Dr. Helene D. Gayle highlights plight of Sahel Region

DUBAI (March 6, 2012)
CARE President Dr. Helene D. Gayle will be visiting Dubai on February 23 to meet with CARE stakeholders and partners in the UAE.

The purpose of Dr. Gayle's visit is twofold: Brief different stakeholders on the warning signs of a severe drought in Niger and promote the empowerment of women and girls in devastated regions of the world through CARE programs.

Dr. Gayle stated that "CARE is calling on the international community to act now to help nearly 10 million people facing hunger in the Sahel region of West Africa. The alarm was raised early and governments of Niger, Mali and Chad have all declared a disaster, appealing for international help. If action is taken now, there is still time to prevent more families from plunging into a humanitarian disaster by providing urgently needed assistance to those already in crisis".

Amadou Sayo, CARE's Regional Emergency Coordinator for West Africa, confirmed that "the worst-affected countries are Niger, Chad and Mali. In Niger alone, 5.4 million people are at risk of hunger with at least 1.3 million of those in critical need of food and assistance now. We know what works, but it must be done on a larger scale, and it must be done now. We see every day that the situation is grave and getting worse. The longer we wait, the more lives will be at risk, and the costlier the response will be", said Sayo.

Last week, the EU made a critical contribution by doubling its humanitarian aid to Africa's Sahel area, but much more is needed. With nearly 60 years of experience in the region, CARE has already started an emergency response, and is adapting ongoing programs to help people cope with the crisis.

While in the UAE, Dr. Gayle will be meeting with CARE's key partner, Dubai Cares, and will also be holding meetings with the Chalhoub Group and Abraaj Capital.

Dubai Cares is working with CARE to provide children access to quality primary education. Beneficiary countries include Haiti, Indonesia, Mali and Yemen.

Dr. Gayle's meetings and discussions with UAE partners will also highlight the importance of investing in women and girls. "On March 8th we will celebrate International Women's Day," Dr. Gayle said. "This gives us all an opportunity to reflect on the role girls and women play in our day to day lives and in communities at large.  CARE's experience shows that when you empower a girl or woman, she becomes a catalyst, creating ripples of positive change that lift up everyone around her. That's why girls and women are at the heart of CARE's community-based efforts to improve education, health and economic opportunity for everyone."

CARE focuses on long term solutions like strengthening community cereal banks so families can buy food at reasonable prices, stock animal feed banks and reinforce community-based early warning systems. By working with women's savings and loans groups to develop alternative sources of food, such as community vegetable gardens, CARE manages to increase community resilience.

Recently CARE was voted in the top 10 global NGOs prepared by The Global Journal, which is a print and online publication based in Geneva and New York.  CARE is ranked #7.  The "top 100 Best NGOs" is the first international ranking of its kind. To learn more, visit www.care.org

About CARE: 
Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE places special focus on working alongside poor girls and women because, equipped with the proper resources, they have the power to lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty. Last year CARE worked in 84 countries and reached 122 million people around the world. To learn more, visit www.care.org. 

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© Press Release 2012