Focus on Slavery in Niger

by Bill Stein (RPCV Niger 1990-93 and FON's webmaster)

[The views expressed below are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of Friends of Niger.]

For those of us who care deeply about the people of Niger, one thing that pains us to share with a wider public is the continued existence of slavery in Niger. It is estimated that almost 8% of the population of Niger is enslaved in 2005. The chattel slavery engaged in by some cultural groups entraps whole families (women, children, men) in involuntary servitude for generations.

Amid all the news about Niger's food crisis and connection to world uranium markets, it might have been easy to overlook some excellent journalism on slavery in Niger that has emerged in the last year. Light is being cast on a dark subject that wasn't much talked about by the non-slave-holding populations that most Peace Corps Volunteers lived among. I encourage all to read the Smithsonian article, and if you are so moved check out the other resources on this page.

• Born Into Bondage (Smithsonian, September 2005)
• The Shackles of Slavery in Niger (ABC Nightline, 3 June 2005)
• Niger: Slavery - an unbroken chain (UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, 21 March 2005)
• Born to be a slave in Niger (BBC, 11 February 2005)
• Slavery in Niger (Anti-Slavery International, 2004)

The articles referenced above describe the harsh treatment of Niger's slaves, the Niger government's assertion that slavery hasn't existed since unenforced laws against it were passed a century ago, and the official intimidation of Niger's abolitionists.

Where to go from here? I've already written Niger's embassy in Washington (June 2005), and they responded with a rigorous defense of the actions and views of their government. I am interested in launching a letter-writing campaign to the U.S. Secretary of State, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, influential columnists, and others who may be able to affect change. Please e-mail me if you would like to get involved with this effort.

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Other Ways to Help

Friends of Niger continues to invite all to visit our Media Coverage page for up-to-date information on Niger's food crisis. We highly encourage On-Line Donations to organizations working directly in Niger.

Though we are not soliticing funds for the food crisis, Friends of Niger would like to continue our work with small sustainable development projects in Niger. We encourage all who find value in this website to consider joining Friends of Niger.

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November/December 2005

FON Supports the Reopening of the USAID Mission and Office in Niamey

FON has begun an advocacy campaign in support of the reopening of the USAID mission/office in Niamey. FON's letter to Andrew Natsios, the USAID administrator in Washington DC, outlining our position can be viewed in its entirety on our website www.friendsofniger.org. A brief summary of the letter follows.

Please join us by writing, emailing, or calling the USAID office in Washington and your state representatives in Congress urging them to consider reopening the USAID mission/office in Niamey.

Message from the President

Dear Friends of Niger:

If you listen to the news, you've no doubt heard Niger mentioned this past summer and fall: from the yellowcake uranium memo to the food crisis. The UN again has listed Niger as one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world - this year Niger ranks last on the 2005 Human Development Index. Nigeriens have suffered much this past year, and so they remain in our hearts and prayers.

Last winter and spring, we received news from Niger detailing the poor 2004 harvest due to drought and locusts, and then in July we received the BBC news articles and chilling video footage detailing the effects of the food crisis on families and especially children in and around Maradi. Because of your past support to FON, the FON Board of Directors was able to take action and make three $500 contributions on your behalf to three relief organizations working in Niger: World Vision, Catholic Relief Services, and CARE. We also launched an advocacy campaign of letter writing, emailing, and calling congress men and women asking that the US government increase its humanitarian assistance to Niger through USAID. Thank you to many of you who joined us in this advocacy campaign. Other FON members took action by raising funds for Niger in their local areas (read about some of these activities on pages 6 and 7).

The recent reports coming from Niger suggest that this past growing season produced a bountiful crop, but because of heavy borrowing that many families did to purchase food last year, this year's harvest went toward paying off their indebtedness. Herders were also affected by last year's drought and many lost their animals or sold them to buy millet. The herders in some areas are now at the end of their resources and face an uncertain future this year (see the link to Tagaset's video on page 6).

FON will continue to monitor the precarious food situation in Niger and make updates to our website regarding any related news for Niger that we receive.

We would like to make a special thank-you to Jim Bullington, Peace Corps Director in Niger, for his many contribution to this newsletter and support of FON.

The FON Board of Directors would like to continue supporting the development projects that we have listed on page 11. Especially, we will be exploring our involvement with Peace Corps Niger's Girls Education program. We will be sending you more information about this activity in our next newsletter.

