Poverty?

Every year, it kills more children, women, and men than hurricanes and earthquakes! Yet extreme poverty is too often ignored. More than 1.2 billion children, women, and men—or approximately 18 percent of the world's population—live on less than $1.50 a day. This extreme poverty keeps people hungry all day and all night. It deprives them of housing, medical care, the ability to work, and the chance to receive an education. Vegetable gardening is a new concept in Niger, where hungry women and children often eat grass and leaves when there is nothing else to consume. Even when the family has a few cents, there is literally no food to buy. ADRA is teaching women to plant vegetables, first for their family's consumption, and second for income generation. In many villages, ADRA is also installing wells and water pumps. "When we first started the ADRA garden project, we carried the water in buckets on our heads for long distances," says Raki. "It was very hard work, and we wondered if it would be worth it. As we saw plants grow and create food to eat, we all decided it was worth all the effort. When you give to ADRA, you help create long-term solutions. Through ADRA, you can be the hands that lift these individuals into a brighter tomorrow. Please send your gift today! "We are eating things we had never heard of or seen before," Raki shares. "I enjoy the onions because they can be added to everything. All these new tastes! It is something I would not have believed. "Now ADRA has given us water to drink and cook with, use for bathing, and when there is no rain, use for growing food. I am expecting big success next year! It will be the first year to grow food with constant water. Never, never," Raki says, shaking her head emphatically, "did I dream of always having water. Sometimes I think this is even better than having food to eat." In one village far off the beaten path, where peanuts grow without effort, ADRA's vegetable project has allowed the women to harvest the peanuts and turn the majority of their crop into peanut oil. Lamin, the president of the women's cooperative, is an elderly woman. She says that the peanut harvest is going so well that for the first time they have had to hire two people to help the community. The workers will be paid with peanut oil that they can use for their own needs or choose to sell. "This will be the first year that we will be able to hold the peanut products to sell at the market when the price is best, instead of selling when we are desperate for food for our families. ADRA is teaching us that this is another way of saving and improving our lives," Lamin says. "I am grateful to ADRA for teaching us, for caring about us, and for showing us how to help ourselves." Won't you answer this call by sending a gift today to invest in lifting more individuals like Lamin and others around the world out of the depths of extreme poverty?

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