Photo: Pablo Tosco/Oxfam

Refugee from Mali in the Mentao Nord camp in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Conflict in northern Mali has displaced roughly 400,000 people, about 160,000 of whom have fled the country, most to Niger, Mauritania, and Burkina Faso. Oxfam has been assisting roughly 150,000 refugees in these countries (as well as the communities that are hosting them), providing clean water and latrines, and promoting good hygiene to reduce vulnerability to diseases. In Mali, Oxfam is helping nearly 60,000 people in the northern part of the country who are in need of food and clean water. We estimate that roughly 2 million people may lack enough food in Mali this year. Armed conflict is restricting access to people in the northern areas where the food needs are most severe, so Oxfam is advocating for humanitarian access and urging the UN to deploy human rights monitors to help stabilize the most insecure areas.

Find out how you can support Oxfam’s work to help people affected by the crisis in Mali.

Photo: Pablo Tosco/Oxfam

Pablo Tosco’s photo of a girl lifting a water jug shows the reality of life for thousands of Malian refugees living in Mentao camp, Burkina Faso.

Since January of last year, more than 370,000 civilians—many of them women and children—have fled northern Mali, with 142,000 finding refuge in neighboring countries such as Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Niger, and an additional 228,000 displaced in southern Mali.

With the recent escalation of the conflict in Mali, the already dire situation for tens of thousands of Malians could get much worse, according to an Oxfam report published earlier this week. “We call on countries neighboring Mali to continue to keep their borders open to allow refugees a safe haven, and for the UN to show the leadership that is needed to deal with the impact of this conflict on Malian refugees and their hosts,” said Oxfam West Africa regional director Mamadou Biteye.

Oxfam is also providing humanitarian assistance to those displaced by the conflict. Although access to those in need within Mali is limited, we are providing aid to nearly 60,000 people in Mali’s Gao region. And in neighboring Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Niger, we are aiding 150,000 refugees and the people struggling to host them. Find out how you can support our efforts.

Diénaba Diallo. Photo: Jacob Silberberg/Oxfam America

A few weeks ago, 2,000 government officials, ambassadors, and journalists came together in the capital of Burkina Faso to taste some local food. They were the judges of the second annual Koudou du Faso (“Golden Spoon”), a nationwide contest that awards prizes to the best dishes made with local ingredients like fonio, a grain native to the West African nation.

A cooking contest might seem ill-suited to a country that experienced a food crisis this year, leaving many families unable to afford even the essentials. As of the end of 2012, good rainfall and better harvests have provided some relief, though food prices remain high in many parts of the Sahel region.

But Diénaba Diallo, whose farmers’ confederation co-organized the Koudou de Faso with Oxfam’s GROW campaign, said the contest was about more than just food—it was about showcasing the people behind the cuisine.

“When we’re talking about transforming local products, we’re talking about women,” said Diallo, who wants to raise the profiles of the women who grow and prepare much of the country’s food, and to ensure their voices are heard. “[Women] play an important role in agriculture, but they don’t always participate in decision-making,” she said.

Diallo is president of the women’s caucus of Burkina Faso’s small-scale farmers’ association, and she believes that these women could, with the right resources, help prevent another crisis. “It’s really necessary to invest in small-holder farmers,” she explained. “[They need] access to seeds, to other technologies, and especially access to credit.”

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Noaga Yambeogo plans to help feed her family with vegetables from an irrigated garden. Photo by Andy Hall/Oxfam

You’ve got to admire the focus and drive of a woman like Noaga Yambeogo. She’s a 50-year-old widow in Tansoba, a village in the center north region of Burkina Faso where more than two million people are struggling with a food crisis. They are among more than 18 million across the Sahel region of West Africa hit by the crisis.

But for about 32 women here, hope has arrived one steady drop at a time—through a drip irrigation system that Oxfam and its partner, ATAD, with support from the European Union, have helped to install. It’s part of a development of six areas with market gardens that are allowing 200 women to grow produce to feed their families and to sell.

In Tansoba, Yambeogo, who has four children, is president of the women’s cooperative.

“I was elected because I work hard,” she says. “They thought I could push them to do a good job because I love working myself.”

Anyone who has ever had a vegetable garden knows how labor-intensive it can be, especially if your goal is to produce enough to make a bit of income. And for the women here, the stakes are as high as they can get: The health of their children may depend on what they can coax from the ground. Read the rest of this entry »

Right now more than 18 million people in the western Sahel region of West Africa are facing a food crisis. Oxfam is aiming to reach more than a million people with aid. Here in the US, we’re also trying to bring attention to a crisis that hasn’t received much coverage in the news.

You can help spread the word by sharing our new “photo-infographics” (yes, I just made that term up), below, on your various social media pages. Initiallly, we wanted to create simple infographics to draw attention to some of the stark facts about the crisis. Then we had the idea to visually combine them with some of our recent Oxfam photos from the Sahel. We ended up using images from Mauritania and Burkina Faso—two of the countries hit hardest by the crisis. Hopefully, these photos are a reminder that behind every statistic is a person (or a family, or a community) trying to get by.

Here’s a little more information about the people and places behind the images:

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Aissata Abdoul Diop, a member of the Diawoud community women’s cooperative in Mauritania, holds drought-withered ears of corn from her fields. Lack of rain, combined with rising food prices, has put 700,000 Mauritanians at risk of hunger: about a quarter of the country’s population. People living in rural areas, like Diop, face the greatest risk. (Photo: Pablo Tosco/Oxfam)

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(click on the image to expand the infographic)

A food crisis is now gripping the Sahel region of West Africa. A host of factors–including erratic rainfall, meager harvests, and the lingering effects of an earlier food crisis in 2010–have combined to put more than 18 million people at risk of hunger. For the latest information about who’s affected and where, Oxfam’s response, and how you can help, check out our new infographic above. Then share it with others and help us raise awareness about a crisis that’s not making headlines.

Oxfam is aiming to help 1.2 million people across seven countries with programs that include cash transfers and cash-for-work initiatives, veterinary care for the livestock on which many families depend, and access to clean water and sanitation. We are also campaigning to change the root causes of this crisis. Find out how you can support our efforts.

"Everyone is hungry. There is nothing to eat," says Raha Souley, who was planting beans after some rain finally fell. Photo: Caroline Gluck/Oxfam

Caroline Gluck is a humanitarian press officer for Oxfam. She is reporting from Niger.

I’ve been left with some haunting images over the last few days as I’ve travelled in Niger to document the country’s worsening food crisis.

A mother who brought in her emaciated one year old son to a malnutrition clinic, weighing half the normal average weight for a child of his age.  She was so under-nourished herself that she had no breast milk to feed him.

Families who supplement cassava and millet flour with wild leaves and berries to fill their stomachs.  Proud livestock herders for whom their animals are their sole source of income – literally, their bank accounts–forced to sell them at bargain basement prices.  And a drive through an area I have dubbed the animal graveyard – a journey of more than four miles where I counted more than 70 dead animals half-buried in the bleached desert sand. Some lay under the shade of a tree, their bared teeth grinning grimly from their sunken skulls. Read the rest of this entry »