Overview
Concern's work in Niger
In 2005 Concern put together a large emergency response to the crisis. Expenditure and staff numbers increased ten-fold between July and September.
Adopting the Community based Therapeutic Care, (CTC) method; Concern was able to treat 30,000 malnourished children.
Eventually Concern took charge of the 'stabilisation centre', a central facility designed to treat acutely malnourished and severely ill children referred by all the international agencies in the region.
The strength of CTC is that mothers and malnourished children no longer have to travel long distances to feeding centres.
Concern travels out to vulnerable communities to provide treatment for malnutrition at decentralised distribution points where children receive specialized, highly nutritious take home food on a weekly basis.
Concern operations expanded into new areas within Tahoua district, north east of the capital, Niamey, and into Illela, an adjoining district.
Concern has close working relationships with the government of Niger and local communities and because of this we were able to respond speedily and efficiently to the food crisis.
The scale and quality of the nutrition scheme means that Concern is now considered a leading agency in the fight against hunger in the area.
Education
In Tahoua only 40 per cent of local children enroll in school, and completion rates are extremely low.
Many communities do not have schools, and those that do have rudimentary classrooms, with poorly trained teachers.
In Tahoua, Concern's development programme focuses on education.
We work with the government in implementing a ten year plan, aimed at providing quality education to all children, with particular emphasis on increasing the number of girls who attend school.
As part of a project funded by Concern, local government has embarked on a construction programme that will see 90 classrooms, two teacher resource centres, 50 latrines and other essential facilities built in the next three to four years.
