February 2005
One year has passed already and thanks to your engagement we were very successfull! ENMIGRAW and first of all our Tuareg families would like to thank you warmly.
TANNEMERT HULLAN
The well of Gougaram was finished in March 2005. Two weeks later the Tuareg emptied the well and digged deeper for two more meters – now they have a permanent water level of 2,5m and Wayounfane told us that the well is working perfectly. Everybody came together, a goat was slaughtered, a party was celebrated and the community thanked Allah and the donators for the fact of having clean drinking water now for man and cattle. The next plan is to lay out a plantation watered by the well. So the community can produce enough vegetables and fruit for the Touareg families nearby and prevent them from migration.
At the same time the garden can generate income to provide the whole clan with what they need. Also the other gardens will profit from the well and we are confident that the first plants will be growing soon, Inch’Allah! Right now the Tuareg are fixing a fence to keep out the greedy goats.
Digging of the well in Gougaram
The next plan is to lay out a plantation watered by the well. So the community can produce enough vegetables and fruit for the Tuareg families nearby and prevent them from migration.
At the same time the garden can generate income to provide the whole clan with what they need. Also the other gardens will profit from the well and we are confident that the first plants will be growing soon, Inch’Allah! Right now the Tuareg are fixing a fence to keep out the greedy goats.
The bastmats project of the women is in good progress. They are very well organized by now and the microcredit already made some profit when selling the mats.
The women contacted ENMIGRAW for a donkeycart. The costs are around CHF 500.-. They would like to collect firewood and sell it on the mainroad. At the same time they would sell their handmade goatcheese Takammert, a popular speciality and also basic food. Even the daily water transports would be handled much easier with the cart. The women could share it for different activities.
Last year’s resources from donations were limited and we were not able to fill the milletstorehouse to an extent that we could handle the lack of food after the grasshoppers’ trouble properly. 500kg were not enough to feed everybody! The nomads far off were striked hard and in those camps we had to complain about death. We were forced to watch helplessly how the prices of millet exploded. In North Niger there was no corn to buy at all.
Meanwhile strong rain has fallen and the goats and sheep of the women find enough to eat. Some Wadis have even been floated and so a number of shelters were distroyed and some animals lost. Life is never easy!
Mouhamed and Anita
May 2005
In May we opened a stand in Jona. According to Tuareg tradition we brewed lots of strong tea sitting in our tent selling silver jewellery, presented our projects and sweat nearly us much as in the Sahara. Once in a while even a „camel“ passed by and amused us.
Beginner’s luck was on our side and the sale of the gorgeous silver and leather pieces worked out excellent. Also the interest in the projects was high and the visitors willingness to donate money was beyond our expectations.
At the end of the three days we had collected an amount of CHF 2289.- from the jewellery and the giftbox contained the amazing sum of CHF 380.-
Our reaction was a flight of fancy and we decided to give it another try. Together with Desert-Team we presented ourselves at Afro-Pfingsten and resisted to the heavy rainfalls in warm jackets, umbrellas and rubber boots on Saturday.
We produced literwise the legendary Touareg chai to keep us warm. But the sale of jewellery was not that spectacular this time. People were not really keen on taking a look at our beautiful silverpieces while rain was running down their neck! Anyway our moods were sunny, we tightened our contacts and laughed a lot. The sale’s profit made CHF 689.- and CHF 16.- ended in the gift’s box.
Our supreme efforts (swollen feet, bellies filled with too much tea, husky voices and 85 hours of presence altogether) allowed to finance the donkeycart for the women, the fence of the garden and the concrete work of the well. In addition we bought tables and chairs for the office in Arlit.
After all the great effort for ENMIGRAW was worth doing it and we already think over where we’ll put our tent next.
Just let’s do it!
June 2005
On June 13th Mohammed and I participated in an information event of Médecins sans Frontières in Zurich. We got a most interesting glimpse at their work. Unfortunately MsF/Switzerland has no projects in Niger so far. But we came to know that MsF/Germany is going to open a medical center in Tahoua where they can treat the undernourished women and children.
More information about this you can find at their homepage www.aerzte-ohne-grenzen.de
I’ll try to keep in contact and to convince them that in the northern aerea of Agadez and Arlit there is also an urgent need for a similiar center.
More information about this you can find at their homepage www.aerzte-ohne-grenzen.de
I’ll try to keep in contact and to convince them that in the northern aerea of Agadez and Arlit there is also an urgent need for a similiar center.
Anita and Mohammed
August 2005
Finally the world is opening its eyes at the famine in Niger… it is already five past twelve! This should really have happened before, since this disaster did not come overnight.
Effad Oumouhlouk, the president of ENMIGRAW, could buy some sacks of millet and rice through his contacts to the mining society of Arlit. We are distributing this foodstuff by cups to the families of most urgent need to help them to tide over the hardest crisis up to October. In spite of all efforts we cannot reach all the nomads of Talak. But we are lucky enough to buy some kilos of millet thanks to Effad’s good connections.
Food prices have increased up to more than the double in the last weeks. While before the sale of three sheep brought a nomad family enough money to buy food for a month, they get only part of it these days.
In all our activities we give priority to the fight against starvation and so we transferred all the money donated to Niger by mid of July.
On this occasion we would like to thank cordially everybody who has supported ENMIGRAW and our Tuareg families so far, in particular also for the confidence you set in us!
But now I’ll like to report about the other projects which have advanced to our satisfaction. The well gives enough clean drinking water for the nomadic population and also for the cattle. In the acute situation the garden is more important than ever. At the moment we are trying to find other organizations to support the project.
ENMIGRAW is planning the construction of a bigger millet storehouse so that we can buy and store 10-15 tons of millet in October. Like everybody else we hope that enough rain will fall and that the grasshoppers’ trouble will not reach us. We’ll need 2000 self produced bricks of banco (clay) for the construction of the storehouse of 4 x 4 m2 size. The whole building will cost CHF 1923.- inclusive the roof, the door and the windows.
Many women of the Talak region have showed great interest in the women's project "Tellit". Therefore we have raised additional funds of CHF 500.- for the microcredit to help them to improve their living conditions by selling their handicrafts. The principle of help to help oneself again! Thanks to the microcredit raise of CHF 500.- we’ll be able to stock up the storehouse with bundles of dried dumpalm leaves and if we have the possibility we’ll construct another storehouse for this welcomed project. Then the women have enough space to store their materials, baskets, mats and bags until sale.
Sunny hearts till next time and please don’t hesitate to check our website once in a while. You’ll always find the latest news here!
Anita and Mouhamed
Anita and Mouhamed