My twins are hungry and I have no food to give them... it’s the same for everyone Mother’s plight as thousands face starvation

IRISH CHARITY CONCERN HELP POOR

supply of fortified flour if they have children.

Mother-of-four Tsahara Maidagi said: “It is used mainly to buy food like millet and vegetables for us to eat.

“Before we received help from Concern we were in only one situation – looking left and right for food.

“Now, we know we have enough for the family.

“After the harvest was so poor, we thought to ourselves, ‘Where are we going to find food?’

“We were frightened… every night we were not able to sleep because we knew we would not have anything to give to the children.

“Did we ever go without food? Yes, it happened not just once but all the time. And there were many days we could only stretch to one meal a day.

“Our last harvest was bad. We planted millet, sorghum and cowpeas [black eyed peas].

“The millet and sorghum lasted a month. And we only harvested two kilos of cowpeas.

“I was very scared when I realised that was all we had.” Despite the difficulties, Tsahara said her two daughters and two sons have remained largely healthy.

Poor rains and harvests, poverty and insecurity have left millions of people hungry and malnourished in Niger, where it is estimated 1.4 million people are in need of food assistance.

Concern, which has been working in the country for 15 years, said it works with communities on ways to improve their physical wellbeing.

It also supports basic health services and provides training to community medical workers.

Darren, who is based in the charity’s Belfast office, said: “Concern is working with local health centres and hospitals to help severely malnourished children with added complications by providing medication and supporting effective treatment in clinics.

“They’re nursed back to health and then mothers are supported at home in an effort to prevent it happening again. What we’re doing is responding