Enjoy the newsletter and consider contributing the news you have from Niger to the next Camel Express. Peace.

John W. Soloninka (Niamey, LWR, 90'-96')

Remembering Rita Herkal

Tuy-Cam and I have come to deeply admire the Peace Corps Volunteers we've led and supported during the past five years in Niger. While there are vast differences among them, they all tend to share a deep commitment to service and a strong taste for adventure. Also, all of them are willing to give up American affluence for two years of poverty, hardship, and sometimes danger in the African bush. It hasn't been possible to develop close personal relations with each of the more than 400 who have served here under my direction, but many have become almost like family, and we follow their post-Peace Corps lives with much interest.

One of our favorites was Rita Herkal, a member of the first group of new Volunteers to arrive after we did. She was an outstanding Volunteer, not only surviving in the harsh environment of a small Nigerien village but actually thriving in it. She extended her normal two years of service for an additional six months, and then stayed on in Niger for several more months to travel in the Sahara with a group of nomad herders.

After leaving Niger and spending some time with her family in the U.S., Rita got a job with Save the Children, a major international humanitarian organization. (Many Volunteers go on to careers with international organizations of this sort.) She was with a Save the Children affiliate called Building with Books, and her job was to help rural communities in Malawi build schools. She wrote a series of emails to us and many other Peace Corps friends describing her adventures and the progress she was making on the schools. In the most recent one, on August 24, she said, "I am happy and healthy and so satisfied with my life and what I am doing. It truly is an incredible feeling to have each minute permeated with contentment and gratification."

Two days later, on August 26, Rita was killed in a bush taxi accident. (Bush taxis are the aged, crowded, unregulated, uncomfortable, dangerous vehicles that serve as the primary, often only, form of public transportation in much of rural Africa.) She was 28. We should remember her as a hero who lost her life in service to humanity. She represented the best of Peace Corps, and the best of America. Submitted by J.R. Bullington Country Director of the Peace Corps program in Niger. (Originally published in American Diplomacy.)

UN's Human Development Report

The United Nations' annual report of "Human Development-2005" lists Niger last, 177th out of 177 member countries, on the Human Development Index; last on the list for Commitment to health resources, access, and services; last on the list for water, sanitation and nutritional status; last on the list for literacy, economic performance, etc. See the full report:

NPCA 45th Anniversary Gathering

The National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) is sponsoring a National Gathering September 15-16, 2006 in Washington, DC to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps. Stay tuned for more information.

Happy 90th Birthday Sarge!

The Peace Corps community extends its very best wishes to Sargent Shriver, the founder of the Peace Corps, on his 90th birthday. (November 9).

Les Jeux de la Francophonie au Niger

The Games of La Francophonie are an international cultural and sporting event in which athletes and artists from States and Governments members of La Francophonie participate. The Games distinguish themselves from other similar events in many ways. They are the only major international Games where sports and cultural activities are presented in a comparable competitive context. This uniqueness showcases the originality of Francophone culture and the excellence of athletes from all the Francophonie states. The next Games of La Francophonie will be held in Niamey, Niger, from December 7 to 17, 2005.

Deux ministres français se rendent au Niger, pays frappé par une crise alimentaire aiguë et qui se prépare à accueillir les cinquièmes jeux de la francophonie, prévus du 7 au 17 décembre 2005. Alors que certaines rumeurs annoncent le transfert des jeux au Burkina Faso voisin, d'autres trouvent en cette visite de Brigitte Girardin, ministre déléguée à la Coopération, au développement et à la francophonie et de Jean-Fraçois Lamour, ministre de la Jeunesse et des sports et de la vie associative, la confirmation de la tenue des jeux au Niger.

Le ministre français Jean-François Lamour a visité les installations sportives et hôtelières censées accueillir les 15 000 participants aux jeux de la francophonie. ... A Niamey, le ministère des Sports et le Comité national d'organisation des jeux (CNOJF) ont concocté un programme de visite des différents sites pour que la délégation française apprécie l'état d'avancement des travaux. La moitié des 365 villas qui accueilleront les participants serait déjà construite. Centre de conférences et restaurants seraient en «phase de finition». Le ministre Jean-François Lamour a aussi visité l'Académie des arts martiaux en travaux, d'une capacité de 1,222 places, financée par la France. D'autres complexes sportifs financés par la coopération chinoise sont en rénovation. Le budget total des jeux de la francophonie à la charge de la France et du Canada est estimé à environ 7 milliards de francs CFA (plus de 10 millions d'euros). Le président Mamadou Tandja a déjà annoncé «son ferme engagement dans la réussite des jeux».

