impact october 2012

OCTOBER 2012

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Humanitarian programming

ContEntS

01 Directors’ letter

02 Region: From the Sahel to the Horn: protecting children in Africa’s humanitarian crises

08 The Sahel Speaking up in a crisis: advocacy in the Sahel

10 The Horn of Africa Making a difference through humanitarian advocacy

12 East Africa Accountability mechanisms: giving communities real power

14 Kenya Building greater resilience in Wajir

15 SomalilandA drought, four boys and a ball

16 Niger Case study: Hadiza Moussa, 49

18 Malawi It only takes vegetables

20 Mali On the frontlines of the food crisis in the Sahel

22 Mali Education: the hidden victim of the food crisis

26 Mali No choice but to leave

28 Somalia and Ethiopia Nutrition in Bokolmayo refugee camp

30 Cote d’Ivoire ‘Blood Bank’ in Western Cote d’Ivoire: a Save the Children pilot project

02 10 12 18 28

impact Humanitarian 01

WElComE to impaCt

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We are pleased to dedicate this issue of impact to the pertinent topic of humanitariancrises and response.Children are especially vulnerable during outbreaks of conflict, famine, drought and

disease. Realizing this, Save the Children is dedicated to protecting vulnerable boys andgirls during short-term disasters and ongoing, complex emergencies.Across Africa, Save the Children is working with communities, civil society, partners

and government to increase resilience and reduce vulnerability to future humanitariancrisis; and to understand and prepare for the impacts of climate change.Some of our most important work is taking place in West Africa, where we have

been fighting a growing hunger emergency with key health interventions (e.g. lifesavingtherapeutic feeding), far-reaching community improvement projects (e.g. building wellsand rainwater barrels), and large-scale cash transfers. In Niger alone $18 million in lifesaving and resilience building projects are being implemented.Across the continent in the Horn of Africa, we are tackling malnutrition by providing

emergency feeding and care for children. In Somaliland, we are linking schools, commu-nities and local governments to knowledge on current and future hazards. This hasresulted in children developing risk and adaptation plans that will be implemented withthe support of their community and local authorities, whilst ensuring that theircommunities have the capacity to diversify their livelihoods.This issue intends to shed light on the realities of Africa’s ongoing humanitarian

crises, showcasing how Save the Children’s programmes have made a powerful impacton the communities where we operate along the way. Thank you for your continued support as we work to protect the most vulnerable

before, during, and after times of crisis.

Sincerely,Save the Children Directors in Africa

Families need help urgently, their lives hanging dangerously in the balance as donors aremoving far too slowly to respond to the crisis in the Sahel region. This crisis is fastbecoming one of the hardest to fund in decades.

—Jasmine WhitbreadJune 18,2012—remark made when the EU made another

40 million Euros in humanitarian aid available to West Africa’s Sahel region

02 impact Humanitarian

Families living in East Africa and in the Sahel region of West Africa are facing increasedvulnerability due to the effects of drought, crop shortages, rising food prices, andinsecurity in neighbouring countries. The result is that millions of people are currentlysuffering from extreme hunger and / or displacement. Children are the most vulnerablein any emergency and in West Africa alone, of the 18 million people currently facing ahunger crisis, an estimated one million of these are children under the age of five.

From the Sahel to the Horn:protecting children in Africa’s humanitarian crises

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Hadjara's daughter Farieda, two, is acutely malnourished with complications. Theyhave been collected from their local rural health clinic by save the children healthworker Mohammed Nassirou to be registered as an impatient at Aguie stabilisationcentre, Maradi, Niger.

Humanitarian CriSES


Such numbers are hard to fathom and deeply worrying. Save the Children isproviding humanitarian assistance to alleviate this suffering and prevent the needlessdeaths for the poorest families by providing access to food, water, medicine and othersupport for children and their families.Our commitment to delivering humanitarian assistance, including protection, material

assistance, and life-sustaining services, is grounded in Save the Children’s theory ofchange: to innovate, be the voice and achieve results at scale, all the while buildingpartnerships with other stakeholders.To date, there are 80 plus countries that have an established Save the Children

presence. Each country represents a different level of humanitarian need and risk,ranging from negligible to exceptionally high levels of vulnerability. Twenty-fourcountries are on our Priority Country Support List, however due to resourceconstraints the first 12 countries on the list will be prioritised for support in 2013. As we transition into Save the Children International, we will improve how we

respond to emergencies, and two new components that are integral to fulfilling thisgoal are outlined below:

A new system for declaring emergenciesSave the Children International (SCI), in consultation with members, has devised acategorisation framework (Cat 1—extraordinary, Cat 2—large, Cat 3—medium andCat 4—small) to help us to better measure and plan our resource allocation/investment in response to humanitarian crises. Humanitarian crises can range fromextraordinary disasters that affect millions of lives and demand the mobilisation ofmassive organisational resources, through to a localised crisis, capturing little externalattention or interest. To date, Save the Children has had only one system for capturing the scale of a crisis

and the level of investment required; defining humanitarian crises as either declared, ornon-declared. The process of declaration remains applicable to large humanitariancrises where there is the opportunity for significant levels of communication, mediaprofile and fundraising to leverage resources, international support and raise the profileof affected children. However, with only two to five declarations per year in recentyears, there is an acknowledged need to better respond to and resource non-declaredcrises as well. The new categorisation system enables us to hold the Save the Childrensystem to account for delivering a response that meets our humanitarian response goaland benchmarks (scale, quality, timeliness etc.). It will also help better clarify why Savethe Children prioritises a given crisis, ensuring better coordination between all relevantstakeholders.

Harira, twenty nine, cradles her son Mousba, fourteen months, and daughterFatila, 45 days, at her home in Souki village, Zinder region, Niger. Mousba, wasidentified as being severely malnourished by a Save the Children community fieldofficer and is now receiving treatment at Save the Children’s OutpatientTherapeutic Programme (OTP) at Daouche health centre. Sadly Harira has lostfive of her ten children to malnutrition. Those that have survived are the onesthat received OTP treatment.

