Niger is a land-locked country of North Africa. It took 2 days, 3 planes, lots of trains and many failed attempts at hailing cabs in Paris to get there.
Why Niger? - Life expectancy is 44 years.
- Only 22% of Niger's children are in school
- Less than 50% of the population have consistant access to clean drinking water
- 85% of the population live on $2 US/day or less
- There is only one doctor for every 34,000 people
Why Niger? Some already know that my brother, Ace, lives there with his wife, Cecilia and their two adorable girls. He's a doctor and she's got an MBA in marketing and together they're serving the people of Niger along side a great team of 6 others. It's awesome to see their training and giftings being used and given as the needs arise.
Why Niger? - half of the 14 million people of Niger rely on non-government organizations to simply survive
- 40% of children under the age of 5 are underweight
- they are the fastest growingpopulation with each woman bearing an average of 7 children - One in five children will die before reaching the age of 5
Those last 2 statistics taken together broke my heart when I realized that every family would have to deal with the death of a child. I was there and I *still* can't imagine the sadness that must accompany such tragedy. The children we met in Niger were the same as my own: bright-eyed and curious. Beautiful and innocent.
Maybe because we're parents, it was easy to fall in love with the children and babies everywhere we went. In one of the villages where we made particularly strong bonds with the children, I found myself thinking .... If I came back the next year, would one of these chlidren whom we're playing with be gone? I was saddened and scared and said a prayer for each one of them. My boyz mean the world to me and, to be honest, the hardest part about going was leaving them behind for almost 3 weeks. But I couldn't and never want to imagine my world without them. If you're a parent, give your kids an extra big hug today. We are blessed beyond what we know. In love .... d |
