Airplane with More Than 20 Tons of Aid Reaches Niger

On Sunday, August 28, the international relief organization Action Against Hunger (ACF) sent an airplane from Barcelona to Niamey, capital of Niger, carrying more than 20 tons of humanitarian aid to deal with Niger's food crisis.

The shipment included food, logistical materials (beds, blankets, cots, mosquito nets, tents, etc.), medicine (anti-malaria drugs, antibiotics, etc.), and therapeutic and nutritional materials needed for restoring malnourished beneficiaries to health. The cargo also included water and sanitizing equipment, essential for providing potable water in Action Against Hunger's nutritional centers.

Action Against Hunger now has 48 mobile nutritional centers in Niger treating more than 4,700 children. According to the organization's head of mission in Niger, Patricia Hoorelbeke:

"In the past few weeks, the number of children who need nutritional assistance has increased, and we have identified some places where a large number of children suffer from severe malnutrition and urgently need help."

The organization also expects to open two therapeutic nutritional centers in Mayahi and Abalak in the next few days capable of treating 300 children, which will focus on attending to the most serious cases of malnutrition in children younger than five. These children will remain in the nutritional centers under the continuous care of a team of nurses and specialists, and follow a dietary regimen that enables them to gain weight quickly, avoiding death from malnutrition. The children will leave the nutritional center once they are stable, and continue treatment at home with specially prepared supplements that supply all their necessary nutritional needs.

In addition, Action Against Hunger is distributing food rations of 50 kilos of rice, 25 kilos of legumes, and 8 liters of oil to each of more than 27,000 families.

This shipment was generously underwritten by the Catalonian Generalitat, the Government of Castilla La Mancha, the Obra Social Caja Madrid, and the City of Madrid.