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Assetou, seven, gathers fruit for her family, Benigorola village, Sikasso region,Mali. Despite producing large amounts of food, Sikasso has high levels of chronicmalnutrition in children under five. This is due to poor nutritional habits and theconcentration on export-oriented cash crop production. Save the Children trainsand funds community health workers in the region to screen and refer childrensuffering from malnutrition. Save the Children also runs nutrition sensitisationprogrammes and distributes seeds to the most vulnerable families to ensurelonger term food security.

The creation of duty teams. Also new to SCIs humanitarian work is the creation of duty teams as agreed upon inDecember 2011 by Save the Children member Humanitarian Directors. A duty team isa pre-agreed team comprising of Save the Children staff members with an array oftechnical expertise that can be quickly deployed to respond to categorisedemergencies at country, regional or headquarter levels. There are four teams onstandby for three months each year and the duty period of each duty team rangesfrom a minimum of six weeks deployment to a maximum three months standby. Theduty teams allow for immediate response to large and extraordinary emergencies withpre-selected top responders. Having this standard set of functions identified anddeployed will allows us to better ensure that our responses reach our benchmarks andare not subject to possible priority and capacity differences in affected countries. Inaddition to this, the sourcing of duty teams will also give us a clearer picture of whereour immediate gaps are in extending humanitarian assistance and hence can help toguide Save the Children’s members’ investment in new recruits. Alongside our operation work, our humanitarian advocacy efforts in 2012—2013,

through the SCI Humanitarian Advocacy Working Group, will seek to build a betterhumanitarian system approach that upholds the rights of children in slow onset crisesand armed conflict, with the majority of attention on the theme of children in chronichunger crises. These advocacy priorities will be advanced even as we continue toadvocate for new and different crises as they arise.

Humanitarian CriSES

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Save the Children health worker, Mohammed Nassirou, weighs and measures theupper arm of malnourished children as part of the registry process at Aguiestabilisation centre, Maradi, Niger. Nassirou collects acutely malnourished childrenfrom rural clinics and registers them as patients at the stabilisation centre.


Building ResilienceAs we look to the future, the importance of building the resilience of communities towithstand shocks cannot be understated. Our work across the continent sees usjoining hands with communities, civil society, partners and government to increaseresilience and reduce vulnerability to future humanitarian crisis; and to understand andprepare for the impacts of climate change.An example of this is in Somaliland. Here we are linking schools, communities and

local governments to access knowledge on current and future hazards on theirwatershed to improve their capacity to overcome them whilst working towards theirdevelopment goals. This has resulted in children developing risk and adaptation plansthat will be implemented with the support of their community and local authorities,whilst ensuring that their community have the capacity to diversify their livelihoods.”Reducing the risk of disasters is a bridge between the humanitarian and development

mandate of SCI. Indeed, in the recurrent slow onset risks that parts of the continentare facing, a sustainable approach is developed to improve our early actions when earlysigns of heightened vulnerability occur. By supporting populations in their developmentpathways whilst preparing for times of shocks through crisis modifiers, Save theChildren is able to keep vulnerability at bay. In Ethiopia, the Pastoralist Livestock Initiative works with pastoralist governing

systems to ensure a sustainable management of their resources for times of shockthrough a Participatory Natural Resource Management model. The PILLAR plus projectmanaged to act early through emergency livestock health interventions, supplementaryfeeding and water structure rehabilitation.A joint report by Save the Children and World Vision, Ending the Everyday Emergency,

highlights the benefits of taking a comprehensive approach to resilience and how it canimprove child well being and move the Sahel towards dramatically reduced rates ofhunger and malnutrition. Indeed one of my priorities as the Humanitarian Director forSCI is to ensure that Save the Children invests in social protection, increases supportfor disaster risk reduction in the Sahel and harnesses small-scale agriculture to improvechildren’s nutrition.It is only through tackling the ‘resilience deficit’ among vulnerable families that we

will be able to find lasting solutions to end childhood hunger and malnutrition andtherefore prevent the deaths of 250,000 children from malnutrition in the Sahel regioneach year.

Mike Penrose, Humanitarian Director, Save the Children International

[email protected]

Humanitarian CriSES


tHE SaHEl


Save the Children has established an Advocacy Manager role as part of the responseteam in major crises. Effective advocacy can shift policies, practices and political will sothat affected communities are supported in their efforts to survive and rebuild, and thewhole humanitarian response delivers for those who need it most. Our advocacymessages go hand in hand with the urgent operational response. In the heat of themoment, and sometimes amidst difficult political tensions, effectively communicatingthe right message is both challenging and vital.The West Africa crisis is spread over a whole region. Our advocacy addresses both

the immediate crisis and the underlying issues. The problem is not simply one of non-availability of food. It is more about access—the poorest and most vulnerable can’taccess or afford the nutritious food they need. Save the Children has significantexpertise in analyzing what this means for families at the household level, and thepicture during the lean season July-September has been grim: in some cases householdshaving only 20% of what they need to live on. The conflict in Mali has exacerbated thesituation.Our advocacy calls for an immediate and strengthened international response

targeted on the most vulnerable: providing adequate nutrition for mothers andchildren under five. It notes that areas such as child protection and education must besupported too.We also address the underlying issue of resilience. More than simply a new buzz-

word, this is a key to the immediate response, and to preventing future crises. People inthe region are remarkably and impressively resilient, but governments and the

Speaking up in a crisis:advocacy in the Sahel

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international community need to support this. We call for proven and effectivemeasures such as cash transfers in the crisis as an immediate entrée into buildingflexible social protection systems which will support the efforts of local peoplethrough hard times and critical moments. We have been prominent in the fast-evolvingdebate about this. Together with World Vision we have just launched the joint reportEnding the Everyday Emergency: Resilience and Children in the Sahel.Collaboration is crucial. Close working relationships with Oxfam, World Vision,

Action Contre la Faim and others are fostered by good personal interactions on theground. When it came to speaking up at a high-level meeting on the crisis in Brussels inJuly, we agreed our joint positions and got sign-off in the space of 24 hours. We spokewith one voice. We got listened to.