Technical Advisors Needed

http://www.cartercenter.org/healthprograms/program1.htm

The Carter Center is updating a database of interested candidates for short-term consultancy positions in Guinea Worm endemic countries. Duties: assist host governments to implement national eradication program, increase capacity to identify, contain, manage, and report cases, conduct health education and social mobilization activities, and support ongoing supervision of eradication efforts. Qualifications: BA/BS, MPH (preferred); local language skills from any of the following countries (Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Togo); French highly desired; overseas experience implementing health programs, preferably in Africa. Honorarium provided. Send CV and availability via email to: Aryc Mosher, awmoshe@emory.edu.

Traditional treatment of Guinea worm disease consists of wrapping the two to three-foot-long worm around a small stick and extracting it: a slow, painful process that often takes weeks.

Webmaster Needed for FON

Friends of Niger (FON) is seeking a webmaster to maintain the FON website. Currently, Bill Stein is doing an excellent job as our webmaster. Bill will help orient the new webmaster. Responsibilities of the webmaster include adding content to the FON webpages at least once a month, and archiving materials on the website's multiple webpages. The FON webmaster works with the FON Board members on content for and constant improvement of the website. This is a voluntary position. If you've had webpage maintenance experience and would be available, please contact John Soloninka, FON President at: j.soloninka@sbcglobal.net

Éclipse Solaire Totale

Le 29 Mars 2006 au NIGER

Une éclipse solaire totale aura lieu au Niger le 29 Mars 2006 à 10 heures 33 Minutes.

A total solar eclipse will occur in Niger March 29, 2006 at 10:33 a.m.

FON Members Respond to the Food Crisis 2005

Fundraisers

Several Niger RPCVs and FON members organized fundraisers to help support famine relief efforts in Niger this past summer and fall. A few that we were made aware of are listed below. If you know of additional events, please let us know. On behalf of all FON members we want to acknowledge these efforts and to thank these people for responding in a time of great need:

• Laura and Jason Hahn organized a Niger benefit happy hour at the Ghana Café in Washington DC on August 30th. Funds were donated to CARE.
• Randy Brown organized a fundraiser in Montpelier, VT. Funds were sent to Gueladio, Niger.
• Melanie Wasserman organized a fundraiser at Brown University Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research the end of August. Melanie gave each participant a sticker that she made featuring the Camel Express graphic and read, "Sannu ba ta hanna zuwa" - Slowness does not prevent arrival! Funds were sent to Mercy Corps.
• Deborah Popowski and other Niger RPCVs organized two Happy Hours in New York City at Pioneer Bar, the second event was held August 31st. Funds were sent to RPCVs Julianna White and Dave McNally, both working in Niger.
• Kerri Cavanaugh and other Niger RPCVs in Seattle, WA organized a benefit fundraiser including a silent auction of Niger arts and crafts at The Rendezvous on September 18th. Funds were sent to the World Food Programme.
• Niger RPCVs in Portland, OR including Bill Stein and Shari Exo, organized a fundraising event including hors d'oeoeuves, wine tasting, and auction of donated goods and services at Ciao Vito, an Italian restaurant run by Niger RPCV Vito DiLullo on September 20th. Funds were donated to Mercy Corps.
• Diane Choplin organized a fundraiser in San Francisco, CA.
• Paul Stoller, organized a fundraiser that included a slide presentation: "Night for Niger" in West Chester, PA on September 10th. Funds were donated to the World Food Programme.

Ingrid Patetta, a French documentary filmmaker, portrays the nomads of the Azawak Valley (north of Tahoua) and documents their plight after the 2004 drought in a 10 minute documentary video filmed in September 2005. See the video at:

http://homepage.mac.com/ingridpatetta/tagaste/Menu81.html

Relief for Birni N'Konni

Ruth 'Rakia' Sitton Demaio, RN, served in Konni '70-'73 as a mother and child health educator. Trying to figure out how she could target aid to the people she lived with in Niger, thought of Harouna Amani, one of the dusty little boys who used to hang out around her compound. After Ruth had left Konni, Harouna had gone on to get a degree in English at the university in Niamey. He is presently an international journalist for IINA based in Jeddah. Ruth contacted Harouna and together they made plans to direct aid to Konni. Harouna told Ruth that there was relief aid in Konni but that it was inadequate. The subsidized food available was only about one tiya, not more than 4 kgs per person, and that people had to wait for many hours from early morning to late in the afternoon to receive this assistance. Harouna suggested that funds be sent by Western Union to a relative living in Niamey and that he would take the funds to Konni. Ruth also enlisted the help of her former house keeper, now the Sarkin Yan Tauri in Konni (he had inherited his father's job as head of the traditional chief's body guard of the invulnerables). These two men worked though the traditional governing system in determining those most in need of food, including those in outlying hamlets and nomads. Women, young children and elders were especially targeted.

