As mentioned in my previous post: Privilege to Eat, my team is distributing grain aid in three communities to help in the famine this year. Yesterday, I rolled out the first distribution!! A few weeks ago, 70 sacks of millet arrived at my house - to be stored throughout the next seven months - and every two weeks, I will bring five 100kg sacks of grain to my friend Abdoulaye's village in Kongu.
Kongu is a community 10 km North of Niamey that has been affected by the famine. In a normal harvest year, each field will produce 80 bundles of millet - last year, the fields produced an average of 10-30 bundles of millet. The food these subsistence farmers yield will last until July or August in a normal year - still months before the next harvest; but this year already, their granaries are empty.
In the last few weeks, the villagers gathered representatives of their 60 families to decide how to distribute the grain. They formed a committee of 3 to manage the program: a President, a Treasurer (the chief) and a Secretary (the chief's son). My friend Abdoulaye was quite concerned that I know he did not volunteer to be on the committee, that he was selected. I had no concerns, for it makes sense; as the only adult in this entire village of some 500 people to have attended school, Abdoulaye is the logical choice of secretary!
As a village, they determined who would receive the aid and how to distribute it - they will receive 10 sacks per month. They discussed selecting 10 families per month, opening the sacks and selling the grain by the bowl (most of these people will buy their grain by the bowl in the marketplace). After a few meetings, they arrived at a system that will benefit all 60 families in the village. They have divided their village into 3 groups of 5 representatives each - the representatives will share 1 sack among their larger family. For instance, the chief will receive 1 sack and share it with 3 families - two of his siblings and their families; the head shepherd receives 1 sack and will share it with 4 families. The groups will rotate, as I bring out the grain, until the end of the program - September. Each group of these 5 representatives will receive a sack of grain at a reduced price every six weeks.
Yesterday, I loaded my truck with the first 5 sacks of grain:
and headed off to the chief's hut on the edge of town. From here, the grain was unloaded into the chief's courtyard.
We then headed into the chief's hut to count the money - myself and the three committee members - challenging my skills of counting money in Fulfulde! I then met with all five recipients to ask them a few questions: How many families are sharing this sack of grain? I gave up on trying to determine how many people were benefiting from each sack of grain - it was hard for the representatives to remember how many wives and children each head of the household had under his roof(s). This may be follow-up question when we interview each family later! I also brought out a sketched map of their village area (approximately 20 square kilometres - the huts are scattered over the terrain, each person living in their field) to determine and mark where each of the recipients are living.
The group of first five recipients, and my friend Abdoulaye as a committee member:
After this, everyone headed home with their grain and the privilege to eat! Thank you for your contributions and your prayers.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat . . . The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
Alongside the work of literacy training, is helping those who need the aid of eyeglasses to read . . . part 3 of this storyline began 2.5 years ago – when my church, RockPointe Church in Calgary, came to Niger to distribute eyeglasses. When they left Niger, they left behind the reading glasses which were not distributed. Last month, I learned of further need when my guard told me that two people in his village had broken eyeglasses and needed replacements. Neither of them could remember their prescription, so I headed out to his village one afternoon. I carried with me a few bags of varying prescriptions, anticipating that I would hand out two pairs of glasses. After a few minutes in the village though, it became apparent that word had spread that I was there with glasses.
My guard and I moved from his courtyard to the school close to his house – a building used for the literacy program of the women in the village. I set up the bags of glasses on a bench outside the building.
I also ended up walking to the toll booth as there were a few men working here that needed glasses as well – to help with their reading and writing of the toll payment tickets. All said, this first day in the village I handed out 12 pairs of glasses and there were still people coming at the time I had to leave.
The next week I headed to the village again, this time with more glasses and again I set up along the bench outside the school building.
This afternoon, I handed out 17 pairs of eyeglasses – including to two women who teach in the literacy program of this school.
Again, there were still people coming when it was time for me to leave. I also had discovered that there were a few people (3) who needed glasses for seeing distances – glasses which I did not have available. I sent off an e-mail back to my church, asking if it was possible to send me some glasses to meet this need. Last week, while attending a conference in Turkey, I received a suitcase from my church – inside were two large ziplock bags filled with glasses for seeing distance!!
Following the conference, we have had a visiting team come to Niger to see our ministry. It was my privilege to take two of the visitors back to my guard Karim’s village on Thursday to take part in the third eye glass distribution. This time, with glasses to meet both needs. I handed out a record total of 31 glasses . . . . about 20 of them being for those needing to see distances!
As I am not an eye doctor, the prescription test became very basic:
For those who were near-sighted, we looked into the distance to determine which glasses made a tree or the mountain clearer to see. I asked one sweet old lady if the glasses made the mountain over there clearer to see – her response: “There is a mountain over there?” We eventually found some glasses for her which made it possible for her to see the mountain. It was also a bit of a humorous question this day, as the dusty haze made the mountain a bit blurry to begin with.
A picture of the 'mountain' in the distance from where we stood:
For those who were far-sighted, they tried glasses on of varying strengths until we narrowed it down to determine with which glasses were the words in the book clearer to read. For those who cannot read – they looked around at people’s faces or at their watch to determine which glasses helped their vision.
The story of one young lady touched my heart:
She told of having headaches for the last 3 years – a headache which never fully leaves – and one that has affected her sight when the headache is intense. Always, she said, she has blurry vision.
In consultation with Dr. Ace from my team (via cell phone), we determined it is either one of two problems: migraine headaches which are affecting her vision, or near-sightedness which is causing the headaches. With no way of knowing which problem was the case for her, we went ahead with giving her glasses to see distance. After trying several pair on, she reported that the mountain was now clear. Dr. Ace also advised her to take a paracetmol (tylenol) when she felt the headache coming on and hopefully that would help reduce the intensity of it. I pray that her problem is her vision causing the headaches and that the glasses she received will improve her quality of life.
Thank you RockPointe Church for your gift to these people in Niger . . . because of your gift, there are many people in the village of Gorikeri who can now see better!!
