Aid agencies say international aid needed now for West Africa

World Vision is pleading with the international community not to ignore the early warning signs of a food crisis in West Africa.

Last year the East African famine claimed thousands of lives, and acting now could prevent a similar fate for the rest of the continent. “A report just released by fellow aid agencies Oxfam and Save the Children points to a delayed response effort in East Africa being responsible for up to 100,000 deaths,” says World Vision’s director of international policy and programming Seth Le Leu. “World Vision began issuing warnings that a massive food crisis was imminent in February 2011, but no-one seemed to listen until famine was finally and officially declared five months later.”

Mr Le Leu adds, “If the international community acts now, we can save lives. We can prevent history repeating itself”.

It has been less than two years since the last drought in West Africa, and so the region has not had time to properly recover.

A recent press release from World Vision states that the governments of Niger, Mauritania and Mali have all called for international help.

World Vision is responding by distributing food to low-income families, expanding its life-saving programmes for children, and vaccinating livestock, plus distributing seeds to farmers, drilling additional wells and working with the International Crop Research Institute.

World Vision has long had a relationship with struggling communities throughout Africa.

At this year’s Parachute festival World Vision was there to promote the Tubehoneza community in Rwanda, which has been supported through the music event since 1991. After the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, 800,000 children were left without parents and nearly 45 per cent of children under five suffer now from chronic malnutrition.

More than $100,000 raised at Parachute festivals has gone towards building a new health centre in Tubehoneza, which is benefiting 31,000 people. Also, 1427 children from Tubehoneza have been sponsored between 2007 and 2011. However, World Vision’s engagement director Paul Newnham says there is more that can be done. “Our call for sponsorship has never been more urgent. We know if we’re doing it tough, those living in developing countries are really suffering. As food prices and the cost of living continue to soar around the world, even the basics are moving further and further out of their reach, so we need to help them now,” he says.