Michael FrenchDirector and UN Representative, [email protected]

The West Africa crisis is spread over a whole region. Our advocacyaddresses both the immediate crisis and the underlying issues. Theproblem is not simply one of non-availability of food. It is more aboutaccess—the poorest and most vulnerable can’t access or afford thenutritious food they need.

As a member of the Global Roster, Michael was deployed to Dakar, Senegal in May-June

2012 as Advocacy Manager for the West Africa crisis response. In his role as Director

and UN Representative in Geneva he makes it clear that global level advocacy is

strongly linked to field impact. As part of the Save the Children team in the region he

has been part of the organisation's coordinated response.


Making a difference through humanitarian advocacy

Horn of afriCa

Over the past 50 years, millions of children and families living in dryland and conflictareas in Somalia, South Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia have at one time or another sufferedthe effects of drought, floods and/or long running conflict. Save the Children hasworked to lend humanitarian assistance and alleviate the suffering of many who havefaced hunger, illness and displacement. Humanitarian advocacy is defined as a set of activities “designed to change systems,

policies, or practices whose outcomes threaten human lives and self-sufficiency.”2

Save the Children began to engage in humanitarian advocacy work after recognisingthat alongside direct assistance efforts, more was needed to ensure that governmentsguarantee humanitarian organisations access to people in need of assistance. Throughadvocacy, Save the Children and other partners continue to remind the internationalcommunity,—including governments—of their responsibility to protect, and of theneed to share information and raise awareness around humanitarian emergencies. As part of the joint Horn of Africa response, Save the Children hired a Humanitarian

Advocacy Advisor to develop, advance and support an East Africa humanitarianadvocacy strategy; linking the region’s humanitarian advocacy efforts with the AfricanUnion. This strategy aims at increasing learning and advocacy efforts surroundingevidence-based Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and resilience building. A keydeliverable of this strategy is to strengthen country capacity to advocate clear

“…programs deliver direct assistance to mitigate immediate suffering,whereas advocacy intervenes to address the systemic contributions tothe crisis…. Both efforts are required of contemporary relief NGOs ifhumanitarian values and ends are to be upheld.”1

—James Phelan

1 Phelan, James (2006). “Advocacy as Humanitarian Politics: Towards a Broader Conception of Humanitarian Action”

(Master's thesis) at 72.

2 Phelan, James (2006) at 70.


Humanitarian advoCaCy

humanitarian messages with national and local bodies and magnify these calls at theregional level. The Advisor also ensures better co-ordination between humanitarianadvocacy messaging, strategy and action across country, regional and headquarterlevels, including alignment with and linking with the SCI Humanitarian AdvocacyWorking Group (HAWG).In July, the Advisor worked with other members and country offices under the SC

UK led Horn of Africa response to produce advocacy messages for the One Year Onafter the Horn of Africa Food Crisis report shared widely with continental and regionalaudiences through BBC radio, print and online news platforms. Our core humanitarian message is that we not only need to support disaster risk

reduction, climate change adaptation and resilience programming, but we mustcontinue calling on governments, development partners other important actors tochange their systems, policies and practices to build the resilience of vulnerablecommunities so that no one else dies from hunger. Humanitarian advocacy efforts will continue to increase the organisation’s

collaboration with other agencies for a heightened and joint long-term response. TheAdvisor fosters this advocacy effort through regional forums such as the Inter AgencyWorking Group on Disaster Preparedness and the Regional Learning and AdvocacyProgramme (REGLAP). Tackling the root causes of the region’s food crises andresponding to children displaced by conflict is critical to guaranteeing a better life forchildren in the region, especially with increasing climate variability.For more information contact Anne Mitaru, Regional Humanitarian Advocacy Advisor,

[email protected]

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EaSt afriCa

Accountability mechanisms: giving communities real powerAcross East Africa, Save the Children is starting to introduce ways for communities tohold humanitarian agencies like Save the Children accountable for the input andservices we provide. We recognize that transparent two-way communication andcommunity participation is not only an ethical obligation but a way to increase theimpact we have on the lives of children and their communities. Creating opportunities to provide information and receive feedback from

communities might sound simple, but in reality it requires a lot of time and effort. Savethe Children tries to utilise local methods of communication, making our systemsaccessible to all members of the community, including children. Hussein Seid, Accountability Assistant in the Afar region of Ethiopia, is setting up a

Complaints Response Mechanism so that beneficiaries can give feedback to ourservices. Hussein carried out assessments in which the communities themselves chosetheir preferred method of communication, i.e., accountability committees, suggestionboxes, etc. “Accountability to beneficiaries is a way of sharing power with them. It includes

creating close relationships by sharing information, listening to and reacting to theirneeds and interests, and responding to their complaints on services being provided orprojects being implemented,” says Hussein.“It is very important because it creates asense of ownership and it helps us to be accepted by the community. It can alsoimprove the quality of service delivery and increase beneficiary awareness forsustainability after the project comes to an end,” he said. Gonda Kenyi is the Construction Manager for Save the Children in South Sudan. “To

me, being accountable to beneficiaries means that the programmes we implementdeliver the services as promised, in a timely, transparent and sustainable manner.”



aCCountability to bEnEfiCiariES

Accountability to beneficiaries is a way of sharing power with them. Itincludes creating close relationships by sharing information, listening toand reacting to their needs and interests, and responding to theircomplaints on services being provided or projects being implemented.

