Niger's poor find money to help the starving

[Judi Lynn]

Updated: 06:50 AM EDT
Niger's poor find money to help the starving
By Abdoulaye Massalatchi, Reuters

NIAMEY, July 22 (Reuters) - Already among the poorest people on the planet, market traders, clerks and labourers in Niger are sacrificing what little they have to help millions of starving compatriots survive a devastating drought.

While U.N. agencies have been pleading for months for rich countries to buy food aid for some of an estimated 3.6 million hungry villagers, people like Amina Gambo, a housewife, have been quietly handing over all they can spare.

"I would have liked to do better, but I just don't have any more," she said, after contributing 1,500 CFA francs ($2.78) to a national "solidarity" fund set up by the government to cope with the impact of last year's drought and locust swarms.

Disappointed by what officials say is a meagre response to its international appeals, Niger's government asked individuals to give donations to help people starving in the West African country, including almost a million malnourished children.
(snip/...)

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[Mizmoon]

1. Where are the French?

This is a former colony of theirs. They have obligations there, imo.

[WhiteTara]

2. they should have gotten lots of money from

Saddam when he bought all that yellow cake! :sarcasm:
But really, it is terrible that some of the Tsunami money can't be used for other needs like this.

[MisterP]

3. Gods only know their IMF regime won't lift a finger: Ayn Rand says that

helping people hurts them because they're weak, and if the starving billion don't like it, there's a CIA-propped dictator to MAKE them like it!

[bleedingheart]

4. cuz as Ayn Rand says... "Selfishness is a Virtue"