Dedicated to the preservation of cultural and artistic traditions in Africa. Helping people support themselves using expertise that has sustained them through centuries. It is often necessary to adapt in certain ways to accomodate survival in a modern world, but adapting with pride in one’s cultural heritage intact can make the transition less painful and at the same time enrich the outside world.

A Recovery from DROUGHT & FAMINE A PLAN FOR THE FUTURE April 2006

A lack of sufficient rain in the Sahel for several years and a locust infestation led to one of the worst crises the nomads have ever seen. THE FAMINE IN NIGER--News from the bush Last August, I received a call from Niger. My friend, Buda, had lost his wife to starvation. Now he was terrified his three children would meet the same fate as their mother. I was so shocked that I sent word to everyone I could think of, to ask for help. The response was astounding. Within ten days, we had received over $50,0000 to help in the crisis. Thanks to your generosity, I was able to leave for Africa armed with the means to make a difference at a time when it was most urgently needed. When I got to Niger, I found evidence of the crisis everywhere I looked: the people were in very poor health from lack of food; their herds were seriously diminished, some to the point of extinction. Many nomads had committed suicide after watching their entire herds die. My Tuareg friends and I set to work immediately. We first distributed four tons of semolina, the secondary food staple of the nomads as millet was not available. We evacuated several seriously malnourished babies to the nearest hospital and gave individual gifts of food and medicine. As August ended, it became evident that even though the rains had been extraordinarily good this year, they could not save the nomads who had lost their herds only a few months before. The rich pasture, unused, was a heart break. But the rains did bring new hope and a rich harvest. Finally, the price of food began to slide back to normal. The recovery was about to begin. We concentrated our efforts in the remote Azawag, an area almost completely forgotten by all aid groups, according to acting US Ambassador, John Davison. The great need in the Azawag was matched by the great difficulty in maneuvering during the rainy season, which larger organizations avoid as too difficult. But the rains that brought such joy and hope also brought malaria and disease, so many of the surviving animals died even after the pasture had started to feed them again. As we traveled and met with the nomads, it became evident that they were increasingly responding to the rains, to our help and to our offers of more help in the future. One group was so eager that they even built a road over an impassable culvert so I could arrive by car. In our many meetings, we were determined to find long-term solutions, rather than the usual stop-gap band-aid help-for-today panacea that catastrophes engender. Our solution is a four-point formula for survival for the nomads, for future independence from the need of outside assistance in time of drought. 1. WATER – Water is life, as the Tuareg say, but a well also provides an address, a fixed spot where the nomads can be found to bring health care to them and their animals and various other services that they need. Many existing wells need to be rehabilitated and new wells dug. 2. FOOD – Create cereal banks to provide a supply of food locally for a constant price. The millet is purchased in quantity right after the harvest when it is least expensive. It is then stocked and sold throughout the year at a constant price with a small profit cushion to provide funds to restock the following year. 3. WORK -- A nomad’s work is his herd. So many animals died during the drought that the herds are greatly diminished. They need replacement animals and food to sustain the animals. Animal food banks work as the cereal banks do, providing a supply of emergency feed supplements during the annual dry season. As the nomadic lifestyle is threatened it is becoming necessary for nomadic people to diversify their economic activities. The home base wells are a fixed location where it is possible for the population who stays there can start a garden. If there is enough water in the well which is often the case, a solar pumping system could enable to population to irrigate a plot of land to grow food for themselves and their animals and for sale to supplement their income. Presently the market for animals has changed and is being controlled by wealthy business interests who can afford to ship the animals to the borders of Algeria and Nigeria for sale where the price is much higher. It is our goal to put this market back in the hands of the nomads by purchasing a truck and creating co-operatives who will pool their animals and take them to the most lucrative sales point. They would pay for the gas with sales from their animals, but we would like to provide the truck. The truck could serve the foundation cereal banks and greatly reduce the cost of transportation of grain, animal food, and materials for digging wells. WOMEN’S CO-OPERATIVE -- Nomadic women are skilled at embroidery, basket or mat weaving and leatherwork. A small startup loan enables women to purchase materials to produce and sell their handicrafts through their own co-operatives. 4. EDUCATION – Education is necessary for the children and their long-term well being. Community support of the school proves that the group is committed to the future and willing to change when necessary to survive. Often families want to build a small house to settle a part of the family next to the well and school, the remainder taking the herds out to pasture, retaining their nomadic lifestyle and means of survival.

WE HAVE ADOPTED FIVE COMMUNITIES

WHERE	WHAT WE'VE DONE	WHAT THEY NEED
ABOYE	School $3000 Cereal Bank $1600 Animal Food Bank $1000 Food For Work to build a dam to reclaim desert $500 Cart $300 Medicine Chest $150	Annual School Support$4200 Solar pump and water storage for Well to irrigate new gardens $18,000
PEROJI - OJAI	Well $6000 Cereal Bank $1600 Temporary School $1500 Annual School Support Animal Food Bank $1000 Cart $300 Women's Co-op	Annual School Support $4200
Awedenine	Repair three wells $1800 Buy three camels $400 each $1200 Cereal Bank $1600	Repair three more wells $1800 Buy three more camels $1200 New School
Ehalgene	Dig Well $7000 Cereal Bank $1600 Women's Co-op Medecine Chest $150	Annual School Support $4200 Women's Co-op House $2000
Imalole	Cereal Bank $1600 Repair Wells $4000	Repair Wells $1600 School Support $4200 New school Well $7000

WHAT DOES IT COST?