—Hussein SeidAccountability Assistant, Save the Children Ethiopia

“Recently, I have been working on designing child-friendly information boards wherewe can explain to beneficiaries who we are, what we are doing and why we are doing itso that they know what is happening in their community and what they can expectfrom us. Additionally, the boards are designed with suggestion boxes allowing thebeneficiaries to give feedback and suggestions on the work we are doing,” said Gonda. “There are difficulties communicating with beneficiaries in South Sudan as there are

so many languages spoken in the country. However, possibly the biggest challenge isthat very few people in the country can read and write,” he said.Despite the challenges of setting up systems, Save the Children is piloting options

and advocating for more partners, including government agencies, to adopt feedbackmechanisms as part of effective humanitarian programming. Accountability systems arecrucial to ensuring that communities know what we plan to do and provide a way forthem to reflect back whether we are achieving our goals or not.For more information contact Victoria Palmer, Emergency Response Personnel (ERP):

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL), [email protected]

(Left to right) Gonda Kenyi, Construction Manager for Save the Children in South Sudan; Hussein Seid, Accountability Assistant in Afar, Ethiopia conducts anaccountability assessment (to select which type of communication they prefer forcomplaints response mechanism) with women in Yallo Woreda, Afar; and VictoriaPalmer and Hussein Seid conduct an accountability assessment with men in AsaiytaWoreda, Afar.

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KEnya

Habaswein is a small dry town located approximately 300 kilometres west of theKenya-Somalia border in Wajir County of North Eastern Province. No grass grows onthe sand being blown around by the cool, dry breeze. Thorn bushes and droughtresistant trees dot the landscape. The town is littered with nylon paper bags and scavenger birds leap into the air, only

to return to their scavenging when cars drive by. There are many donkeys around; a fewof them tied to carts used to ferry water containers. Several stone bungalows areunder construction. Save the Children’s emergency interventions in Wajir South and Habaswein districts

are in health, nutrition, food security and livelihoods and water and sanitation, targetingboth children and their families. Abdikani, an eighteen year old, is involved in some disaster risk reduction activities,

through the children’s club he belongs to. The children have opted for drama as a wayto get their message across.“I enjoy drama,” he says. “It is a good way of telling our community how to prepare

for drought.” Last year, there were problems in the community: Adikani’s own fatherlost 50 camels to the drought. Sometimes, his father sold a couple of camels to pay forAbdikani’s school fees. But this time, “people were struggling to buy maize to feed theircamels,” which is why many of them died. Many kids did not make it to school thatyear. Some young girls were even made to marry, well before their time, just to escapethe situation.Save the Children is teaching the community how to dig shallow wells, plant more

trees and is encouraging families to de-stock their animals well in time. “Thecommunity is learning these things through the dramas we do,” said Abdikani. Nowthere are latrines, water tanks in schools—so much “better than donkey-carts,” he says—dustbins and other inputs that are helping him and his friends to build a better life.Abdikani wants to be a star journalist like Rageh Omar of Al Jazeera. He plans to

study a B.Sc in communications and journalism.For more information contact Emmanuel Okaalet, Emergency Information Management

and GIS Coordinator, SCUK- Kenya Programme, [email protected]

Building greater resilience in Wajir


Somaliland

A drought, four boys and a ballWe arrive in Oodweyne, Somaliland at 10.30 am. The environment seems lush, adeceptive picture of the real situation. It rained early in the morning. Our first stop is the community centre where I meet four teenage boys: Nur, Abdi,

Adnan and Fathi. They are here to discuss a Save the Children Project that is coming toan end, as representatives of the children’s clubs started by Save the Children indifferent schools. The clubs train children on their right to protection, a safeenvironment and good hygiene practices. Nur invites us to his parent’s house. We are ushered into a one-roomed house and a

papyrus mat is rolled out on the floor for us to sit. The children share their thoughtson the drought and how it is affecting them and their community.“Many of our friends have moved away and we do not have enough teachers in our

school. Some of the children are not able to come to school every day.” Severalteachers have already stopped coming to the school from nearby villages.The children are disheartened. The drought is becoming worse. Water and food

shortages are big challenges. The Gu rains were scant at best. Farmers watched theirplants dry out and their animals waste away. Many families, having lost all hope of aharvest this year, have moved to other areas in search of better conditions. “Before the crisis we ate three meals a day. Now we are lucky if we eat two.”

Children from poor families are dropping out of school to supplement diminishinghousehold incomes. Many become shoe shiners, barbers, water collectors and charcoalsellers. Others work in restaurants. Given the situation with their peers, these boys feellucky to continue with their education.The boys pooled their pocket money to buy a ball. They are passionate about sport.”

It was the cheapest we could find at $1.50. The main thing for us is sports: football,volleyball and basketball!” Abdi says and the other boys nod vigorously in agreement. In a world where one could find a million reasons to be unhappy; who knew that a

ball, four boys and happy smiles could paint such an inspiring picture on the grim canvasof a worsening drought? For more information contact Christine Murugami, Information and Communications

Officer, Somalia/Somaliland Programme, [email protected]

nigEr


Hadiza Moussa, 49Gazaoua Quartier Malamaoua/ commune de Gazaoua, NIGER

Profil du Ménage: Taille du ménage: 8 personnesPossession en terre de culture: 0.5 ha Possession en bétail: 1 chèvre propre et 2 chèvres de Kiyo (système de prêt)Activité Génératrice de revenu (AGR): petit commerce

Parlez-nous de votre Ménage? Je suis mariée il y a de cela trente ans; mon mari et moi avons 3 enfants et elles sonttoutes des filles. En plus, nous vivons avec deux de nos petits-fils et 1 enfant adoptif.

Comment avez-vous trouvé la campagne agricole 2011?La campagne agricole 2011 a été très difficile à cause de la mauvaise pluviométrie qui aengendré une sècheresse sévère et une crise alimentaire dans notre zone. En plus decette sécheresse nous avons eu une invasion de chenilles qui ont fait de dégâts sur noscultures. Cette année nous n’avions récolté que quelques bottes (8) de mil soit environ70 kg dans notre ménage.

Quelles étaient les activités et vos sources de revenus et nourriture de votreménage avant le cash? Nous sommes des cultivateurs, nous avons un champ de prés d’un demi-hectare.Pendant la période hivernale, mon mari se rend au champ presque chaque jour de lasemaine. J’aide aussi mon mari à faire les travaux champêtres. Avant de rentrer à lamaison je fais la collecte du bois de chauffe. Une fois à la maison, je m’occupe destâches ménagères avec l’aide de mes filles. En ce qui concerne nos revenus, mon marivend des condiments au marché. Quant à moi je vends de l’oseille préparée ; ce qui mepermet d’avoir un peu de bénéfice pour aider mon mari dans la gestion de notre foyer.Je vends parfois de beignets.