At her home church in Corvallis, OR, Ruth enlisted the support of her Catholic parishioners and even obtained an interview about the famine in Niger that was published in the local newspaper. Through these efforts, Ruth initially raised over $3,000 and later an additional $1,500 was donated.

Once the money arrived in Niger, "Team Niger" went to the border market in Illela, Nigeria and purchased over 5 tons of millet, dried cassava and kuli-kuli which was then distributed to over 2,500 people in and around Konni.

Ruth writes that in addition to people in Corvallis, Niger RPCVs now living and working in Afghanistan and Singapore wired money to her for this project. "The chain of people involved in our project are inspired by the good will being exchanged between our countries, cultures and religions as much as by the concrete aid."

Allah shi ba ku lahiya,

Ruth 'Rakia' Sitton DeMaio, RN:

Ed. Note: See more photos at http://www.cmug.com/~demaio/

Galmi Hospital

Dr. Christopher and Helene Zoolkoski serve at the Galmi Hospital in Niger. In August, they wrote to update us about the situation around Galmi:

Thank you for the prayers and concern many of you have expressed during this famine in Niger. The problem is very apparent here in the areas surrounding the hospital where we live. This time of year is the most difficult because it is almost a year since the last harvest and the grain stores from last season are depleted while there still remains a couple of months until this year's grain can be harvested. Those of us serving at Galmi Hospital have responded to the need by starting a famine relief project to distribute grain to those in the surrounding communities. We will be distributing 30,000 kilograms of grain over the next several weeks. We also have our ongoing CREN project, which is our center for the rehabilitation of malnourished children. The CREN is presently exceeding its capacity during this time of need, but we are doing our best to meet the needs of each child who comes. While they are living here at the center, they are fed and their mothers are taught how to provide a balanced meal using local products. One good way to help the Nigerien people during this time of famine is to contribute to the Galmi Hospital Benevolent Fund through SIM. Contributions made to this fund will be used to help those who need medical care during this time of food shortage and to feed and rehabilitate the malnourished children and their mothers.

http://www.sim.org/country.asp?fun=12&fun2=1&cid=37&mid=&pgid=&prid=100

How Else You Can Help

There are many governmental and non-governmental agencies working to combat hunger in Niger. A few of these organizations that we are familiar with are listed below. This past summer, on behalf of FON members, the FON Board of Directors contributed $500 each to three of these organizations: World Vision, Catholic Relief Services, and CARE. Friends of Niger encourages you to visit one or more of these organizations' websites to donate much-needed funds toward their work in Niger. You may choose to designate your donations for humanitarian relief in Niger. How Else You Can Help

• Action Against Hunger (programs in Maradi, Dakoro, and Tahoua)
• Africare (35-year involvement in programs throughout Niger)
• CARE (programs in six of Niger's eight regions)
• Catholic Relief Services (programs in Dogon Doutchi, Ouallam, Tanout, and Tillabéri)
• Islamic Relief (programs in Ouallam and Tillabéri)
• Concern Worldwide (programs in and around Tahoua)
• Lutheran World Relief (programs in Maradi, Tahoua, and Tillabéri)
• Meedecins Sans Frontieeres (programs in Aguié, Dakoro, Keita, Maradi, Tahoua, and Zinder)
• Mercy Corps (programs in northern Filingué)
• Oxfam (assisting nomadic people in Maradi, Tahoua, and Tillabéri)
• Plan International (programs in Tillabéri)
• Save the Children (providing food and supplies to thousands of families in the most acutely affected areas of southern Niger)
• United Nations World Food Programme (coordinating all bulk food distributions in southern Niger)
• World Vision (programs in and around Zinder)

Katie Leach-Kemon

Submitted by J.R. Bullington Country Director of the Peace Corps program in Niger.

Originally published in American Diplomacy.

