Kaba has learned to put resources from NGOs like Rotary and the Peace Corps together because, he said, government "can't always be trusted to do what we'd like them to do." He said that Rotarians in Niger have learned to add their matching dollars to grant requests after carefully rating them on criteria including their impact on poverty and how they'll promote entrepreneurship. For example, the Peace Corps works with missionaries to help people produce Aramic gum. They help communities build cereal banks to store crops during the hunger season, and they extend micro loans to female entrepreneurs. They've even figured out designs for inexpensive, sturdy desks, bookcases and metal chalkboards for classrooms in Niger.
Kaba, the Peace Corps' associate director for health programs in Niger, spoke to the Baker City Rotary Club
Peace Corps works with Rotary Club
PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 23, 2008
By MIKE FERGUSON
Baker City Herald
Gaston Kaba lives in Niger, the world's third-poorest nation. A Peace Corps administrator, the 66-year-old Kaba is traveling around the northwest corner of the world's wealthiest nation to tell Rotary International clubs how the two nongovernmental entities he loves best — Rotary and the Peace Corps — are helping more Nigeriens, as they are called, to keep from starving.
Kaba, the Peace Corps' associate director for health programs in Niger, spoke to the Baker City Rotary Club Monday.
Niger is a landlocked nation with seven international borders. The Sahara Desert comprises two-thirds of the nation's landmass. Niger's largest lake, Lake Chad, has shrunk by 25 percent since 1995, and its main river, the Niger, quit flowing for a year in the early 1980s.
The average lifespan in Niger is just 48 years. Only 20 percent of the nation's adults can read, and just 4 percent of high school-age children are in school.
Agriculture is limited, he said — millet, beans, rice and sorghum are the chief crops.
"Yes, we eat bird seeds," he said. "To me, (the nation's poverty) is shameful."
For most families, educating their children is a luxury and eating is never a given. In fact, Kaba said, Nigeriens have a name for their nine driest months each year: "the hunger season."
Kaba has learned to put resources from NGOs like Rotary and the Peace Corps together because, he said, government "can't always be trusted to do what we'd like them to do."
He said that Rotarians in Niger have learned to add their matching dollars to grant requests after carefully rating them on criteria including their impact on poverty and how they'll promote entrepreneurship.
For example, the Peace Corps works with missionaries to help people produce Aramic gum. They help communities build cereal banks to store crops during the hunger season, and they extend micro loans to female entrepreneurs. They've even figured out designs for inexpensive, sturdy desks, bookcases and metal chalkboards for classrooms in Niger.
Next up: tackling the nation's worsening garbage collection problem and helping residents purify their water cheaply and effectively.
"Rotary and the Peace Corps have formed an important partnership because we believe in the same ideals — peace, friendship and understanding," Kaba said. "The best kind of assistance is for development projects, because you can see where your money goes. When it's properly used, it's well used."
