Through ongoing shipments of medical aid and humanitarian assistance, we have responded to famine conditions and a wide range of basic health needs. Our support for medical outreach through volunteer medical teams has provided access to health care in areas where even the most basic services are unavailable.

Snapshot of Niger:

Niger is one of the world's most underdeveloped nations. More than two out of three of people in Niger live on less than $1 a day and have almost no access to health care. Many men, women and children often rely on traditional medicine and home remedies. Lack of health care workers, adequate funding and coordination are major obstacles to healthcare access. Low educational achievement, extreme poverty, malnutrition, poor sanitation and limited access to clean drinking water compound critical health issues:

• Preventable diseases such as malaria and bronchitis prevalent and commonly fatal
• Infectious diseases, such as cholera, meningitis and trachoma, remain major public health threats

Since 1986, AmeriCares has delivered over $400 million worth of medical aid and humanitarian relief to Niger. AmeriCares also participated in an anti-blindness coalition led by the World Health Organization for the Global Elimination of Trachoma by 2020.

Trachoma is a highly infectious eye disease caused by bacteria. It is prevalent in areas with crowded living conditions and deficient sanitation systems. Chronic trachoma infections cause a scarring of the cornea, a very painful condition resulting in blindness. The loss of vision has devastating impacts on the individual, and can often threaten a family's livelihood. AmeriCares provided antibiotics, hygienic and surgical supplies for the treatment and prevention of trachoma.

Beginning in 2012, a serious food crisis has affected one third of the population of the country. Nearly 400,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Delivered an Emergency Medical Module with medicines and supplies for distribution that served 15,000 patients along with enough water purification sachets for 40,000 people.

In 2005, when a famine threatened over 2.5 million people with starvation, AmeriCares coordinated an emergency airlift, delivering antibiotics, essential medicines and oral rehydration solutions to feeding centers and clinics across the country. These medicines combated illness linked to and intensified by chronic malnutrition. AmeriCares provided 30,000 people with three months of medical treatment.

AmeriCares also donates medical products to qualified U.S. health care professionals who are traveling to Niger to provide charitable medical care to some of the country’s most under-served people. Through this program, donated medicines and medical supplies reach impoverished and isolated communities where even basic medical care is often non-existent. Read a story from one of their missions »

Find out more about our Medical Outreach program