Bulloch and fellow Peace Corps volunteer Stacie Haines of Portland have planned a hikeathon to raise awareness of, and funds for, the difficulties caused by a famine among the residents of the country they served.
Niger RPCV Jessica Bulloch organizes Hikeathon to benefit victims of Niger famine
Hikeathon to benefit victims of Niger famine
Thursday, August 25, 2005 - Bangor Daily News
rewer resident Jessica Bulloch, who works for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection in Bangor, is a former Peace Corps volunteer who considers the more than two years she spent in the West African country of Niger "an amazing time that I will never forget."
Bulloch wrote that she lived in the village of Darey Bongu, on the Niger River, in the southwestern corner of that country.
"It was only accessible by boat or on foot," she explained. "I lived in a mud hut, with no running water or electricity. The villagers were fishermen and farmers, and spoke the language of Zarma. They were some of the most generous people I have ever met."
Because of her exceptional experience in that country, Bulloch and fellow Peace Corps volunteer Stacie Haines of Portland have planned a hikeathon to raise awareness of, and funds for, the difficulties caused by a famine among the residents of the country they served.
Bulloch met Haines in 1997 when they were in the Peace Corps in Niger, Bulloch explained.
"She was in a village about 20 miles south of mine, on the river," Bulloch wrote of Haines, who "was my nearest English speaking neighbor in Niger."
Bulloch and Haines have learned that "currently 2.5 million people, including 1 million children, are suffering from severe hunger and could die of starvation soon in the sub-Saharan country where little rain, followed by a swarm of locusts this year, wiped out most of the crops needed to feed the subsistence-level farming communities," Bulloch explained.
To help in any way that they can, Bulloch and Haines will hike a 12-mile-long route along the Bigelow Mountain Range in western Maine on Saturday, Sept. 3.
"We are planning on leaving for the hike early in the morning ... It will be a long day hike," Bulloch wrote, adding that "Stacie and I are trying to give back to the people that made our time in Niger so enjoyable and productive."
Bulloch and Haines are seeking corporate and individual donations, or pledges, for each mile they plan to hike.
Donations can be made online at www.mercycorps.org; called in to (800) 292-3355; or mailed to Niger Fund, Mercy Corps, Dept. W, 3015 SW First, Portland, Ore. 97201.
If you do make a donation, Bulloch and Haines request that you notify them by e-mailing hikeforniger@yahoo.com.
