Nomads launch e-mail appeal

AZOGOR, Niger – Niger’s Tuareg and Fulani herdsmen live as if in another century, without electricity or running water, roaming the remotest regions to find pasture for their cows.

But when the hunger crisis that has devastated Niger reached them, they found a 21st century way to call for help: They sent an e-mail – and say donors responded with cash the nomads used to buy food for their families and their cattle.

“Science has evolved these days and we knew that we could reach out to the world via e-mail,” said Amadou Doutchi, a Fulani leader and chairman of an association of herders and farmers in Dakoro, a region of sparse vegetation, sandy dunes and scorching sun some 450 miles from the capital, Niamey.

Most nomads have never seen a computer – unsurprising in a desperately poor country where only 17 percent of adults can read. But Doutchi is computer savvy and he and other literate members of the association approached local government officials with the idea of sending an e-mail.

Doutchi, who already had his own account on a free, Web-based e-mail service, came up with a list of governments and aid groups to approach, including the World Food Program.

“Please help!” Doutchi wrote. “A catastrophe is currently in the making in the northeastern part of Niger among the nomad community and unless something is done we’ll be heading to the worst.”

Hunger is perennially a problem in Niger. But a locust invasion last year followed by drought made the problem worse. Almost a third of Niger’s population of 11.3 million is in crisis, with its children the most vulnerable. Some 800,000 children under 5 are suffering from hunger, including 150,000 faced with severe malnutrition.

The crisis struck at the nomads’ most precious possession. Some 3,000 cows perished in the region of Dakoro in June alone.

In mid-June, Doutchi traveled 80 miles south to the regional center of Maradi to send the e-mail from an office there. When he checked his inbox a week later, he said several organizations had responded asking for more details on the community and its needs.

Doutchi believes a $150,000 donation from the Canadian government can be traced to his e-mail, though Canadian officials could not immediately comment. Canada has contributed a total of $1 million to the World Food Program to combat hunger in Niger.

The nomads used the money to purchase 200 tons of millet and 100 tons of animal feed. Doutchi’s organization, which includes Tuareg and Fulani groups representing 55,000 nomads, also has received 100 tons of food aid from the World Food Program.