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Nous recevons aussi de l’aide, en espèces et/ou en nature, de la part de notre filleainée Aicha qui vit dans le quartier et qui voit les difficultés auxquelles nous faisonsface.

Comment avez-vous êtes ciblés comme bénéficiaire de cash?C’est Dieu qui nous a choisit, car je sais que nous ne sommes pas le seul ménage quidoit avoir besoin de cette aide. Notre ménage ne figurait pas sur la première liste desbénéficiaires ciblés. Après il y avait eu des changements des bénéficiaires, car il y avaitdes gens qui ne doivent pas bénéficier de cet argent compte tenu du fait qu’ilspossédaient de bœufs. Apres ce changement j’ai eu la carte et c’est ainsi que nousavons reçu l’argent.

Quels sont vos sentiments et celui de vos enfants après avoir reçu le cash? Laissez-moi-vous dire que c’est grâce à cet argent reçu que nous avons changé notrerégime alimentaire quotidien. Avant le cash, nous ne vivions que de bouillie, de ‘’Kolonkolbi’’ (plat à base de farine

de manioc accompagné d’oseille). Grâce à l’argent reçu, nous achetons du mil, du maïset un peu de riz. ‘’Quand j’ai eu cet argent j’avais l’impression que je suis au paradis’’ a-t-elle déclarée. Mes filles et mes petits fils ont les mêmes sentiments que moi car ils ont bien mangé

leur riz, ce que nous n’avions pas mangé depuis prés de 2 mois.

Quelle sont les principales utilisations que vous faites du cash?Dans un contexte où toutes nos pensées tournent autour de la nourriture, nousn’avons eu aucun choix que de penser à acheter à manger. De ce fait, nous avonsachetés 20 tias du maïs, 10 tias de mil et 8 kg de riz Avec le reste de l’argent nousavions acheté du bois et quelques condiments pour la sauce.

Quelle appréciation vous faites du cash ?Nous pensons que c’est une très bonne initiative de faire le transfert monétairesurtout en cette période difficile de l’année. Nous prions à que cela soit durable et qu’ily ait aussi une possibilité de toucher les ménages qui n’ont pas encore eu la chanced’en recevoir.

Votre dernier motNous adressons nos vives remerciements à vous qui êtes venus nous rencontrer et àl’ONG Save the Children qui à initié cette opération et à tous ceux qui ont contribué àl’élaboration de cette action humanitaire. Que Dieu vous bénisse.

Auteur: Abdoulrahaman Kadaf, MEAL Assistant, Save the Children Niger Tessaoua Field Office,[email protected],

CaSE Study


For a long time, 35-year-old Edna Watchero struggled to provide for her family. Feedingher five children was a nightmare. Waking up each day Edna and her husband Lameckdidn’t know where the day’s meal would come from. While Lameck went to the nearby Namadzi trading centre to look for piecework

(day-to-day manual labour), Edna went from one village to another either begging orlooking for opportunities to wash clothes and do other work for money or food. Thecouple tried everything within their means to ensure that their children did not sleepon an empty stomach. They struggled.It was not surprising that three of her children: twin brothers Precious and Blessings;

and Gift suffered chronic malnutrition. This changed when Save the Children initiated acommunity complementary feeding and learning session under the Health andNutrition project in Edna’s Lumeta village.“As part of the initiative to improve nutrition in our homes,” Edna began. “We were

taught how to make kitchen gardens as part of the efforts to improve food availabilityin our homes for our children. We were given traditional and highly nutritiousvegetable seeds and taught how to grow and cook them for our children.”Before the initiative was introduced, Edna never thought that a kitchen garden could

meet the nutrition needs of any family including hers. She had seen other people in hervillage failing to properly look after their kitchen gardens. “Nobody in my village tookkitchen gardening seriously. We preferred to grow vegetables and other crops alongriver banks and wetlands.” The introduction of the Health and Nutrition project


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changed Edna’s mindset. Since 2009, her backyard garden has flourished with nutritiouskamganje, bonongwe, luni and mpiru.Edna no longer lacks food in her home. Through the project she has learnt how to

use different foods including vegetables as food supplements for her children. She isable to prepare some nutritious porridge mixed with specially prepared vegetables andanother delicious porridge made from sweet potato flour. The remarkable change inthe health of her twins is evident. Edna has enough vegetables to meet the consumption needs of her family and shares

the surplus with others each day. “Three or four women come by my home each day to get some of these

vegetables,” she says. “I do not sell them. I give them for free. Actually, I use this as anopportunity to encourage them to do the same in their homes.”Using the skills she acquired through the Save the Children promoted project, Edna

and her husband Lameck also decided to grow vegetables on a larger scale in theirfamily garden some five kilometers away. “Now, looking back, I don’t know what myfamily would have become if we had not been introduced to the idea of kitchengardening,” she says. “For three years now I have been able to send my daughter Fannyto Malimba Secondary School. She is sitting for Malawi School Certificate Examinationsnext year, thanks to my vegetable farming.” For more information, please contact Mac Pherson Mdalla, Communications Specialist,

[email protected]

nutrition

Nobody in my village took kitchen gardening seriously. We preferred togrow vegetables and other crops along river banks and wetlands. Now,looking back, I don’t know what my family would have become if we hadnot been introduced to this idea...

