Niger Village Life
Given that 80% of Niger is covered by desert, the vast majority of the population live in the savannah of the south, some in small cities like the capital of Niger, Niamey, but most in villages where they rely on subsistence farming as their main food source. Most of Niger's population live in poverty and their homes are small mud brick huts, over crowded and water.
In fact, 64% of the country's village population lack access to safe water, with what water being available at risk of contamination due to an almost non existent sanitation system outside urban areas. Children run round, normally dirty, in donated American clothing, rarely going to school due to an almost non existent educational infrastructure, nor having their health care needs met due to again, no health infrastructure.
80% of Niger's population is dependent on subsistence farming and around most villages lie over cultivated sorghum and millet fields, which themselves are surrounded by the wild, untamed African bush. Some villagers have trucks but most journey by donkey and cart.
Many women will work all day from down to dusk pounding millet, beads of sweat breaking and running down their faces as they lift the heavy wooden clubs above their head, then thrashing them back down into their millet-filled mortars. Men will toil on the land and, at the end of the day, throw their dulled machetes down onto the dust, and sit brewing tea with a circle of friends.
The average in Niger is just 15 years old, with just under half the population being aged 0 -14 years old. Life expectancy is around 53yrs and over 10% of all children dying at birth. Life in a Niger village is always fraught with danger, from droughts to floods and infectious diseases such as rabies, malaria, diarrhoea and typhoid fever. This video documentary provides some insight into Niger village life.
TAGS: Niger Village Life, Niger Daily Village Life, Niger Village Life Video, Niger Village Life Documentary, Village Life in Niger, Niger Village Poverty Life