Fight Famine in Niger – You Will Save So Many Children’s Lives

I have never used RS Snapshot for fundraising, but am making an exception this week.  Please share this post so that it will be seen by as many people as possible. Thank you.

Nicholas Kristoff ran a post in ‘On the Ground,’, his New York Times blog, by Shawn Baker, a director for Hellen Keller International, who has lived and worked in Africa for 25 years, nine of them in one of the world’s poorest countries, Niger.  You can read that post here. Baker and Kristoff are sounding an alarm about the onset of  a severe famine throughout that country. Niger is north of Nigeria, bordering the Sahara desert.  There is so much suffering in the world calling for our attention that Niger is easy to overlook.

My personal stake in asking you to give now, while so many lives can still be saved, comes from a mere week spent in Niger during my Pfizer Global Fellowship in 2004. That week was spent interviewing staff, volunteers and beneficiaries of  local not-for-profits teaching AIDS prevention skills to their fellow Haussa and Tuareg tribe members.  In my experience, nothing makes a crisis real like knowing individuals who are affected.  I can’t bear the thought of what  is about to happen to the people I met and the people they care so much about.

My goal in this post is to introduce you to some of these people.  Following is an article based on my interviews with Hed Tamat and three video snipits of their troupe  (taken accidentally!) when I was accompanying them to a village where they would give an AIDS awareness musical theater show.  The roads this close to the Sahara aren’t paved and the first two snipits show how one of the vehicles had gotten stuck.  The third snipit shows village men racing their camels to welcome us.

Agadez, NIGER—How is HIV/AIDS prevention taught in communities where sex is a taboo topic? “By the neighbors, if
you want to get the discussion off the ground,” would be Mohammed Akser’s reply. Akser, a founder of the Niger NGO Hed Tamat and director of Hed Tamat’s AIDS prevention education theatrical troupe is doing exactly that. Hed Tamat performs in the towns and villages of Niger’s remote north, a territory bordering the Sahara desert. This is the region where Akser and his actors and musicians grew up. As a result, they find that wherever they go at least one member of the troupe was born there or has family there “When I was a student in Niamey (Niger’s capital city) I acted in a university cultural troupe,” says Akser. “I saw that people are much more receptive to information when it is presented through music, drama and humor.” Although HIV prevalence is .47 percent in Niger, Akser worries that this will change rapidly if people don’t learn how to protect themselves from the virus. His fear is based on northern Niger’s new status as the “Doorway to the West” for Africans willing to take their chances crossing the Sahara in an effort to reach Europe. Agadez, the region’s capital city, is filled with people from all over West Africa waiting an average of two months before securing their passage across the desert, most on the back of large, flatbed trucks. Many of
these people come from countries with higher HIV prevalence rates and less conservative sexual practices than the Agadez region’s predominantly Muslim population. When developing skits and writing songs for the troupe, Akser
collaborates closely with Maman Sani, a male nurse at the Attre medical clinic, located 30 kilometers from Agadez and a fiveto- ten kilometer walk for the residents of many of the region’s villages. Answering patients’ questions every day, Sani knows what the villagers understand and what they don’t. Hed Tamat’s challenge is to explain that HIV is sexually transmitted without going into detail. If villagers were to decide that Hed Tamat’s presentations are indecent, word would quickly spread and local communities would no longer welcome the troupe. To ensure that they get the word out, Akser and his troupe inform villagers that HIV is primarily spread “by the sexual path.” In their songs and skits they promote abstinence for the single, fidelity for the married and urge people unable to adhere to these to visit Sani
at the clinic for detailed information on how they can protect themselves. They also emphasize the importance of sterilizing needles and scissors to avoid exposure to blood. A Hed Tamat performance is a major event. In the village of Tchintabouragh, the troupe was greeted by men racing white camels, waving swords over their heads, ululating women in sparkling shawls and gowns and a welcome committee headed by the Marabou, the village headman. The troupe set
up their stage and lighting and sound systems and waited for the sun to set before beginning. The wait would give village shepherds time to settle their flocks for the night and the dark would make it possible for performers and audience alike to avoid the intense desert heat. Working with a village management committee, Akser tailors performances for each audience, emphasizing different themes during repeat visits. In Tchintabouragh, the troupe began with five young women singing “AIDS is Very Dangerous” and “AIDS Attacks the Organism,” accompanied by drums and an electric guitar. For many in the audience, this was the first guitar they had ever seen. For many it was the first time they had heard of HIV/AIDS. While everyone laughed uproariously at a skit showing the predicament of a philandering husband, they led off the Q&A session asking why HIV/AIDS, a blood-born disease, isn’t carried by mosquitoes like malaria. Sani, the clinic nurse, participated, warning the audience “You must practice prevention
like we have explained here. Being Muslim will not protect you from AIDS.” After responding to a question about how to live safely with someone infected with HIV, Sani declared: “Our religion says we are not permitted to reject someone because they are sick. The whole village should give that person love until the end.” Akser knows that for Niger, the second poorest country in the world, an informed population is the most effective weapon against HIV/AIDS. He also knows that, like people everywhere, the population around Agadez will only accept information from people they trust. In villages like Tchintabouragh, that means the information must come from someone they know. So, Akser
and Hed Tamat will continue taking their message throughout.

NOTE: When you click on a video link, you will need to click on the smaller ” redo” link and than select windows media player in order to view.  If you know how to improve this, please let me know!

MVI_0761 redo MVI_0763 redo MVI_0764 redo

Donations to Hellen Keller International, Catholic Relief Services and Action Against Hunger will be directed to Niger’s neediest populations.  Thank you for reading this and sharing it.

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