—Edna Watchero


On the frontlines of the food crisis in the SahelWe seem to fly along the bumpy desert-like roads, barely missing the scrubby bushesand sending the goats fleeing just in time with our beeping horn. I stare out my carwindow at the barren land and the odd donkey and cart. It’s never quite how youimagine it and Diema certainly isn’t how I imagined it. I knew it would be hot here, butit’s scorching. There is not a breath of air and the heat instantly makes me feelclaustrophobic. I knew poverty was rife in this region but it’s only when seeing it, thatyou begin to understand the daily realities of the people of Kayes. As we approach the village, I scan the scene. Families cower from the sun in their

mud huts, roofed with twigs and thatch. Women rhythmically pound millet seeds inwooden bowls, sweat pouring down their faces. Fires burn in makeshift shelters, readyfor the preparation of the millet for dinner. Goats are tethered to the odd tree,sleeping in the shade. This is a harsh environment and you have to be extremely toughto survive in the best of years…never mind this year.Despite this, the men and women gather to greet me. It’s always embarrassing and

humbling when families come out to welcome you so warmly. I crouch down withthem on the mat and begin shaking hands. Everyone looks directly at me, they aresolemn but friendly, nodding their heads in respect. I introduce myself to the group: “My name is Katie. I work for Save the Children. I’m

here to hear your story and tell people back home about the crisis you are facing.”Immediately people start to speak and yet somehow they manage never to interruptone another. I know the causes of this crisis very well now, but when you hear it from amother, father or child who are living through it, it takes on new meaning. There was norain, we had no harvest, prices have risen, we have no money to buy food….we arefighting to survive. As we talk an argument breaks out behind us in one corner of the village. I ask the

group what is going on. They tell me that last week the government distributed someseed. It wasn’t enough and some people believe that others took more than their fairshare. Each family is having to look out for their own and the argument instantly drillsthe message home: they are fighting to survive. I spend four hours in the village talking to a range of people: a grandmother who

gave up her last millet to her children and grandchildren; fathers who feel angry they

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cannot provide for their family; mothers who are scared they won’t be able to continueto breastfeed their children and a young boy who worries he won’t be able to continuewith school as he just hasn’t got enough to eat to keep him going through the day.This really is the frontline of the food crisis, and it is clear that time is running out.

They can’t continue like this for much longer… For more information contact Katie Seaborne, Information and Communications ERP,

Save the Children, [email protected]

Agai Maiga, 16, stands outside her school with her one-year-old daughter Rakiefou.Agai had to leave Timbuktu with her husband, a guard, and is now staying with anaunt in Bamako to complete her education. Her husband is in Kayes and she will joinhim once she has finished school. She wants to be a nurse.

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Chuickne Traore, 6 years old, with his new rucksack. Chuickne has been displaced bythe violence in the North of Mali and now lives with his mother in Bamako. Hisfather remains in Timbuktu.

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Children’s access to education: the hidden outcome of the food crisis

EduCation during a CriSiS

Every day the gaggle of village children set off across the dry and dusty land in thedirection of school. It is seven in the morning and the sun is already beating downmercilessly- it has completely bleached the land of all colour. Animal carcasses litter thelandscape, birds and insects feed off their remains. The only sound and movement is theodd cart being pulled by a donkey, braying in protest. The children push on, claspingtheir precious few books and pencils. They are often walking on empty stomachs—with just a cup of milk to sustain them. It is estimated that 500,000 children are at risk of abandoning school this

year as a result of the food crisis that is currently crippling villages acrossMali. With the failure of the rains, these agricultural people—who find it hard tosurvive in the best of times—are now struggling to survive off the land. With no cropsto sell for money and a dwindling supply of food to eat this crisis is increasinglyimpacting children’s access to education. Children, like anyone, need food and water to enable them to concentrate and work.

Without this they lack the energy to participate and learn. Widespread evidence showsthat a malnourished child will struggle to reach their full physical and cognitivepotential, suffering lifelong consequences. Yet today in Mali, faced with desperateshortages of food, many children are eating one, or two meals a day, instead of three.These meals are often millet-based and lack much nutritional value. Meat or vegetablesare a rare treat.Yarba is 10 years old and loves school. He gets to learn languages, his favourite

subject. Best of all he can play football with his friends in the yard. His dream is toteach; but Yarba’s future currently hangs in the balance. His village, like so many others,is currently fighting for survival. With their stock of food dwindling each day and nomoney left, sending Yarba to school is becoming increasingly challenging. “I like to learn so I can get a proper job in the future”, he says grinning up at his

father. “That is the most important thing to me.” As he continues to talk, his facedarkens… “sometimes I don’t go to school because there isn’t anything to eat. There isnowhere to eat at school and so I have to come back home at lunchtime to eat. It’sabout a kilometer away but it’s very hot and I don’t have a bicycle- I wish I did. I have towalk and walk with a group of friends from my village. I’m very tired because I’mhungry and it’s a long distance.”



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The situation only becomes more complex as the rains fall, and everyone needs topitch in to farm the land. Yarba is already prepared for this hard labour “when the rainsstart I will have to help my family farm in the fields. I will pull the animal along that pullsthe plough on the two days I have off school.” Yarba knows only too well that his education and his future are threatened “I really

want to stay in school but am worried I won’t be able to.”The food crisis is not the only threat to children’s education in Mali. When armed

groups took over the North of Mali—an area the size of France—many families fled.Over 370,000 people are currently displaced inside Mali and in neighbouring countries.As a result 100,000 children affected by conflict are estimated to be at risk of losingthis academic year. Agai is 16 years old and has already been through much more than any 16 year old

should. She was married at 14 and one year later she had a daughter, Rakiefou. Agaigrew up in Timbuktu and when the armed actors entered her city, she fled with herhusband and young baby. But she did not give up the hope of finishing her education…“I want to finish my education, despite the troubles in my country” Agai confidently

says.” It is not the displacement from her childhood home, the fear of the conflict, herability to find food, access to water, it is education that she speaks about and educationthat she is clearly prioritising.Sitting in the burning hot midday sun on a rickety bench outside her new school in

Bamako, Agai continues to explain her situation. “We came by car to Bamako—it took us 2 days. We had some food and water with

us but I was scared. I am now staying with my aunt in Bamako so I can complete myeducation. I think it’s important that I finish my education, even though there aretroubles here. My husband is not with us. He has gone to Kayes. I am hoping to joinhim there after I finish school. I really want to be a nurse and I want my country to bepeaceful.” Agai doesn’t focus on the conflict, the fear or the fact that her family has been split

up- she is focusing on the future: a future that will be impossible without hereducation. As we speak her name is called out. She leaves to quickly collect the schoolsupplies that Save the Children are distributing and returns, smiling—“the educationsupplies are good- they will help me.” I feel so pleased that we are helping Agai, even inthe smallest way, to reach her goal. Save the Children is distributing education and teaching supplies to displaced

children and teachers and children and teachers affected by the food crisis. For more information contact Katie Seaborne, Information and Communications ERP,



