Sapphire Blue]

2. Contact the White House & demand action.

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http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

[Sapphire Blue]

3. Send a message to the Secretary of State

http://contact-us.state.gov/ask_form_cat/ask_form_secretary.html

[bennywhale]

4. Give some money

Get on the web have a look around and give some money.

I've donated through an advert i saw in a newspaper a couple of weeks ago.

Niger has been pleading for aid since last November as they knew their crops would fail due to a plague of locusts and drought.

And while Blair and Bush sent sweet words to Africa at Gleneagles the other week, children were unable to stand up or speak or cry or laugh due to hunger. they are now dead.

But don't forget the "War on terror" is the most pressing issue for humankind at the moment. Musn't get sidetracked now.

[eissa]

5. Let's see

starving black children vs. missing white girl -- which of these gets 24/7 coverage?

[Sapphire Blue]

6. Which one gets the most posts?

[Sapphire Blue]

10. Starving Black children - 10 replies; missing white girl -numerous threads

... W/hundreds of replies. :cry:


"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Sapphire Blue]

7. Emergency in Niger: MSF Operations Overview (Doctors Without Borders)

July 27, 2005

Emergency in Niger: MSF Operations Overview

July 27, 2005 – In Niger, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is operating in the regions of Maradi and Tahoua where it is treating children suffering from severe malnutrition* and bringing food and medical aid to children suffering from moderate malnutrition*. To successfully carry out its projects, MSF has mobilized 50 international aid workers and 450 locally hired staff. For the whole of 2005, MSF plans to distribute 8,450 tons of food, and the provisional budget of this emergency operation amounts to 9 million euros ($10.8 million).

Severe malnutrition: 12,600 children already admitted

MSF is currently providing treatment to children suffering from severe malnutrition through five intensive nutritional rehabilitation centers and 26 ambulatory nutritional centers. The Maradi center was opened in 2001, while the centers in Aguié, Dakoro, Tahoua, and Keita have opened since May 2005 to cope with the emergency.

Between January and mid-July 2005, MSF has admitted 12,600 severely malnourished children to these centers. The admission rate has increased dramatically since June. On average 1000 children are being admitted per week. For the whole of 2005, MSF expects to treat approximately 30,000 children suffering from severe malnutrition. Last year, 10,000 children were admitted to the MSF feeding center in Maradi.

Continued @ http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/2005/07-27-2005_1.cfm


Donate to Doctors Without Borders @ http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/index.cfm

[journalist3072]

8. Yep, I read about this the other day...

And my heart just got so heavy. I guess the only interest the Bush administration has regarding Niger, was to see if they were selling yellowcake uranium to Iraq! They don't care about starving children in Niger.

Oh, and BTW, the Doctors Without Borders network has been trying to shine a spotlight on this, so if you want to help those starving in Niger, then support Doctors Without Borders.

[OhioBlue]

9. I saw a news piece on this the other night too.

The situation is horrible and there a real children suffering. I beleive our Government must do something immediately. I wrote my congressional reps - but they're all R's. The Dem's need to push this and hard for anything to be done quickly.

[rumpel]

11. I saw a German report (possibly UNICEF Germany) of some 800,000 children

are at starvation risk.

[Sapphire Blue]

12. Famine in Niger threatens 800,000 children

Famine in Niger threatens 800,000 children

By Rachel Bonham Carter

NEW YORK, 27 July 2005 – Hunger and malnutrition are threatening the lives of 3.6 million people in Niger – among them 800,000 children under five. UNICEF and its partners have made an emergency appeal for $12 million as famine threatens to spread through the region.

“Out of these 800,000 children, 250,000 are already malnourished, and 30,000 of them are severely malnourished,” said UNICEF Programme Officer Enrico Leonardi.

“The problem is facing Niger now. Unfortunately, we risk seeing it in neighbouring countries, like Nigeria, Mali, and Burkina Faso. We need to tackle this problem as soon as possible, before the situation of these countries deteriorates to become like Niger.”

continued @ http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/niger_27798.html

Donate to UNICEF @ http://www.supportunicef.org/site/pp.asp?c=iuI1LdP0G&b=45523

[Sapphire Blue]

13. kick

:kick:

[ultraist]

14. The warnings have been coming for months and were ignored!

MARADI, Niger (AP) -- Nasseiba Ali is the face of hunger in Niger. The 20-month-old girl weighs just 12 pounds, and her eyes are clouded at night, one of the symptoms of her chronic malnourishment.


A malnourished child is fed through a tube at a feed center Saturday, July 23, in Maradi, Niger. According to aid agency Oxfam, about one-third of the 3.6 million people facing starvation in Niger are children



http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/07/24/children.in.distress.ap/index.html

The warnings have been coming for months. The United Nations first appealed for assistance in November and got almost no response. Another appeal for $16 million in March generated about $1 million. The latest appeal on May 25 for $30 million has received about $10 million.

But the need is great and growing in this desert nation of 11.3 million regularly ranked among the world's least developed. When the first appeal was made, only $1 per day, per person would have helped solve the food crisis, the U.N. has said. Now that the situation has worsened and people are weaker, $80 will be needed per person.

"It's the worst I've seen," said Hassan Balla, a primary school teacher in Tarna, a village just outside Maradi. "What is happening is really ugly. I've seen people eat leaves ... live like animals."

[Sapphire Blue]

15. ...

:kick:

[Skwmom]

19. If this received the coverage of the missing girl in Aruba,

millions could be raised.

Why didn't Live 8 include an appeal for funds in addition to asking people to make their voices heard? It could have raised a lot of $$$$.

[jobycom]

16. Wonder what $200 billion could have done there

How many more allies we would have made, how much more we would have spread true American values, how many terrorists we would have defused, if we had spent the money in Niger instead of Iraq.

[Sapphire Blue]

17. Wouldn't that have been the real pro-life thing to do?

Yet the money keeps pouring into death in Iraq, and into Halliburton's pockets.

[ConfuZed]

18. We continue to dump money into africa and they continue to starve

:wtf: is going on and when will certain parts of africa begin to become self reliant like most other nations?

[AuntPatsy]

22. Thats why I find so called reputable charities hard to fathom

when someone asked is such existed, it is indeed heartbreaking and definately questionable why such is still continuing in such high numbers in certain areas..

Of course as in some cases, what food and medical supplies are given to those in need are in many instances stolen by those that are forcing these situtions in a never ending cycle of untold violence against these innocent people, meaning, their own countrymen...

[Sapphire Blue]

20. kick

[journalist3072]

21. Let's get real

George Bush and Condi Rice could give a flying flig about starving childen in Niger.

The only interest they have in Niger, is whether Iraq walked down the yellowcake road there!

Starving children? Forget about it!

In all seriousness though, this story just breaks my heart. I feel so powerless to help.

[Mojorabbit]

23. Are there any links where

one might donate. This breaks my heart.

[Sapphire Blue]

24. See posts 7 & 12