Katie's Twins... One of our Peace Corps Volunteers, Katie Leach-Kemon, illustrated some of the complexity and frustration of trying to alleviate this deep-rooted poverty with a concrete, human example in a story for her hometown newspaper:

Part of my job includes working with mothers to rehabilitate severely malnourished children. Since January, I have been working with a pair of twins and their mother in a neighboring village. The twins, Amara and Boubacar, weighed only nine pounds each when they reached their first birthday.

My friend Indi, a nurse at the local clinic, and I have been visiting the twins' house over the past eight months. During each visit, Indi and I discuss nutrition and hygiene with the twins' mother. Our instruction has been partially productive: the mother has been diligently preparing a protein-enriched porridge for her children, but she has yet to improve hygiene in her household. Despite Indi's and my constant reiterations about the importance of sanitation, nothing seems to change. Bowls of food left open and covered with flies, chickens eating out of cooking pots, and waste scattered throughout the yard where the children play is the scene that often greets us when we visit the twins' house.

For the past several months, the twins have been showing signs of amelioration, like steady weight gain. Just the other day, however, I saw the twins and their mother at the clinic. Both twins were sick with vomiting and diarrhea, and their frail bodies had lost all evidence of the last eight months' progress. I am hoping that antibiotics the twins received will restore their health. I am wary, however, knowing that the unsanitary conditions in which these children live may attack their defenseless bodies with a fatal infection any day now. While I have tried to help rehabilitate the twins as best I can, I am convinced that the only way to reduce malnutrition among young children in Niger is to encourage primary school education for girls.

Research has shown that girls' education has a direct impact on infant mortality rates. In Niger, only 16 percent of the population is literate, and a mere 24 percent of girls attend modern school. Increasing school attendance among young girls seems to be the most viable approach in reducing malnutrition and infant mortality in Niger. If the twins' mother had attended school, it is likely that her hygiene and feeding habits would be dramatically different. If nothing else, she would better understand the connection between dirt and sickness, and perhaps be more responsive to my counseling.

While the news headlines scream "CHILDREN ARE STARVING IN NIGER," the solution seems so simple. If they are starving, bring them food. End of story? Not quite. There is no "quick-fix" that will help Niger out of the hole in which it finds itself. The best way to help Niger is to work with its people and its government toward long-term goals, like increasing primary education for all children, reducing population growth, slowing desertification, and improving access to healthcare for all Nigeriens.

Submitted by J.R. Bullington Country Director of the Peace Corps program in Niger. (Originally published in American Diplomacy.)

INSIDE PEACE CORPS NIGER

Dear Friends:

The rains have continued to fall normally throughout the summer, and what promises to be a good harvest is getting underway. This is bringing an end to Niger's unusually long and severe hungry season that garnered so much attention in the international media. Massive amounts of food aid, though too late to prevent widespread hunger and even starvation in some areas, began arriving in July and continue to pour into the country. Additional humanitarian aid organizations have set up operations, and existing ones have added hundreds of expatriate and local employees to their staffs.

This outpouring of international generosity is both needed and welcome. However, as with most emotional, media-driven responses to complex problems, it has weaknesses.

Especially with famines, it seems, the media's focus and the international aid it generates always arrive late. Food shortages are fairly easy to predict, and this one was in fact predicted last November, soon after it became apparent that the harvest was poor. But agricultural statistics and economic indicators can never be as telegenic and compelling as images of skeletal children with distended bellies.

Such pictures and the accompanying commentary claiming that millions of people are facing starvation have the unintended consequence of driving already high food prices even higher because of panic, profiteering and hoarding. Then, weeks or months later, when the food shipments begin arriving from abroad, prices drop dramatically. If, as is often the case, this coincides with an average or better harvest, farmers (three quarters of the population in Niger) have to sell their production at lower than normal prices and are driven even deeper into poverty. Thus, food aid can do harm as well as good. Experts have long recognized the potentially perverse consequences of food aid, and organizations such as USAID and the UN's World Food Program are trying to limit them as they respond to Niger's immediate needs. Some well meaning but less sophisticated donors, however, are not so careful.

Another danger in this media-hype-and-emotional-response syndrome is that it tends to give the impression of a temporary problem (in Niger's case, drought and locusts) that can be solved with short term measures such as emergency food aid. In fact, Niger's food insecurity is structural and long term, with multiple causes, and it can effectively be addressed only with development aid that promotes sustainable economic growth.

