By Amy Warnock | Development Manager
With the limitations of Niger’s health care system and poor access to vaccines, the coronavirus pandemic continues to have major impacts throughout the country. The number of COVID-19 cases in Niger has remained relatively low at 5,929, but with only 0.4% of people fully vaccinated, there is still a lot of work to be done. The effects of lockdowns, reduced working hours, job loss, and travel and movement restrictions have increased poverty in Niger to 41.7%, pushing 400,000 more people into extreme poverty.
Your generosity has allowed RAIN to fulfill immediate needs that address the emerging challenges of the past year. During the height of the pandemic many schools were shut down, often leading to many students dropping out. Through our local mentoring program we were able to ensure that most students in our partner schools returned when schools reopened. For RAIN’s mentored students the drop out rate was only 0.7%, significantly lower than the regional averages of 17%. This year mentoring programs also focused on teaching proper hygiene to prevent the spread of communicable diseases and keep COVID rates down as much as possible in our partner schools and communities. We put your gifts to work by distributing soap, establishing washing stations, and partnering with Niger’s Department of Health to raise awareness, allowing our partner communities to remain resilient during this challenging time.
Our savings and loan programs for women also helped to mitigate some of the added stress on local economies due to the pandemic. These programs enabled 115 women from rural and nomadic communities to borrow an average of $175 to stabilize their food and water security and create more opportunities to generate income and support themselves financially into the future.
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to adversely affect Nigerians more than a year and a half later, please consider continuing your support so that these vulnerable communities may endure. With your help, we will weather this storm together.
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