26 October 2005

Zinder, Niger: The first of 12 kindergartens aimed at preventing malnutrition among children in Niger recently opened its doors in an effort by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Volunteers (UNV) to respond to the country’s ongoing food crisis.

UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis inaugurated the kindergarten on 12 October in the town of Zinder, an agricultural area in eastern Niger devastated by successive droughts and locust swarms.

With support from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the community kindergarten project provides nutritional meals, such as vitamin-enhanced porridges, and medical treatment to children under five and advises parents on nutrition and health. A WFP monitor ensures daily food intake needs are met while UNICEF provides nutritional health training to parents. Since opening, the Zinder kindergarten has fed more than 100 babies between 6 and 18 months of age.

The UNV Programme Officer in Niger, Mr. Mahamane Baby, said parents from the community have been mobilized as volunteers to help run the kindergarten. “The volunteers go to the centre everyday to prepare meals, feed the children, distribute toys, clean the rooms and tend to the garden,” he said.

A physician and a social worker from the district administration visit the kindergarten on a regular basis to monitor the children’s health. Mr. Baby said both have agreed to support the kindergartens expected to open in Maradi, another famine-hit region.

He added that the project helps Niger address its commitments to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), specifically eradicate hunger (Goal 1), achieve universal primary education (Goal 2), reduce child mortality (Goal 4) and improve maternal health (Goal 5). In addition to opening 11 more kindergartens, Mr. Baby said the long-term goal is to establish hundreds of similar feeding and learning centres throughout the country.

“We still need to find more people to help us,” stressed Ms. Fabienne Deraemaeker, a Belgian intern supporting the UNV Niger office by helping identify villages most severely hit by the food crisis.

The current kindergarten project is based on a successful UNDP/UNV pilot project funded by the Japanese Government that saw nine kindergartens open in the regions of Dosso, Tahoua and Tillabéry in 2002. In these regions, UNV trained teachers to provide pre-school education to 800 children aged three to six years. UN Volunteers also mobilized volunteers from within the community to increase involvement in the school and eventually take over to ensure its sustainable operation. Today, through the support of the Government of Niger, the teachers continue to provide a learning environment while parents and members of the community volunteer to maintain the school.

Opening the kindergarten, the UNDP Administrator said, “With the community kindergartens, the tendency to keep young girls at home so they can look after their brothers and sisters should disappear, while the education of school-aged girls will be promoted.” Mr. Dervis also emphasized the project’s contribution to MDG 3: promote gender equality and empower women.

In this year’s UNDP Human Development Report, Niger was ranked the world’s poorest country. Of Niger’s 12 million people, an estimated 63 per cent live on less than a dollar a day. In response, some 60 UN Volunteers are working in Niger to help reduce poverty, protect the environment, promote good governance and encourage the development of the private sector.