Niger's anguish: the people of Niger, the world's second-poorest country, are used to struggle. This year, famine has worsened their plight.

• Author: Wines, Michael

LESSON PLAN 3: INTERNATIONAL

ANGUISH IN AFRICA'S NIGER

BACKGROUND

Some students may ask why anyone would five in such an inhospitable area. Tell them that nomadic peoples in the region historically sustained themselves with herding and farming, but that overgrazing and climate change have driven the Sahara Desert southward, destroying grazing and farmland.

BEFORE READING

* How many students have heard of Niger (pronounced NYE--jer by Americans and nee-ZHAIR in Niger)?

CRITICAL THINKING

* Write "Donor Fatigue" on the board. Explain that foreign-aid experts use the term to help explain why developed countries tune out continued pleas for aid to poor countries.

* How would students define donor fatigue? Johanne Sekkenes, head of the Niger mission of Doctors Without Borders, says, "I think everyone knew that a crisis was going on." What other than donor fatigue could explain the failure of wealthier nations to send aid to Niger?

* What might explain the Niger government's initial refusal to accept free food aid? (Some might see the refusal to accept aid as a matter of pride; there also may have been concerns about undercutting Local farmers.)

WRITING PROMPTS

* Using information from the article, write a 50- to 100-word statement to be read in a TV appeal for donations to the people of Niger.

* In a paragraph or two, discuss some of the ways in which the world community could help the people of Niger, in addition to simply sending money.

COMPARE & CONTRAST

* Ask students to compare and contrast the natural disaster in Niger with the effects of hurricane Katrina. In what ways did human decisions make each disaster worse? Might different decisions have lessened their impact?

FAST FACTS

* The 2005 U.N. Development Report lists Niger last in a 177-country study of living standards.

* Nearly half of Niger's budget comes from foreign-aid donors.

WEB WATCH

save the Children, a humanitarian group, has a Niger fund, at www.savethechildren.org/radio_niger.asp?st tionpub=ggnigercrisis

Baby Boy Saminou, a casualty of the famine ravaging 3.6 million of Niger's farmers and herders, was buried in an unmarked grave in August. At 16 months old, he was little bigger than some newborns, with the matchstick limbs and skeletal ribs of the severely malnourished. He had died three hours earlier in a field hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian group that provides medical aid worldwide.

One in five Nigeriens is dying--the result, many say, of a belated...