EduCation during a CriSiS

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Yarba Coulibaly is about ten years old. He lives in a village near the town of Diema inthe region of Kayes. His schooling is being affected by the crisis: there isn’t enough toeat and sometimes he doesn’t go to school as a result. He has to walk back homefrom school in the midday sun to eat at lunchtime and this makes him very tired. Helikes learning languages and wants to be a teacher when he is older. But his futurehangs in the balance. His village, like so many others, is currently fighting for survival.With their stock of food dwindling each day and no money left, sending Yarba toschool is becoming increasingly challenging.

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“We are just trying to find ways to survive.” Douroli says, looking directly at me. Weare sitting under the tree, surrounded by villagers, sheltering from the scorching sun.“The first thing is for our brothers and sons to migrate.”It’s not a new trend. Every year fathers, husbands and sons migrate within Mali, to

neighbouring countries and even sometimes further afield, in search of food and work.This year with the food crisis that is impacting on villages across the country, more andmore people are migrating. As I look around I realize many of the faces are women. It seems there are few men

left here. “Many have left and sometimes they send us money back. Some have gone to Ivory

Coast and Mauritania, some go to Europe. Sometimes they send us letters and

no choice but to leave

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Mahamadou Diarra, 41 is a migrant who left Mali in 2003 as a result of poverty. Hecomes back to Mali to see his family—he cannot afford to migrate with them. Hesends money back to his village but finds many difficulties in his new life abroad. Hesaid many more have migrated this year due to the crisis.

CriSiS in tHE SaHEl

sometimes they call to tell us how they are. We know it’s very hard for them—but ifyou don’t have anything, you can’t stay. Those who leave are looking for a way tosurvive and keep us alive here.”It is clear this is not really a choice—there are not many choices left. Stay here and

struggle to eat enough or take your chances and leave. But it’s no guarantee of a betterlife, Wanadiougou another man from the village explains “sometimes if they work veryhard they can look after themselves and there is something left over for us, but it’snever a lot. We may get sent help three times a year, sometimes only once. Some doodd jobs, others can’t find work for months. If we are really struggling to eat we willcall them and ask for help. They know it is bad if we have to call them.”Mahamadou is one such man who, faced with the increasing challenge of surviving,

left his village in search of an income.“I left Mali because I was facing so many difficulties. In this place you have no way of

making a living and no opportunities to get a good education. We can only farm. That isthe only option open to us. You have to find your own way to survive. This year it’sespecially hard- the animals are dying, there was no harvest and we have no money.What can you do? I worry for my family here.”The rest of the group are silent, listening in. They know how it is to be left in the

village, just scraping by but this is a different story, a different perspective.“My brother also migrated and I think many more have left this year as a result of

the failed rains. I don’t know how many but I know it’s a lot. My family calls me when Iam in Spain and ask for money; they tell me they have nothing to eat. I don’t have mucheither but whatever I have, I send to them. Even in Europe now things are difficult. I waswithout work for a long time; it’s very hard to get citizenship to work somewhere andalso to find work. Many people can’t find a job. My family knows it’s tough for me therebut they know I will help if I can. I would send half of my dinner if I could.”Mahamadou may have more food and income than his family but he has made an

extremely difficult sacrifice, “My wife and four children are here in Kayes—three girlsand one boy. I cannot afford to bring them with me to Spain so I have to come and visitthem whenever I can save up enough. I would like to come back every year but it’s justnot possible. I miss them a lot.”It seems that neither of these options is preferable. Stay in a village where farming is

your only option but you are at the mercy of the weather and the land, or leave yourfamily behind for new and unknown shores, where jobs are hard to find and the stressof worry and responsibility weighs heavy. For more information contact Katie Seaborne, Information and Communications ERP,




Nutrition in Bokolmayo Refugee CampOver the past year, severe drought conditions and ongoing civil conflict have continuallyfueled the increasing movement of refugees fleeing Somalia for the safety of the DolloAdo refugee camps in Southern Ethiopia. Since the declaration of the Horn of AfricaCrisis, the total number of refugees in Dollo Ado has reached 164,256 of which 39,699live in the Bokolmayo refugee camp.1

In order to prevent morbidity and mortality related to nutritional deteriorationamong refugee children aged 6—59 months and pregnant and lactating women, Savethe Children started implementing its Blanket and Targeted Supplementary FeedingPrograms (BSFP and TSFP, respectively) in October 2011 and its OutpatientTherapeutic Program (OTP) in February 2012 in the Bokolmayo camp. At the onsetof the crisis, 47.2% of the newly arrived refugees in the camp weremalnourished, of which 23.6% suffered from Severe Acute Malnutrition. Save the Children created four centers in the refugee camp to provide services

primarily focusing on prevention and the management of moderate and severe acutemalnutrition cases without medical complications. Each center currently offers OTP,TSFP and BSFP services to an average of 500 individuals per day. Over the past year,Save the Children has reached a total of 9,969 individuals including 8,685 children aged6–59 months and 1,269 pregnant and lactating women. Sharifo Mahommed, a 30-year-old mother of five, lives in the Bokolmayo refugee

camp. She left her native Somalia a year ago, traveling 15 days on foot while pregnantwith her youngest son, Issack Mohammed, now a 9-month-old infant. Upon her arrival,she was immediately enrolled in the Blanket Supplementary Feeding program whereshe was given supplementary food. “I breathed in peace when I arrived here atBokolmayo” she says. Issack was later admitted to the Targeted Supplementary Feedingprogram due to moderate malnutrition but has since shown significant improvement. Shafiro says: “If I could not get this service from you, my child would die in my arms. I

am at peace when I see my babies playing happily here. My fellow refugees and I arelucky to get these services.”In collaboration with UNICEF, Save the Children also promotes Baby-Friendly Spaces

where mothers receive counseling on infant and young child feeding. Through thiscollaboration, selected leader mothers have received training in how to properly feed