EDUCATION	School supplies for 1 child 1 year	$40
	Adopt a child for 1 year (includes everything)	$150
	Adopt a School for one year $350 per month	$4200
	Teachers Salary	$1200
	Food for lunches one year	$1200
	Salary to cook food 2 people	$1200
	Supplies	$600
	Build a school (temporary)	$1500
	Build a school (permanent)	$7000
WORK	Goat	$35
Replenish Herds	Sheep	$50
	Donkey	$75
	Cow	$250
	Camel	$400
	Start an Animal Food Bank	$1800
	Purchase a truck for transport of animals to market	$25,000
	Start men's co-op for sales of animals	$2,000
Women's Co-op	Purchase Materials	$150
WATER	Dig or Refurbish a Well	$2,000-10,000
	Solar Pump and Storage System for Well	$18,000-$25,000
FOOD	Start a Cereal Bank	$1800
HEALTH	Medicine Chest for School	$150

The stated aim of the Nomad Foundation is to preserve cultural and artistic traditions in Africa.  Is this a superficial goal when people are starving, sick and unemployed?  Absolutely not.  It is a goal that is directed at the very survival of Africa and Africans. Before the colonial powers came, Africa survived in small agrarian, or nomadic units, dispersed over the countryside.  With the colonies and after that, with independent governments, the rural villagers and nomads were largely ignored. Efforts went into concentrating the population. The governments said it was easier to administer. The Aid organisations said it was easier to help the largest number of people. The result is the disaster that is Africa today. The skills that traditional Africa has used to survive for centuries become obsolete when taken out of their rural context.  How can a herder use his expertise with cattle in a city?  What work will he do there if he cannot use the only skill he posesses? Most Aid organizations want to alleviate poverty, but they need to fulfill a formula which mandates that they help the greatest number of people possible--a worthy goal.  Unfortunately often formulas ignore the local reality. This translates into such policies as: "We will not dig a well in Niger than benefits fewer than 5,000 people."  In a land as infertile as Niger how are 5,000 people to support themselves around a single well?  That many herders around a well would overgraze the surrounding land and the animals would starve.  Even if the well is used to irrigate crops, many small wells would be more effective using traditional farming techniques of the rural people. Niger’s only exports are uranium and livestock products. This indicates that herding is an effective use of the land in Niger and that herders need to be valued and supported. My nomadic friend Peroji called me two months ago during the height of the dry season when the animals were the most vulnerable. He said that all of the families we have been working with through the foundation's co-ops, schools and other programs are OK and none of their animals had died. But because of this other people were coming to him for help. This says to me that our programs have worked and for the future we need to expand them to help more people to avoid catastrophe in the next drought. Niger has suffered from a terrible famine. The crisis is diminished with the new harvest, but the recovery will be long. They need our help

WODAABE WOMEN'S EMBROIDERY CO-OP

NomadGal Clothing NomadicTrappings

The Wodaabe women's co-op is producing new designs for NomadGal and Nomadic Trappings and we want to expand to the Tuareg women. This year we were able to build a house to store the embroidery work and provide a shaded courtyard for them to get together to work. The success of this program was demonstrated this year when the families in the program survived the famine and drought and other families came to them for help. Help us help other families survive crisis times. We have proven WE CAN DO IT!

Tidawt MUSIC TO PRESERVE A CULTURE

The Tuareg are a people intensely proud of their culture. These nomadic camel herders and caravaners have dominated the Sahara for a thousand years. For many of them their way of life has changed little over the centuries Others have seen many transitions in recent years. Many tuareg have been forced to abandon their nomadic way of life. With this transition and the passing of the present generation many of the cultural treasures–music, poetry, storytelling, artisanry–so prized by the Tuareg could be lost. A series of events, droughts, famine, oppression forced the younger generation into exile and eventually into a rebellion. A culture whose noble class had always been warriors and poets fought so that their culture might survive They fought with guns and with music. They wrote songs to encourage their brothers to fight for their very cultural survival. Rooted in the traditional, a new kind of music emerged. Many of you heard this music when Tidawt came to Ojai in 2000 and in 2003. We are presently working on a national tour for the whole group which includes 11 people, men guitarists and dancers, women singers and drummers. The purpose of this tour is to intoduce the Tuareg music and culture and to raise funds to help preserve this culture. The funds raised will benefit the projects described above. Look for in it 2007.

Buy a cow, sheep or goat! We have had an animal purchase and sustinance program for 7 years. This program was started to restore herds lost in the droughts of the 1980's. We went a long way to restoring many herds, but now many animals will be lost to new droughts. We hope to improve the odds of their survival with the program of wells, schools and co-ops, but the present crisis in Niger may believe is as bad as that of the 1980's. Many nomads will need our help restoring their herds .

TOBUY A GOAT COSTS	$35
TO BUY A SHEEP	$50
TO BUY A COW	$250
TO BUY A DONKEY	$75
TO BUY A CAMEL	$400

The NOMAD Foundation is a project within the WILD Foundation a 501c3 Corporation.

Contributions are tax deducible to the fullest extant that the law allows.

If you wish to contribute please Email us and we will call you or send a check payable to:

The WILD Foundation 307 East Ojai Ave. #103 Ojai, CA 93023