This blog is part of a series organized by The Huffington Post and the NGO alliance InterAction to call attention to the crisis in the Sahel, a region in sub-Saharan Africa where more than 18 million people face starvation and 1.1 million children under the age of 5 are at risk of dying from acute malnutrition. Click here to read more of HuffPost Impact's coverage of the Sahel and here to find out what InterAction members and others are doing in the Sahel.
The hunger crisis is devastating families across the Sahel, and our emergency response work in Niger -- creating income through cash-for-work projects, supporting nutritional screening centers -- is crucial to averting famine this year.
But so are long-term solutions that help people withstand the cycles of drought and hunger that plague this region.
Mercy Corps believes in helping people survive -- and thrive. In communities where we have has been working since the last hunger crisis in 2010, you can see the impact in thriving vegetable gardens, full wells, healthier livestock and smiling faces. As these images from my trip this year show, Niger is a vibrant, resilient country.
sahel
All photos courtesy of Mercy Corps.