Jim Bullington, Peace Corps Country Director Niger
(Originally published in American Diplomacy)

Friends of Niger T-Shirts

You're gonna love this T-Shirt!

Based on a design originally created by our neighbors at Friends of Burkina Faso, FON had produced its first and very own T-shirt. The short-sleeved shirts are 100% cotton, pre-shrunk beefy-T, natural muslin-colored fabric.

The design (right) is four color: brown, black and the orange and green of the flag of Niger. You'll notice a nifty proximity map of Niger within the map of Africa which appears in the branches of the baobab tree. The shirts are available in Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large sizes, and sell for $18 each, shipping included.

Use the FON Membership & Order Form on the last page or send a check made payable to Friends of Niger (indicating the number of shirts by size), along with your name and address to:

The Brother from Niger DVD

Filmed in Niger in January 2002

In a Brother from Niger, award winning journalist Andrew Younger brings a story of courage, hope, and struggle from one of the world's poorest countries.

A Brother from Niger follows Friends of Niger president Jim Schneider as he returns to a country he once called home, a country that's still as poor as when he left it. The video/DVD was shot on location in Niamey, Maradi, Matamaye, Botsotsoua, Kantche and Zinder and includes interviews with Haoua Diatta of the Oxcart Project as well as with Schneider, representatives of FON's Nigerien partner organizations and others.

Use the FON Membership & Order Form on the last page or send a check or money order for $20 US (2 for $35 US) made payable to Friends of Niger, along with your name and address to:

2006 Peace Corps Calendar

Sales to Benefit Niger

In past years, Friends of Niger sold the wonderful International Calendar produced by the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Madison, Wisconsin. This year we've chosen to steer people toward purchasing calendars from the Columbia River Peace Corps Association (Portland, OR), as a significant portion of the proceeds from their sale will benefit Mercy Corps' famine relief efforts in Niger.

Calendars are $10 each, plus $4 for shipping 1-5 calendars to U.S. addresses.

To order send your request and check (made out to CRPCA) to Cate Wilcox, 4609 SE Mitchell St, Portland, OR 97206. More information at http://www.crpca.org.

Friends of Niger Membership and Order Form

Name(s) _________________________________ Date: _______________________________
Address _______________________________________________________________________
City/ State ________________________ Phone (h) ________________________________
Zip _______________________________ Phone (w) _________________________________
E- Mail Address _______________________________________________________________
Connection to Niger (RPCV, etc.) ______________________________________________
Dates in Niger _____________________ Location in Niger ________________________
Program or Involvement in Niger _______________________________________________
Membership Dues & Contributions help fund FON Activities - including
The Camel Express, the FON website, the FON Archives,
and Projects such as Those Listed Below.
*******************************************************************************
Please Check Appropriate Boxes
[ ] Enclosed is $20 for an Individual Membership in FON
[ ] $55 to cover Individual Membership in both FON & NPCA
[ ] Enclosed is $35 for a Family Membership (2 Members at One Address)
[ ] $77.50 to cover Family Membership in both FON & NPCA
[ ] I am a current Niger PCV, entitled to Free Membership
[ ] I am a New RPCV, entitled to a 1-Year Free Membership

[ ] In Addition to my Membership, I have enclosed
    a General Contribution of ........................................ ________

[ ] Instead of Joining FON at this time, I have enclosed
    a General Contribution of ........................................ ________

[ ] I want to support FON's Microcredit in Niger activities with
    a Contribution of ................................................ ________

[ ] I want to support FON's Appropriate Technology activities
    with a Contribution of ........................................... ________

[ ] I want to support FON's Youth Education activities
    with a Contribution of ........................................... ________

[ ] I want to support the FON Chewable Vitamin Campaign
    with a Contribution of ........................................... ________

[ ] Please send _____ copies of Brother from Niger/DVD
    at $20 (2 for $35) (Shipping Included) ........................... ________

[ ] Please send one copy of Brother from Niger/DVD
    (Free to members) (Shipping Included) ............................ ________

[ ] Please send _____ Friends of Niger T-Shirts
    at $18 each (Shipping Included) .................................. ________
T-Shirt Sizes: S _____ M _____ L _____ XL _____

TOTAL AMOUNT ENCLOSED ................................................ ________

Make Check or Money Order Payable to Friends of Niger and mail to:
 P. O. Box 5823, Washington, D. C. 20016-9998
(Please Enclose Membership Form)