Somalia and EtHiopia

1 UNHCR. Dollo Ado Population Statistical Report, August 3, 2012.

http://data.unhcr.org/horn-of-africa/region.php?id=7&country=65&mo=5&yr=2012


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their children. Health workers were trained in community management of acutemalnutrition (principles and approaches), and community nutrition outreach workersreceived training in basic health information. Decentralization of the services has increased access to the program and expanded

its coverage. Over the past year, the rate of moderate acute malnutrition inBokolmayo has decreased from 22.3% to 10.3% and severe acute malnu-trition has declined from 11.1% to 1.9%. Save the Children plans to continueproviding this feeding and emergency response, with an increased emphasis on infantand young child feeding, behavioral change interventions, counseling and home visits.For more information contact Rebecca Zewdu, Program Communication Coordinator,

[email protected]

Sharifo Mohammed plays with her son Issack in the Infant and Young Child FeedingCenter at the Bokolmayo refugee camp.

‘Blood Bank’ in Western Cote d’Ivoire:a Save the Children pilot project

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At a health centre in Bloléquin, Save the Children staff members introduced the BloodBank project to the nurse in charge and asked to see if there were adequate cold chainfacilities at the centre, as part of the initial assessment. The nurse obliged but asked usto follow him into a ward first. He presented a three-year old child who had died anhour before we arrived due to severe malaria with chronic anemia. The child diedbecause the health centre had no blood available for transfusion. If blood had been available, the child would have received a transfusion first, after

which he could have been successfully treated for severe malaria. At that moment, aSave the Children Health Project Officer made a resolution out loud that he would notrest until all ten health centres in our area of intervention were supplied with blood for transfusion.

The current context for health and nutrition in Cote d’Ivoire is precarious becauseeven during this period of transition out of the most recent humanitarian crisis in2011, there are areas of the country where emergency levels of malnutrition prevailand the recuperating health system remains vulnerable to triggers such as epidemicsand population movements. During our experience of improving access to primary health care and nutrition

services in Western Cote d’Ivoire over the last year, Save the Children has identifiedthat anemia mainly due to malnutrition, malaria and hemorrhage (post delivery) inchildren under five and women of childbearing age was a silent situation but caused ahigh number of avoidable deaths. Simultaneously, the Ministry of Health has alsoidentified the need for the availability of blood for transfusion as a priority and haslaunched a national level campaign to reinvigorate the existing system for managingblood products. Save the Children is working in collaboration with the Ministry of Health on a pilot

project to improve access to blood for transfusions in Western Cote d’Ivoire. Whilstconducting a baseline assessment of the capacity of the health centres to be involved inthis project, we came across cases that served to justify the need for this life-savingintervention. One such example is this:

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(Top left)An example of thetype of special vehicleneeded to facilitate blooddonations to be purchasedby Save the Children andgiven to the BloodTransfusion Centre in Man,Western Cote d'Ivoire.

(Bottom left) Cold storage ofdonated blood at theNational Blood TransfusionCentre in Daloa which willact as the storage anddistribution centre to theBlood Transfusion Centre inMan, supported by Save theChildren. Samples ofdonated blood will be sent toDaloa for screening andviable donated blood will bestored at the BloodTransfusion Centre in Manand distributed to the 10hospitals in the region toservice the needs of thepopulation.p

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Other examples include the alarmingly frequent situation at Save the Childrensupported nutrition stabilization centres where children urgently require bloodtransfusions but face barriers accessing the closest transfusion centre over 300 kmaway. Without a blood transfusion, these children have no chance of survival and diewhilst in our care. Through this collaborative project, Save the Children continues to bolster the

work of the Ministry of Health and aims to provide a vital intervention to halt thepreventable loss of life for thousands of children. The pilot project is in its initial stagewhere health professionals are being trained in the collection, testing, storage, andusage of blood for transfusion. There is an acute need for this project to continue pastthe pilot phase and make an immediate impact on the lives of children in Western Cote d’Ivoire. For more information contact Sophie Bruno, Technical Head Health and Nutrition,

[email protected]

Save the Children health workerMohammed Nassirou,weighs two-year-oldSani as part of the registry process atAguie stabilisation centre, Maradi, Niger.

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A look at humanitarian crises across Africa...

impactIMMEDIATE AND LASTING IMPROVEMENTS FOR CHILDREN IN AFRICA

Impact is a magazine dedicated to highlighting the work of Save the Children programs in Africa. Savethe Children undertakes or supports projects in education, health and nutrition, HIV and AIDS, childprotection, child rights governance, and humanitarian programming in nearly 40 African countries. Impact is published three times a year. It is available in electronic and print formats. This issue was edited by Madhuri Dass, Mark Birhanu, Carol Miller and Brenda Kariuki. For more information on Impact please contact Brenda Kariuki at [email protected]. This edition of Impact was fundedthrough the Africa Advocacy Initiative by Save the Children UK.

www.savethechildren.net

Children are particularly vulnerable to disease,

malnutrition and violence during humanitarian emergencies. (UNICEF)

Two million children worldwide have died as a direct result ofarmed conflict over the past decade. (UNICEF)

Major humanitarian crises in Africa include the food crises

in the Western Sahel and the Horn of Africa, the armed conflicts in

South Sudan, DR Congo, Somalia, and Mali, and the ongoing battle with

HIV/AIDS. (Save the Children)

Of the 33.9 million people of concern to UNHCR—the UN

Refugee Agency—almost half are children. (UNHCR)

The 2011 drought in Somalia was declared the worsthumanitarian crisis of that year. (UNHCR)

Up to 900,000 children are still suffering frommalnutrition as a result of the Horn of Africa crisis. (UNICEF)

18.7 million people across the Sahel region have been affected

by an ongoing food crisis. (OCHA)

impact october 2012

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