The shifting lifestyles of rural people in Niger illustrates why climate change discussions at the G8 summit next week are important.
Tearfund partner Jemed works with animal herders who are having to adapt to survive as weather patterns are altered.
Years ago, their main food was milk. But no longer. Lack of rain has meant a lack of pasture for their livestock and a major change of lifestyle.
For a start, they no longer live a nomadic existence and producing food is much harder work. They’ve had to cut their number of meals each day from three to two and each one is smaller than it used to be.
Jemed is working with a women’s group in the town of Abalak. One of its members Fatimatou said, `The climate has changed and this means that we can no longer live off our animals as we once did. We don’t have enough water or pasture and this situation can leave us hopeless.’
Amid major lifestyle changes, Jemed is striving to bring hope in a tough situation by helping them to adapt.
Harder life
`With all the droughts and the loss of our animals we’ve had to change and have started eating cereals,’ said another women’s group member.
`We used to be nomadic but now we stay in the same place for long periods and have even built buildings. Before we would never have chosen to stay in the same place.
`We have to do much more to survive these days. Life is hard now. Water is scarce and we have to go further and further to find water.
`Working with Jemed has helped us a lot. They’ve helped us to rebuild our herds and replace some of the cows that we’ve lost to drought.
`We haven’t travelled up to the north to graze our cattle properly for the last 20 years.
`For us to go back to our former way of life the climate would have to change significantly and replenish water and pasture. But things have been getting worse for the last 20 years and this isn’t likely.’
• Please pray for the work of Jemed and other Tearfund partners helping vulnerable communities cope with the effects of climate change.
• Pray that communities remain stable as they go through the process of adapting to climate change and do not suffer social breakdown.