Maybe you've already heard about this, but there has been a bad famine in the African nation of Niger over the past year, and the situation is now dire:
At the latest count, 160,000 children in Niger were still suffering from serious malnutrition, and the lives of 32,000 were at immediate risk.
Things were quieter but even more grim at the nearby emergency-care center run by Doctors Without Borders. Even in a relatively good week, the camp's directors say, more than a dozen babies there succumb to the effects of hunger and related diseases. Desperate relatives often bring in 18-month-olds who weigh as little as a healthy 3-month-old. The camp's extreme-care center held 48 tiny children last week. Many were on intravenous feeding tubes. Only a few were crying. Hunger had reduced the rest to motionless silence. "These babies' metabolism has completely changed," says Dr. Chantal Umutoni, the head of the intensive-care unit. "They don't eat on their own. They are letting themselves die."
- Newsweek
If you would like to give, and are able to, here are some charities I'd like to suggest:
Doctors Without Borders
UNICEF
Foster Parents' Plan
Canadian Red Cross
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