It is extremely difficult to bring medical care to nomads who follow migratory routes that allow their herds to find the best pastures. Leslie Clark's Nomad Foundation succeeded in doing just that. Tamesna Medical Clinic opened its doors in September 2009 in Ingall (northern Niger). Many of the patients who came had never seen a doctor in their life, many traveled more than 100 miles. After close consultations with nomad representatives Tamesna Center was placed at the intersection of several highly traveled routes. Two medical missions with American volunteers have been received very well.
Nomad Foundation Opens Tamesna Center for Nomadic Life in Niger
After two years of planning and fund-raising the Tamesna Center for Nomadic Life opened in 2009. Almost 40.000 people live in the region, and there is not one single doctor. Leslie Clark brought Dr. Bob Skankey, a retired American physician, to treat people at the clinic. During the first medical mission in September 2009 he treated 552 patients, in February 2010 he saw another 827. Many suffer from dehydration and poor nutrition, many had malaria. Patients received vitamins in addition to the medicine they needed. The center will hire a trained nurse in residence.
The Nomad Foundation Provides Water, Food, Health Care and Education
Leslie Clark is a painter who first traveled to Niger in 1993. A meeting with Wodaabe nomads changed her life. Initially she helped a starving nomad family with a gift of $200. The family bought a cow and was able to remain nomadic. Clarke realized that she made a difference with her small gift. She started to organize guided tours in Niger and spent extended periods with tribes painting and studying their different dialects. In 1997 Clarke founded the Nomad Foundation, a non profit supported by Rotary Clubs and private donations. The foundation has dug wells, set up cereal banks, built a two-room school, and hired a teacher. Its goal is to offer basic services to nomads whose survival is in danger as their world is changing rapidly.
Uranium Deposits and Climate Change Threaten Traditional Nomadic Ways
Tribes of Tuareg and Wodaabe nomads practice a life-style that is over 1,000 years old. They wander with their small herds of goats, donkeys and camels around the semi-arid grasslands of the Sahel, a belt of land in Africa between the Sahara desert in the North and the fertile farmland further south. Several droughts made grazing almost unsustainable on traditional pastoral land in the Sahel. Since the world’s third-largest uranium deposits were found in northern Niger, some of them on ancestral Tuareg land, political conditions have been volatile. Tuareg rebels say Chinese investors enriched Niger's corrupt government at the expense of local people.
Nomad Foundation's Tamesna Center Allows Communication Between Nomads and the World
If Tamesna Center can become a central hub for tribes, they will have an address. Without an address, they can't even be reached and are beyond the help of aid groups. Essential for security in the region is the communication between nomads, government officials and humanitarian organizations. Tamesna Center could become a meeting place to exchange and gather information crucial for the nomads survival.
The Nomad Foundation: Seeking to Balance Cultural Tradition With Economic Opportunity
Armstrong, Hannah: China Mining Company Causes Unrest in Niger, Christian Science Monitor, March 29, 2010
Armstrong, Hannah: In Africa's Dry Sahel, Leslie Clark, Works to Aid and Educate the Nomads of Northern Niger, People Making a Difference, Christian Science Monitor, May 3, 2010
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