Joshua Korn is the spiritual director and community liaison for the CURE International hospital in Niamey, Niger. In this personal essay, he describes his work with CURE and explains how he is contributing to the fight against global poverty. Stay in touch with Joshua on his blog, Josh and Julie.
I grew up in West Africa. I lived in Togo and la Côte D’Ivoire until I was 14 years old. Ever since then, I always wanted to come back. Africa gets in your blood, and stays forever like malaria. That is cliché, but true. I heard about CURE and the great work they do through a friend, so when the opportunity to come to Niger came up, I jumped at it. We jumped at it, I should say. My wife, who works here with me, is actually much more jumpy than I am.
Josh and Julie with one of the children from the CURE hospital
The CURE hospital is primarily a children’s hospital, and we specialize in treating burn victims and children with cleft lip or cleft palate and clubfoot. As spiritual director, I provide spiritual and emotional support to the patients and staff at the hospital. In practice, this can mean many different things. My job description is pretty vague, and purposely so, I think, because it is hard to define what I do. I work very closely with the hospital’s social worker in trying to determine what the needs of our patients are and what we can do to help. Giving a child a life-changing, life-saving surgery is a big deal, but I am realizing more and more that often, it is just scratching the surface.
New study finds links between breastfeeding and HIV transmission – HIV-positive women who are breastfeeding should not be given vitamin A supplements because it increases the risk of transmitting the AIDS virus to their infants, according to a new study. (Thomas Maugh II, L.A. Times)
Rwanda contests report on army – Rwanda has threatened to withdraw its troops from U.N. peacekeeping operations if it publishes a report accusing the Rwandan Army of committing genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s, Rwanda’s foreign minister said. (AP)
Regional TB experts meet in Rwanda – A regional Tuberculosis (TB) control workshop kicked off in Kigali this week to step up the effectiveness and commitment to curb the second deadliest disease in Africa. (Bosco Asiimwe, AllAfrica.com)
Niger flooding displaces nearly 200,000 – Heavy rains in Niger have displaced nearly 200,000 in recent weeks, the U.N. says, calling on donors and aid agencies to send shelter material and other supplies after a slow response, particularly in rural areas. (CNN)
Church leaders to discuss well-being of Africa – A delegation of African Bishops and development experts are meeting with European political leaders this week to discuss efforts to improve African communities ahead of the Millennium Development Goals U.N. Summit in September. (AllAfrica.com)
New wage offer made in SA labor strike – South Africa’s government has made a new wage offer to striking state workers to end a labor dispute that has raised investor concerns over Africa’s largest economy. (Jon Herskovitz, Reuters)
Famine in Niger affects 12 million – Expensive imports and aid remain out of reach for 12 million people in Niger – 80 percent of the population – which is facing the worst food crisis in years. Aid organizations say that the immediate obstacle preventing them from meeting urgent food needs is a donor shortfall of more than $100 million. (Afua Hirsch, The Guardian)
Horn of Africa once again polio-free – The Horn of Africa is again polio-free, with Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda having reported no cases for more than a year, said UNICEF. The victory is attributed to a series of multi-country immunization campaigns, along with greater technical support and strong political engagement. (Peter Mutai, Xinhua News)
Make Maternal Health Priority, African Leaders Told – Speaking at last week’s African Union summit, the Deputy U.N. Secretary-General maintained that women and children are the “engines” driving future economic growth on the continent, and that leaders must making meeting the 2015 Millennium Development Goal deadline of improving child and maternal health a priority. (Abimbola Akosile, AllAfrica.com)
Kenyans to Vote on Controversial Constitution – Kenyans will vote on a controversial new constitution this week—the latest step by the nation’s leaders to bring political change to their country to quell tribal tensions. The U.S maintains a new constitution is central to this effort. (Sarah Childress, Wall Street Journal)
New focus on Sanitation in Burkina Faso – Burkina Faso has embarked on the construction of 55,000 latrines each year for the next five years to improve access to proper sanitation by more than 40 percent. The new initiative was spurred by findings that the current pace is insufficient to attain the Millennium Development Goal on sanitation in a context of rapid population growth. (Brahima Ouédraogo, IPS)
If you haven’t had a chance yet, be sure to check out this article in the New York Times that provides a detailed, intimate report of the ongoing famine in Niger.
A brief excerpt:
Once again Niger is facing a food crisis, a grimly familiar predicament in a vast desert country with an explosive birthrate and rudimentary agriculture. Rains and crops failed last year — rainfall was about 70 percent below normal in the region — and now half the population of 15 million faces food shortages, officials say. Thus it was in 2005, 1985 and 1974.
But there is a big difference this year: the new military government here is acknowledging serious hunger, trying to do something about it — and asking for help.
Before the country’s autocratic president, Mamadou Tandja, was overthrown in February, the state warehouses remained stocked, despite the people’s need for help. Now they are largely empty of grain, a sign of how much has been distributed in recent weeks.
The new prime minister travels the suffering countryside, asking about the food shortage. Before, Mr. Tandja would fly into a rage at the very mention of the word famine, according to officials and newspapers here.
Niger is threatened with total crop failure in some areas and the situation is worse than the 2005 crisis, the UN humanitarian chief has told the BBC.
But John Holmes said the new government is co-operating in aid efforts.
Ex-President Mamadou Tandja, toppled in a coup in February, was criticised for doing too little then and saying the crisis had been exaggerated.
Nearly 8m people are affected by the drought this year and the UN says up to $130m (£85.5m) is needed to help them.
On a visit to the West African country, Mr Holmes said aid agencies had identified – and were dealing with – the problem early enough to make a difference.
“We have sounded the alarm much earlier,” he told the BBC’s Network Africa programme
“And we are tackling it much earlier so I hope that we can avoid the worst, and avoid the kind of scenes we’ve seen before in Niger or in Ethiopia in the 1980s.”
The UN emergency relief co-ordinator was visiting the Zinder area of southern Niger, where he said rates of malnutrition in children had increased because of the lack of food.
People in Zinder told the BBC about how the food shortages were affecting their lives.
“I don’t have any food because this year has been very hard,” said Nana Mariama.
In the past few weeks I’ve blogged a bit about some of the recent turmoil in Niger surrounding a military coup. So it’s important to also highlight some of the good work being done in the country. UNICEF has a post today detailing their efforts in conjunction with IKEA to improve access to education in Niger.
You can check out their short video about their work below, and read the corresponding post here:
State television says coup chief Maj. Salou Djibou signed a decree appointing 20 ministers on Monday. Five of the posts went to women and five to officers.
Renegade soldiers overthrew President Mamadou Tandja on Feb. 18 in a popular coup after the aging leader refused to step down after his mandate expired in December.
On Feb. 22, the junta announced it would form a transitional government giving Djibou the power to appoint a premier and Cabinet. It also promised a new constitution would eventually be adopted by national referendum.
Last week, Mahamadou Dandah was named prime minister.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
