Fighting Hunger in Mauritania: Your Help Can Save Lives

Mauretania

A country in northwestern Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean, in the Sahel zone. Mauritania is mostly covered by the sands of Sahara (in more than 80%). It is the fourth most sensitive country in the world in terms of climate changes. The recurring cycles of long-term drought (resulting in degradation of natural resources) and the aggravating water deficit additionally contribute to lack of food safety, from which the country suffers. Although it is populated by only 4.4 million people, it is a classic example of the problem of hunger caused by poverty and insufficient production of food.

Overview:
  • one of the poorest countries in the world – in some of its regions, people live off less than 1.25 USD per day
  • due to the food deficit, the country has to import 70% of its food
  • 21% of children below 5 years of age suffer from chronic malnutrition
  • 8% of the population in the dry season – which lasts even 6 months – copes with lack of food security
In 2023, we helped

243

children suffering from hunger or moderate malnutrition
We also provided medical care to about

a dozen

people with disabilities

02.12.2023

“People are ashamed of poverty. Not so long ago they were doing well, there were crops and they had something to eat. Today, they put a pot of water on the fire in front of the house, afraid that someone might think they do not have enough. Everyone thinks they are cooking and eating like they used to,” says Dr Youba from Kaedi Hospital.

The problem starts when hunger becomes illness. That’s when they ask for help at the nutrition centre.

We are in Mauritania because this is where people are paying the highest price for climate change. The rainy season, which should currently be coming to an end, has not really been here at all. It has rained a few times, onto the red-hot earth. In April, May and June, temperatures here reach almost fifty degrees.

Paradoxically, the problem of malnutrition increases in this area during the rainy rather than the dry season. Usually, famine is associated with a lack of water. The problem therefore erupts at the end of the dry season. The fields have not yet been sown and the granaries are already almost empty. Here it is different, because nothing is sown here anymore anyway. Nothing grows in the sand. Food is brought in from the capital. However, even a single, short rainfall can ruin the sandy, precarious roads. Inaccessible to life-saving trucks, the surrounding villages and towns now struggle to survive.

Many people have had enough. They leave everything behind and emigrate to Europe.. Where else to go? For others, such a difficult and risky decision does not even cross their minds.

We are doing all we can to ensure that hunger does not deal the cards.  Nor does it drive people out of their homes or force them to flee into the unknown. Fund a therapeutic meal for a child with malnutrition. Save a toddler, embrace a mother and tell them you don’t accept their suffering and tears.

Urgent Help Needed

Save the Pharmacy for the Poorest in Togo

This amount will allow for equipping pharmacy shelves for the first half of the year. Ania and Mateusz will take care of this, and they will fly to Togo in February and fill the shelves with the most essential antibiotics, antimalarial drugs, and pain relievers. The Saoudé Pharmacy has people to save. It cannot succeed without your support.

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We already have :
3,420 EUR
We need:
6,667 EUR