In the year 2012 it’s hard to imagine 18 million men, women and children in nine countries are confronted with the frightening reality they may not have enough food to eat and many of them may die.
It’s even harder to imagine those same people can’t get Australia’s, much less the world’s attention, at a time when much can still be done to avert catastrophe.
I do wonder why this is so and all I can come up with is that no-one knows much about the West African nations of Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad, northern Nigeria or northern Cameroon.
Perhaps these nations just don’t resonate the way, for example, Kenya and South Africa do. We don’t hear Chad and think about romantic, sunset safaris where lion’s roar and zebras roam free. We don’t hear Burkina Faso and dream of anti-apartheid heroes like Nelson Mandela or, these days, sprawling surf beaches and cocktails by the sea. These nine nations across West Africa hit the headlines so infrequently, we probably don’t think of them much at all.
It’s time we did. And, frankly, there is a lot to think about.
Droughts, an ongoing food crisis, violent conflict and the migration of tens of thousands of displaced individuals and families from war-torn Mali are currently wreaking emotional and logistical havoc across this region known also as the Sahel.
In some areas rains have come but even those people still need to survive until the critical September harvest.
So envisage for a moment this situation in West Africa was our lot to contend with. What would we do?
Likely we would have to budget for inevitable rising food prices to ensure there was always food on the table. We would also be inclined to subsidise struggling farmers, provide them with food vouchers and counseling services to curb high rates of depression and suicide.
Such measures simply will not happen in the most vulnerable West African communities where authorities are not equipped for such a response and the average person earns less than $2 a day.
The international Caritas network is proving that with appropriate support the dire situation for many communities can be turned around.
In Niger alone an estimated 5.5 million are in danger including refugees who have fled conflict in Mali. In recent months our network alone has reached more than 76,000 of the most vulnerable households with food assistance, drought-resistant seeds to farming families, water and sanitation initiatives, temporary shelter and cash-for-work programs that contribute directly to food production.
The impact of these programs has been dramatic.
In fact it proves that with the support of Australia we can deliver a greater response that will save many more lives. With this support we can work with the people of West Africa to address immediate needs like shelter for the displaced, water, food and medical assistance. Then we can work at avoiding such food crises and their impacts in the future.
Without support, people will be pushed to the brink and beyond. They already are and they already have been.
It’s not like the developed world doesn’t understand the importance of responding to emergencies. We do it all the time. Perhaps that’s the point.
Maybe our exposure to the increasing number of world emergencies has numbed us. Maybe the situation is so dire it is too difficult to absorb.
Our agency was told quite openly by a member of the media; “People don’t want to watch skinny, sick, starving, black kids while they’re trying to eat their Weet-Bix.”
That’s harsh. I don’t believe we have become that fragile.
Regardless, whether these men, women and children fighting for their lives across the other side of the world, make it to the front pages of our newspapers or not, our obligation to stand in solidarity with them remains.
Because, right now, they aren’t able to do it alone.
Jack de Groot